Food Crisis Continuation

Project Status: Global Food Crisis Response Program

Project Status: Externally Funded Trust Funds

As of January 2011, GFRP has approved $1,443.6 million. To date, $1,077.8 million out of the $1,443.6 million in total approved funding has been disbursed (75% of approved funds).

Total Bank-funded, Board-approved GFRP projects amount to $1,238.2 million, of which $202.4 million is from the Food Price Crisis Response (FPCR) Trust Fund for 27 countries, 17 of which are in Africa; $835.8 million is from IDA for 13 countries; and $200 million is from IBRD for a project in the Philippines. 80 percent of Bank-sourced Boardapproved funds have been disbursed).

Under the externally-funded GFRP trust funds, we have approved operations totaling $205.4 million — 10 MDTF-funded projects, two Russia FPCR Trust Fund-funded operations, and 11 European Union (EU) Food Crisis Rapid Response Facility-financed operations.

• The quality of results from World Bank investment in agriculture and rural development through the regular programs remains among the highest priorities. In FY10, IBRD/IDA assistance to agriculture and related rural development, as described in Implementing Agriculture for Development: World Bank Group Agriculture Action Plan, FY10-12, was $4.1 billion (7% of total IBRD/IDA). This is a decrease from the $5.3 billion in FY09, butis higher than the average of $3 billion per year over FY06-08.

One reason for the drop in assistance was the food crisis response that induced “front-loading” of projects into FY09 originally scheduled for FY10. The rapidly emerging financial crisis, which led to strong competing demand for large financial transfers vis-a-vis investment projects, also contributed to the drop in FY10 agricultural lending.

• In addition to the IBRD/IDA investments of $4.1 billion, IFC invested $2 billion in agribusiness and related sectors, resulting in total World Bank Group assistance of $6.1 billion to agriculture and related rural development lending.

• The Bank tripled investments in safety nets and other social protection programs in health and education to $12 billion over next two years, as announced in April 2009.

• The Bank established an Agriculture Finance Support Facility to expand rural finance through a $20 million Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation contribution, as announced in June 2009. The Facility will increase access to financial services, such as savings, credit, payments and insurance.

• The Bank helps countries develop financial market insurance products and risk management strategies to ensure increased capacity to respond to future prices increases, such as weather derivatives and crop insurance.

• Through the HLTF Secretariat, the Bank works through existing country-level coordination mechanisms and regional initiatives such as the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) to identify opportunities and constraints in CFA implementation on the ground. The Bank actively participated in the updating of the U.N.’s Comprehensive Framework for Action (CFA).