A/HRC/10/5 page 17 US$ 600 million, being spent in donor countries and never reaching beneficiaries.46 This is highly unfortunate, since it puts the interests of the donor State or its agricultural sector above the needs of the population in the recipient State.47 33. Both bringing discipline to food aid and its adaptability to the different contexts in which it operates could be significantly improved by defining food aid as a tool aimed at the realization of the right to adequate food, and by drawing the consequences from this redefinition at the operational level. Specifically, this shift has three implications. First, as noted above, the provision of food aid should fit into national strategies for the realization of the right to food, defined by the Government through participatory processes in which the ultimate beneficiaries, but also farmers’ organizations, should be involved. This would ensure that local conditions are taken into account in the assessment of which forms of food aid are desirable - depending, in particular, on whether the local agricultural sector is or is not able to increase its supply following cash transfers, whether such transfers take the form of disaster relief, of public employment schemes, or other forms. It would also ensure that greater attention will be paid to the nutritional dimensions of food aid. The need for food aid to ensure an adequate provision of micronutrients - referred to in the FAC48 - is increasingly recognized in international discussions. This may constitute a particularly important benefit of aligning food aid with national strategies developed with the beneficiaries both because food aid may result in a transformation of dietary habits of the target population, which may be difficult to change back later and lead to a long-term dependency on certain imported goods, and because the nutritional adequacy of diets is particularly tested in times of crisis.49 34. Second, the reconceptualization of food aid as a means to implement the right to adequate food implies that targeting would be based on the needs identified through such participatory processes. This should limit the risk of applying criteria which may be discriminatory in nature or may have discriminatory effects to identify those who qualify for food aid, and it should allow the possibility for the targeted communities to identify by themselves the optimal means of distribution - for instance, through women rather than men. 46 FAO, The State of Food Aid and Agriculture 2006, Rome, January 2007, p. 16. 47 Another advantage of untied aid is that it ensures the compatibility of aid with the requirements of the Agreement on Agriculture under the WTO framework (see art. 10 (4), AoA), as well as with the FAO Principles of Surplus Disposal and Consultative Obligations. 48 See FAC, art. XIII (a) (ii) (requiring from Members that they “respect local food habits and nutritional needs of the beneficiaries” and that they minimize “any possible negative effects on their eating habits”). 49 A switch to diets which are poorer in micronutrients, a common adaptation strategy of households faced with food insecurity, has particularly severe consequences on children under 24 months of age and on lactating or pregnant women. See C. Koltz et al., “Nutrition in the perfect storm: why micronutrient malnutrition will be a widespread health consequence of high food prices”, World Food Programme 2008, Sight & Life No. 2/2008, p. 6.