US food aid to Sub-Saharan Africa: Politics or philanthropy?

Objective. We investigate whether the allocation of two U.S. food aid progr ams to Sub-Saharan Africa during the fiscal years 1978-90 was driven by don or motives or recipient needs. Methods. We analyze data from the U.S. Depar tment of Agriculture, conceptualizing the process in two stages. In the fir st stage we use probit analysis, correcting for heteroskedasticity to deter mine whether states will get food aid. In the second stage we run a multiva riate regression, correcting for autocorrelation and heteroskedasticity to assess the level of assistance. Results. We find that food aid under Title I is more subject to governmental political or philanthropic motives than u nder Title II. Donor motives and recipient need are most influential in det ermining whether, rather than how much, a state will receive in food aid. M oreover, different administrations treat Title I aid differently. Conclusio ns. Food aid does not fully promote U.S. interests because it is not always allocated to do so. The waning of the Cold War, which gave rise to the abi lity of friends and foes to forge a grand coalition in support of food aid, also planted the seed of aid's demise because it undermined the rationale for continued heavy U.S, involvement abroad.