Food Aid in Sudan: A History of Power, Politics and Profit

In 2004, the UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan called Darfur the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. That was soon followed by a comprehensive food aid program that was, at the time, the largest global response of its kind. Yet, more than a decade later, much of the population is still in trouble, as the Sudanese regime effectively controls who receives aid and who goes without. As a result, chronic malnutrition endures.

Food Aid in Sudan argues that the situation in Sudan is emblematic of a far wider problem. Analyzing the history of food aid in the country over fifty years, Susanne Jaspars shows that such aid often serves to enrich local regimes and the private sector while leaving war-torn populations in a state of permanent emergency. Drawing on her decades of experience as an aid worker and researcher in the region, and extensive interviews with workers in the food aid process, Jaspars brings together two of the key topics of our time: the failure of the humanitarian system to respond to today’s crises, and the crisis in the global food system. Sudan has long been used as a test bed for humanitarian strategies, and the implications of Jasper’s findings will be relevant to aid practices globally. This will be essential reading for students and researchers across the social sciences studying the nature and effectiveness of contemporary humanitarianism, development, and international aid.