INTRODUCTION
Updated January 2006
The
Commodities Reference Guide (CRG) provides information on food
commodities distributed under Title II of Public Law 480 (P.L. 480), as
amended. This program is administered by the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) in
conjunction with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA),
and comprises emergency and development activities. Since its inception
in 1954, the P.L. 480 Program and other food assistance instruments
have distributed 375 million metric tons of US food commodities valued
at well over $50 billion. In 1990, the Congress amended the P.L. 480
legislation, reasserting the United States'intent to use its
agricultural productivity to enhance food security in the developing
world.
The
CRG is an information tool, providing relevant
information about the food commodities used in P.L. 480 Title II
program. All food commodities are available to the P.L. 480 Program as
long as they are not determined to be in short supply by the US
Secretary of Agriculture, a determination that is made every October
(per Section 401(a) of the FAIR Act, 1996) by the Secretary of
Agriculture. The CRG is intended for use by Title II cooperating
sponsors as they develop new proposals or modify previously approved
activities. The CRG is designed to provide these organizations with a
description of available food commodities, their nutritional values and
physical properties, a guide to appropriate storage and handling, and
important general information regarding their safe and effective use as
rations in Title II programs that distribute food directly to
recipients. It is also designed as a reference for USAID Food for Peace
officers (FFP), other USAID officers, the staff of cooperating
sponsors, and recipient governments and agencies that are involved in
decision-making for planning, managing, controlling, and evaluating
appropriate uses of Title II food commodities.
The
CRG provides information on the food commodities that are
in general use in the Title II program in Part One (Title II Food Aid
Commodities and Fact Sheets)and information and examples on selecting
rations for different program scenarios in Part Two (Guidelines for
Selecting Food Aid Commodities). It should be noted that the
information here is not a substitute for the very detailed guidance
provided by the Office of Food for Peace annual proposal guidance, the
monetization manual, and the USAID food aid and food security policy
paper. The CRG program examples are for illustration. It does not
attempt to anticipate all the ways in which rations may enter into
programs. The CRG is not intended to offer
programming guidance, which is derived from USAID policies on program
design, management, performance monitoring and evaluation which are all
available elsewhere. Policy guidance is provided in other documentation
from the Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance Office of
Food for Peace (DCHA/FFP). The CRG web site does provide links to
relevant representative complementary policy and program documents and
key web sites.
Title
II food assistance programs illustrated in the CRG are
geared to impact food security through improved access to food,
increased availability of food and/or improved nutrition and
utilization of food of the target groups. In addition to providing
emergency relief from hunger and malnutrition, Title II programs
emphasize sustainable food security and nutrition goals.
The
following is a major revision and update of the original
CRG, issued in January 1988, by the USAID/DCHA/FFP. The decade
following the publication of the CRG has seen significant changes that
necessitate updating both the content of the CRG and the methods of
dissemination of that content. New information regarding micronutrients
and their importance in food assistance has become available.
Understanding has evolved on the bioavailability of micronutrients
(e.g., the advisability and feasibility of fortification of vegetable
oil with vitamin A), the nutritional needs of food assistance
recipients, methods for delivery of micronutrients, and changes in the
fortification requirements for the U.S. food supply. Changes in the
availability of key food commodities used to make blended products also
have affected the composition of the P.L. 480 food assistance basket.
The 1999/2000 revision process has incorporated input from all the
stakeholders: USAID, USDA, the cooperating sponsors and the commodity
groups and includes input from headquarters and field personnel.
Significant
advances in communication and information systems
(e.g., satellite/wireless communication, the Internet and the World
Wide Web), have made it possible to present, publish and disseminate
information in an entirely new fashion -- on the World Wide Web. Thus,
the 1999 edition of the CRG is available in both hard copy and on the
USAID Web site as a downloadable PDF file, and can be accessed at http://www.usaid.gov. This
method has the added advantage of ensuring that the CRG is updated and
revised quickly and inexpensively to reflect new commodity
specifications or program requirements, making the CRG a vital,
"evergreen" document.
Furthermore,
users of the Guide anywhere in the world can
share their decades of experience, offer recipes, preparation methods,
specific anecdotal information or suggestions regarding ways in which
the CRG can be made more useful to recipients of Title II P.L. 480 food
commodities. Similarly, USAID and USDA can update the nutritional
composition data, reflecting state-of-the-art technology,
bioavailability data, and other related issues. Manufacturers of Title
II food commodities are also able to offer timely input on packaging,
distribution, insect and rodent control, and other operations-related
matters. The use of web site technology makes all of the information
available at low cost and in short time frames.
The Commodities Reference
Guide is organized into three parts and six main sections:
Part One: TITLE II FOOD AID COMMODITIES AND
FACT SHEETS
Section I provides a list of the food
commodities generally used in Title II projects along with a brief
description of each one, and explains the rationale for USDA exclusion
of those in shortage in any given year.
Section II presents individual
Commodity Fact Sheets. Included are detailed descriptions of commonly
used food commodities, including their nutritional content, components,
USDA specifications, and packaging information.
Section III addresses commodity
storage and shelf life concerns.
Section IV provides information on
controlling damages to food commodities.
Part Two: GUIDELINES FOR SELECTING FOOD AID
COMMODITIES
The
Overview section outlines the Food for
Peace
program and the five step framework used for selecting food rations.
The guidelines consist of five steps: (1) Program Design, (2)
Suitability of Food Commodities, (3) Ration Specifications, (4) Ration
Calculation, and (5) Ranking and Selection. In five Modules,
these steps are applied to types of programs in which food aid is
commonly used. The following modules are designed so that each can be
read independently of the others:
Module
1 provides information for Maternal and Child
Health and Nutrition programs.
Module
2 provides information for Food for Work
programs.
Module
3 provides information regarding Food for
Education and school feeding program components.
Module
4 provides information for Non-Emergency
Humanitarian Assistance.
Module
5 provides information for Emergency programs.
Part Three: ANNEXES
Annex
I - Definitions
Annex
II - Tools and Indicators
Annex
III - Recommended Energy Allowance Tables
Annex
IV - Recommended Dietary Allowance Table
Annex
V - Sources for Obtaining Commodity Prices
Comments
on parts of the guide and additional information on
commodity specification and P.L. 480 program management may be obtained
from:
Office of
Food for Peace
Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance
U.S. Agency for International Development
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20523
PLEASE
READ THESE OTHER DOCUMENT NOTES
This
web document is a web version of a paper document. It is designed for you to easily navigate from Section to
Section by using the hyperlinks along the left side of the window.
Printing these web pages may not always deliver the expected results,
depending on which software (Web Browser) you are using. Thus, we
recommend downloading the .PDF version (Portable Document Format) of
the CRG, if you intend on printing and using a paper copies (shelf
copies). Follow these instructions for
downloading .PDF files of different Sections, Modules and the entire
CRG.
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