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(CNN) -- The World Bank is making $1.2 billion available in grants and loans to combat the global food crisis, including $200 million for those most at risk in the world's poorest countries.
"These initiatives will help address the immediate danger of hunger and malnutrition for the 2 billion people struggling to survive in the face of rising food prices," World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick said in a statement.
The $1.2 billion facility, which is designed to address immediate needs, supports safety net programs such as food for work, conditional cash transfers, and school feeding programs for the most vulnerable. It provides support for food production – this year and beyond - by supplying seeds and fertilizer, improving irrigation for small-scale farmers, and providing budget support to offset tariff reductions for food and other unexpected costs.
As part of the new facility the World Bank is also establishing a Multi-Donor Trust Fund to facilitate policy and operational co-ordination among donors, and leverage financial support for the rapid delivery of seeds and fertilizer to small farmers for the upcoming planting season.
To facilitate other development partners to support country efforts to address the crisis, a Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) is being created. The Trust Fund is designed to complement the emergency food assistance activities of the WFP, FAO, and IFAD by providing immediate support for production such as seeds and fertilizers for the upcoming harvests, particularly for small farmers. The MDTF will also facilitate policy and operational coordination among development partners [my emphasis] and help ensure that support to countries is comprehensive and country specific.
A few months have now passed since the global food crisis was put on the world agenda. The causes of the problem have been identified and more or less understood. Yet the food crisis is still unfolding.
...
Everyone agrees that something needs to be done but there is vast disagreement as to what this implies. The policy priests at the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation and the International Monetary Fund, the corporate boards of directors and, indeed, most governments and their teams of advisers want us to continue on the course of industrialising agriculture and liberalising trade and investment, even though this recipe just promises more of the same in the future.
...
More disturbing, the political and business elites don't want to face the fact that, whether you are a working-class homeowner in the US or a mother queuing for rice in the Philippines, confidence in the market has been shattered.
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One of the more obscene aspects of the food crisis is the spectacular profits that the market has allowed big agribusiness and speculators to make from it. Contrary to the impression conveyed by some media, few farmers are seeing any benefits from the price hikes.
Originally posted by Maxmars
when there are so many 'hidden' agendas
Originally posted by Ian McLean
Originally posted by Maxmars
when there are so many 'hidden' agendas
They call themselves 'The World Bank'.
The World Bank.
I guess they think that people will just assume they don't really mean it.