WB announces planned actions for global food crisis response

• US $ 30bn available for implementation to address food insecurity over next 15 months

The World Bank announced this week actions it plans to take as part of a comprehensive, global response to the ongoing food security crisis, with up to US $ 30 billion in existing and new projects in areas such as agriculture, nutrition, social protection, water and irrigation. 

This financing will include efforts to encourage food and fertiliser production, enhance food systems, facilitate greater trade and support vulnerable households and producers.

“Food price increases are having devastating effects on the poorest and most vulnerable,” said World Bank Group President David Malpass. 

“To inform and stabilise markets, it is critical that countries make clear statements now of future output increases in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Countries should make concerted efforts to increase the supply of energy and fertiliser, help farmers increase plantings and crop yields and remove policies that block exports and imports, divert food to biofuel or encourage unnecessary storage,” she added.

The World Bank is working with countries on the preparation of US $ 12 billion of new projects for the next 15 months to respond to the food security crisis. These projects are expected to support agriculture, social protection to cushion the effects of higher food prices and water and irrigation projects, with the majority of resources going to Africa and the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Central Asia and South Asia. 

In addition, the World Bank’s existing portfolio includes undisbursed balances of US $ 18.7 billion in projects with direct links to food and nutrition security issues, covering agriculture and natural resources, nutrition, social protection and other sectors. Altogether, this would amount to over US $ 30 billion available for implementation to address food insecurity over the next 15 months. This response will draw on the full range of the World Bank financing instruments and be complemented by analytical work.

The World Bank Group’s global response will address four priorities: support production and producers, facilitate increased trade, support vulnerable households and invest in sustainable food and nutrition security.

The World Bank gained extensive experience in response to the 2007-2008 global food price crisis through the temporary Global Food Crisis Response Programme (GFRP) that received donor contributions and channelled funds to 49 affected countries through 100 projects.

Since then, the World Bank had built up new tools dedicated to responding to food security crises, including the IDA Crisis Response Window.