IMF, WB, WTO and FAO call for urgent action to address global food security crisis

MADRID, 15 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Qu Dongyu; the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva; the president of the World Bank Group (WBG), David Malpass; the executive director of the World Food Program (WFP), David Beasley, and the director general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala have called for urgent measures to address the global food security crisis.

According to WFP estimates, in June 2022 the number of acutely food insecure people in the world, whose short-term access to food has been restricted to the point that their lives and livelihoods are at risk, increased to 345 million in a total of 82 countries.

In addition, some 25 countries have reacted to rising food prices by adopting export restrictions affecting more than 8% of global food trade, representatives of international organizations note in a joint statement.

"All this is happening at a time when the fiscal space for government action is already severely restricted after the Covid-19 pandemic," they warn, adding that, beyond the short term, climate change is structurally affecting productivity. agriculture in many countries.

In this way, they defend that avoiding further setbacks to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires short- and long-term actions in four key areas: providing immediate support to the vulnerable, facilitating trade and international food supply, promoting production and invest in climate-resilient agriculture.

"We call on countries to strengthen safety nets, facilitate trade, boost production and invest in resilient agriculture," says the document, where the leaders of international organizations express their commitment to work together in support of this process through the Global Alliance for Food Security, convened jointly by the G7 presidency and the World Bank.