Zoellick Outlines Steps to Address Risks of Food Crisis Sept. 4, 2008—A first step is to lift export bans and restrictions for humanitarian food aid, Zoellick said at an aid forum in Accra. He also called for increasing the predictability, flexibility and amount of food aid. More

What the World Bank is Doing

The World Bank Group's New Deal on Global Food Policy has been endorsed by 150 countries. The New Deal embraces short, medium and long-term responses, including safety nets such as school feeding, food for work, and conditional cash transfers; increased agricultural production; a better understanding of the impact of biofuels; and action on the trade front to reduce distorting subsidies and trade barriers.

• Conducting rapid needs assessments for countries impacted by the crisis, including Burkina Faso, Burundi, Eritrea, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
• Creating a new $1.2 billion rapid financing facility—the Global Food Response Program (GFRP)—to speed assistance to the neediest countries. GFRP has approved and begun disbursing $130 million in 15 countries to date: Afghanistan ($8 million), Burundi ($10 million), Central African Republic ($7 million), Djibouti ($5 million), Haiti ($10 million), Honduras ($10 million), Kyrgyz ($10 million), Liberia ($10 million), Madagascar ($10 million), Moldova ($7 million), Niger ($7 million), Rwanda ($10 million), Sierra Leone ($7 million), Tajikistan ($9 million), and Yemen ($10 million) to feed poor children and other vulnerable groups, or provide for nutritional supplements to pregnant women, lactating mothers, infants and small children. Another project totaling $7 million is pending approval. An additional $278 million is being earmarked for programs in 13 countries.
• Providing $200 million to Bangladesh in the coming months to help address the food crisis.
• Providing $100 million to hard-hit Burkina Faso, Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, and Niger to meet additional expenses of food imports and to buy seeds for the new season.
• Working on irrigation and water management in Ethiopia, fertilizer use in Malawi, market access for smallholders in Senegal, and crop diversification in Mali and Uganda.
• Boosting overall agricultural lending to $6 billion over the next year.
• Launching risk management tools and crop insurance to protect poor countries and small-holders.
• Nearly doubling agricultural lending to Africa from $450 million to $800 million; and to Latin America from $250 million to $400 million.
• Supporting over $1 billion in new projects in agriculture and rural development in South Asia.
• Doubling lending for social protection, nutrition and food security, and social risk mitigation to $800 million over the next year.
• Urging major grain-producing countries to lift or refrain from bans on food exports.
• Working with other donors and agencies on the African Union's New Partnership for Africa's Development Program for agriculture development in sub-Saharan Africa.

• Overcoming the Crisis
• Understanding the Crisis