The Asian Development Bank pledged on Tuesday to provide $14 billion in loans over four years to improve food security in poor countries in Asia-Pacific amid rising global prices and climate change.
The bank, which provides loans and grants to the poorest countries in the Asia-Pacific region, said the financing would target - among other things - food production and distribution, as well as projects aimed at mitigating the effects negatives of climate change.
In detail, this type of financing is expected to reach $3.3 billion this year, and $10.7 billion from 2023 to 2025, said the bank, which brings together 49 members - from the Cook Islands in the Pacific to the in Kazakhstan in Central Asia - and which until now allocated around two billion dollars of loans per year to projects related to food security.
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“
Food insecurity threatens to undo decades of development progress in Asia and the Pacific
,” Asian Development Bank President Masatsugu Asakawa said during a virtual press conference.
At present, there are many factors explaining the "
deterioration of the situation
", underlined Masatsugu Asakawa, referring in particular to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the Covid-19 pandemic, which disrupted the channels. supply and helped push food prices to "
record highs
".
And "
we must also bear in mind that the current food security crisis will worsen even more if we fail to fight against climate change
", added Masatsugu Asakawa, believing that this battle would be "
won or lost .
in Asia and the Pacific
”.
Just over a billion people in the region “
lack healthy food due to poverty and high food prices,
” he said.
The institution's announcement comes after the bank recently cut its 2022 growth forecast for the region to 4.3% from its April projection of 5.2%, particularly concerned about the effects increasingly restrictive monetary policies in many countries to curb inflation or even repeated confinements in China, follower of a so-called “
zero covid
” strategy.
The bank also raised its inflation forecast for 2022 from 3.7% to 4.5%.