The European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations department (ECHO), guided by the European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid policy framework, has achieved the European Union's objectives of delivering food aid to developing nations during humanitarian crises. From an economic viewpoint, the regulatory policy considers the availability of resources to determine the level of aid that should be offered at any particular point in time. The policy also covers the legal aspects that govern the allocation of funds for food aid, particularly by defining the criteria for selecting the recipients of such donations. My analysis of the policy framework demonstrates that it is highly stringent and lacks efficiency in aid distribution decision-making. However, ECHO can adopt policies that allow it to make quicker judgments based on prior occurrences in some nation experiencing a humanitarian crisis. It is also essential for ECHO to invest in ongoing data collection and assessment procedures to help in preemptively identifying high-risk areas and distributing aid more quickly moving forward.

Keywords: policy framework, food aid, developing countries, food security, European Union, ECHO, policy change