World Bank Chief Calls for G8 Help to Feed World's Hungry

On Wednesday, World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick called on the G8 leaders as well as the major oil producers to act now to deal with surging food and energy prices, warning that the world is "entering a danger zone."

Zoellick said the crisis is so widespread that the World Bank has already provided funding for 12 countries from a $200 million grant fund, which is part of an overall $1.2 billion rapid financing facility to offer prompt assistance.

The World Food Programme has eased the hunger of these cyclone survivors in Myanmar. (Photo by Tony Banbury courtsy WFP)

But he said the bank currently has almost $400 million of additional new requests from 31 countries.

"These calls for help outstrip our available grant resources. The rapid financing facility includes, however, a multi-donor trust fund that is up and running, ready to be of immediate help. Donors should use this as a vehicle to provide help fast. "

"Record oil prices and high and rising food costs threaten a growing number of countries with rising poverty and social instability," Zoellick said. "Already we have seen food riots in over 30 countries, and unrest over high fuel prices is spreading. The urban poor are especially affected by the double hit of food and fuel."

Zoellick's call is contained in a letter to the head of the upcoming G8 summit in Japan, in which the Bank, the UN World Food Programme, and the International Monetary Fund estimate that about $10 billion is needed to meet short term needs of people hit hardest by the crisis.

"What we are witnessing is not a natural disaster - a silent tsunami or a perfect storm. It is a man-made catastrophe, and as such must be fixed by people," Zoellick said.

The World Bank chief recalled that the G8 made a commitment at the UK's Gleneagles Summit in 2005 to boost overall development aid, to Africa in particular, by 2010. He said such aid is needed now, more than ever, as Africa accounts for two-thirds of the countries under the greatest stress due to the food and fuel crisis.

"For 41 countries, the combined impact of high food, fuel and other commodity prices since January 2007 represents a negative shock to GDP of between three and 10 percent," he said.

Hungry child in Ethiopia (Photo courtesy Environmental Health Perspectives)

"These numbers translate into broken lives, and stunted potential. For the most vulnerable, especially poor children, they mean malnutrition, reduced resistance to disease, and too often death," he said.

The number of hungry people increased by about 50 million in 2007 as a result of high food prices, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said today, addressing a conference at the European Parliament in Brussels.

"Poor countries are feeling the serious impact of soaring food and energy prices," said the head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO. "We urgently need new and stronger partnerships to address the growing food security problems in poor countries."

Dr. Diouf said that the present crisis is a combination of rising demand for agricultural products due to population growth and economic development in emerging countries; the rapid expansion of biofuels; and insufficient supply as production is negatively affected by climate change, in particular drought and floods, at a time when cereal stocks, at 409 million tonnes, are at their lowest levels in 30 years.

"No single institution or country will be able to resolve this crisis," he said. "Donor countries, international institutions, governments of developing countries, civil society and the private sector have an important role to play in the global fight against hunger."

World agriculture will also have to address major challenges, like water control and climate change, Diouf said, emphasizing that the world does have untapped resources to utilize.

More than 1.2 billion people today live in river basins with absolute water scarcity and the trend of increasing water shortages is worrisome, he said, but sub-Saharan Africa is using only four percent of its renewable water resources.

Drought makes growing rice impossible (Photo courtesy IRRI)

The world is losing five -10 million hectares of agricultural land every year due to severe degradation, but in Africa, Latin America and Central Asia there is a great potential for expanding land under cultivation.

In their separate pleas for help for the hungry, both Diouf in Brussels and Zoellick in Washington said that now is the time to act.

"The present situation is a result of the international community's neglect of agriculture in developing countries for a long time," Diouf said.

In his letter, Zoellick urged the G8 to consider two new measures to "improve the world's ability to cope with an on-going food crisis."

The first is a UN assessment on guaranteeing a portion of funding for the World Food Programme.

The second is to study the merits of an internationally coordinated "virtual" humanitarian strategic reserve system for food emergencies.

"The international community is facing an unprecedented test in this new era of globalization," he said. The question is whether we can act swiftly to help those most in need."

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