In the Guardian:
More hereIn July news broke that local micronutrient producers in Haiti were in danger of going out of business because of the actions of NGOs. The non-profit Meds & Food for Kids (MFK) came close to closure after the World Food Programme (WFP) said it wouldn't be buying anything from the company for four years because they had a corn-soy blend from USAid – for free.
Photograph: Lynne Sladky/ap
Providing emergency nutrition in a way that undermines the capacity of local economies to respond to food insecurity and malnutrition themselves seems a clear violation of the 'do-no-harm' principle.
Marie Konate is CEO of Protein-Kissee La, an Ivorian company producing fortified complementary food for the local market. She says NGOs in the west-African country have long prefered to buy products from rich multinationals rather than source locally.
