The World Bank announced on Wednesday that it would spend $12 billion on new projects over the next 15 months to address the global food crisis, which has been aggravated by the war in Ukraine.
The majority of the resources will go to countries in Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Central and South Asia, the institution said in a statement, adding that this should support their agriculture, “ social protection to cushion the effects of rising food prices”, and promote water supply and irrigation projects.
The World Bank also points out that it has 18.7 billion unused dollars which will also be able to be devoted to projects directly linked to food and nutritional security problems.
“In total, this represents more than 30 billion dollars available for the implementation of the fight against food insecurity over the next 15 months,” noted the World Bank.
“Rising food prices are having devastating effects on the poorest and most vulnerable,” World Bank President David Malpass said in the statement.
Concerted efforts
“To inform and stabilize markets, it is essential that countries make clear statements now on future production increases in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” he said.
It recommends that countries make “concerted efforts” not only to increase energy and fertilizer supplies, help farmers increase plantings and crop yields, but also to “remove policies that block exports and imports (…) or encourage unnecessary storage”.
In a separate statement, the US Treasury praised the collective action of international financial institutions (IFIs) including the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and development banks, stressing that they were working “quickly” to try to cope with growing food insecurity.
They announced a series of measures on Wednesday, stressing that they could use not only their funding but also their technical know-how.
“This includes taking advantage of existing tools and programs in an accelerated manner (…), reorienting current programs, (…) targeting work that meets immediate needs,” they explained in a press release.
War in Ukraine worsens food crisis
Among their priority objectives: alleviating shortages of fertilizers, supporting food production immediately, investing in agriculture that is resilient to climate change for the future or even promoting free trade.
Even before the war in Ukraine, food insecurity had been aggravated by conflicts, climatic crises and economic crises.
Last year, 193 million people in 53 countries were acutely food insecure, meaning they needed urgent help to survive, according to UN data .
The situation will worsen due to the Russian-Ukrainian war, warn the institutions, while Russia and Ukraine are respectively the first and fifth world exporters of wheat, representing alone 30% of the world supply.
And the worry grows as theIndehit by an exceptional heat wave, announced last Friday a general ban on the export of wheat to ensure food security for its 1.4 billion inhabitants.
