World food crisis

Liberia, Haiti, Djibouti first to receive World Bank emergency food aid

Article published on the 2008-05-30 Latest update 2008-05-30 14:54 TU

Haitians protest at price rises in April
(Photo: Reuters)

World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Thursday announced a 1.2 billion dollar emergency programme to fight the global food crisis, with the first grants - to Liberia, Haiti and Djibouti - already approved. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) predict that food prices will continue to rise for some time.

The bank says that it will boost its overall support for agriculture and food next year by 50 per cent to six billion dollars.

The emergency fund will give grants to poor countries facing the most severe need. Rapid needs assessments have been completed for 25, while another 15 are ongoing.

Grants for Togo, Yemen and Tajikistan are expected to be awarded next month.

Zoellick said that crop insurance and other assistance for small farmers would be part of the package. He also called for a review of subsidies and targets for biofuels, which have existed in countries such as the US for several years, because  they compete with food for land, investment and resources.

An OECD/FAO report this week found that high global good prices are a new fact of life. It said that the cost of feeding a family will remain far higher than over the last decade, even though prices should ease over coming years.

The FAO's Ali Gurkan told RFI that some good could come of the crisis.

"For the first time in many, many years, the rising prices actually offers the opportunity to actually encourage investment in the agricultural sector," he said.

More than 150 countries agreed to a "new deal" for international food policy at the spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Next week a UN-sponsored food crisis summit will meet in Rome.