THE WORLD Bank has unveiled a $1.2 billion (€771 million) fast-track funding facility to help combat the impact of rising food prices on the poor. The facility includes a $200 million trust fund to provide grants for the world’s poorest countries.
The facility, announced on Thursday, will be used to speed up the financing of safety net programmes, including conditional cash transfers and school feeding programmes. It will also support food production by supplying seeds and fertiliser, both of which have risen sharply in price.
It will provide budget assistance to countries that have agreed to cut food tariffs.
In addition the bank is establishing a multi-donor trust fund to leverage financial support for small farmers ahead of the forthcoming critical planting season.
Regional organisations in Latin America, Africa and Asia have announced emergency funding in the past month to mitigate the impact of the food crisis. Rising food prices have triggered riots in 30 countries.
The World Bank initiative comes ahead of a United Nations summit in Rome next week when the bank and other multinational institutions hope to galvanise support and find more donor money to tackle the food crisis.
A World Food Programme call for $755 million in donor funds to help meet a budget shortfall this year was met last week when Saudi Arabia pledged $500 million in assistance.
World Bank president Robert Zoellick has unveiled a 10-point plan to tackle the global food crisis. The plan includes a call for the US and Europe to cut subsidies and tariffs on biofuels derived from corn and oilseeds.
The bank noted that US use of corn for ethanol had consumed more than 75 per cent of the global increase in corn production in the past three years.
Mr Zoellick also urged more private sector investment in agribusiness, including the financing of supply chain, infrastructure and logistics projects. – (Financial Times service)