World Bank To Spend $30 Billion On Food Security

Rabat – The World Bank will spend $30 billion over the next 15 months on projects to face global food security.

The World Bank Group announced on Wednesday a comprehensive global response to address growing food insecurity that has been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. The measures target vital fields such as agriculture, nutrition, social protection, water, and irrigation, the bank said in a press release.

“In total, this represents more than $30 billion available for implementation to address food insecurity over the next 15 months,” the World Bank said on Wednesday in a press release.

The statement added that the group is currently working with countries to prepare projects worth $12 billion “to support agriculture, social protection to cushion the effects of higher food prices, and water and irrigation projects.”

“Rising food prices are having a devastating impact on the poorest and most vulnerable,” World Bank Group President David Malpass said.

The bank also shed light on $18.7 billion in undisbursed balances that will also be available for projects directly related to food security.

The majority of the resources will go to countries in Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, as well as Central and South Asia. They aim to encourage food and fertilizer production, enhance food systems, facilitate greater trade, and support vulnerable households and producers.

The World Bank’s global response will focus on four priorities such as facilitating increased trade, building consensus (G7, G20, others), and avoiding the further rise in global food prices due to export restrictions. The global response will also address food systems’ resilience to rising risks (conflict, climate, pests, diseases), and economic disruptions.

Malpass urged countries to make “concerted efforts” to “remove policies that block exports and imports…or encourage unnecessary storage,” and not only focus on increasing energy and fertilizer supplies.

Over the years, the World Bank has gained experience in global food crises, which helped it build up new tools dedicated to responding to such issues, including the IDA Crisis Response Window.

The World Bank also hosts the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), which is an existing financial intermediary fund dedicated to improving food security in low-income countries.