Why Food Aid Persists: Organisational Adaptation by a Canadian NGDO

Northern-based non-governmental development organisations (NGDOs) have increasingly gained an important role in alleviating hunger worldwide. However, the last fifty years has seen an increase in the number of persons suffering from hunger across the globe. This has lead to an expansion in literature questioning the effectiveness of food-based approaches to end hunger, as well as the role of NGDOs in this process. As a consequence, NGDOs have sought new approaches to combat hunger in their programming strategies. Historically, Canada has been a major provider of food aid as a means to end hunger. Though today the majority of the development initiatives by Canadian NGDOs centre on long-term development strategies based on improving local food supplies. However, there remains one NGDO, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank that has maintained food aid as a primary strategy and continues to expand its programming. The aim of this dissertation is to contribute with knowledge in two broad fields: 1) the role of NGDOs in food aid and 2) the strategic and institutional processes that lead to changes in their organisational forms.