Day: May 20, 2022

The World Bank today announced actions it plans to take as part of a comprehensive, global response to the ongoing food security crisis, with up to $30 billion in existing and new projects in areas such as agriculture, nutrition, social protection, water and irrigation. This financing will include efforts to encourage food and fertilizer production, enhance food systems, facilitate greater trade, and support vulnerable households and producers.

“Food price increases are having devastating effects on the poorest and most vulnerable,” said World Bank Group President David Malpass. “To inform and stabilize markets, it is critical that countries make clear statements now of future output increases in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Countries should make concerted efforts to increase the supply of energy and fertilizer, help farmers increase plantings and crop yields, and remove policies that block exports and imports, divert food to biofuel, or encourage unnecessary storage.”

The World Bank is working with countries on the preparation of $12 billion of new projects for the next 15 months to respond to the food security crisis. These projects are expected to support agriculture, social protection to cushion the effects of higher food prices, and water and irrigation projects, with the majority of resources going to Africa and the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and South Asia. In addition, the World Bank’s existing portfolio includes undisbursed balances of $18.7 billion in projects with direct links to food and nutrition security issues, covering agriculture and natural resources, nutrition, social protection, and other sectors. Altogether, this would amount to over $30 billion available for implementation to address food insecurity over the next 15 months. This response will draw on the full range of Bank financing instruments and be complemented by analytical work.

The World Bank Group’s global response will address four priorities:

Support production and producers: Take actions to enhance next season’s production by removing input trade barriers, focusing on more efficient use of fertilizers, and repurposing public policies and expenditures to better support farmers and output.

Facilitate increased trade: Build international consensus (G7, G20, others) and commitment to avoid export restrictions that increase global food prices and import restrictions that discourage production in developing countries.

Support vulnerable households: Scale up targeted, nutrition-sensitive social protection programs and replenish early-response financing mechanisms.

Invest in sustainable food and nutrition security: Strengthen food systems to make them more resilient to rising risks (conflict, climate, pests, diseases), trade disruptions and economic shocks – balance immediate/short-term needs with long-term investments.

The World Bank gained extensive experience in response to the 2007-2008 global food price crisis through the temporary Global Food Crisis Response Program (GFRP) that received donor contributions and channeled funds to 49 affected countries through 100 projects. Since then, the Bank had built up new tools dedicated to responding to food security crises, including the IDA Crisis Response Window. The World Bank also hosts the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), which is an existing financial intermediary fund dedicated to improving food security in low-income countries and could be replenished to help fund the response to the current global food crisis.

Source: World Bank

Following is the text of UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s video message to the opening ceremony of the Africa Trade and Investment Forum of the Africities Summit in Kisumu, Kenya, today:

Honourable Ministers and Mayors, dear participants,

I am pleased to join this opening session of the Africa Trade and Investment Forum.

Africa is facing unprecedented, irreversible and rapid urbanization. Africa has the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population. Cities will receive 30 million new inhabitants per year by 2030, almost double the current rate. What’s more, intermediary cities — the focus of this edition of Africities — are experiencing the fastest rates of population growth. This trend accompanies other transitions affecting Africa’s development path, including on energy, digital and food systems.

African cities already produce about 60 per cent of the continent’s GDP [gross domestic product], currently valued at $700 billion and expected to reach $1.7 trillion by 2030. Still, Africa faces deepening inequalities and infrastructure gaps. These challenges are preventing African cities to unleash their full potential to foster sustainable development and respond with opportunities for young people and addressing the needs of women.

For African cities and territories to play their role as “heartbeats” of trade and investments, adequate infrastructure and facilities must be created to attract investors, including in the fields of energy, transport, housing, communications, industrial and agricultural production. And as we build this infrastructure, we cannot lose the opportunity of making them inclusive and green.

Dear friends,

This first African Trade and Investment Forum of UCLG [United Cities and Local Governments] Africa aims to become a matchmaking platform between local authorities in Africa and investors, to identify business opportunities and investment strategies. Local investment needs can be structured to match and attract national, regional, and international investments — through the definition of pipeline of projects.

We have successful examples to draw from. As Kenya has shown, decentralizing public administration provides county governments with the authority to raise endogenous resources. However, local governments in Africa still have a long way to go directly accessing capital markets. Challenges range from institutional constraints, limited capacities, and regulatory hurdles to looming debt burdens and repayments following the expiration of the Debt Service Suspension Initiative.

At the global level, the Secretary-General has been advocating for greater debt relief and liquidity to support countries across Africa. This includes re-channelling unused special drawing rights to countries most in need and better aligning public and private finance with the Sustainable Development Goals.

Today, I see four priorities.

First, local governments’ capacities need to be strengthened to fully play their role as catalysers in mobilizing public and private capital for growing cities.

Second, local policies should be implemented to create an enabling business environment to facilitate investments, including by providing targeted public investments and skilled human capital.

Third, we must accelerate the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) in African cities and territories. The AfCTA is the largest trade area in the world since the formation of the World Trade Organization and is expected to boost intra-African trades by 52 per cent in the coming five years. And business and trade will happen at the level of cities and territories.

And fourth, cities need to venture into national and international bond markets. At present, only a few African cities have done so.

Two centuries ago, the City of New York issued the first municipal bond to finance a new canal. Today, the global municipal bond market is worth $3.8 trillion, around 10 per cent of the entire US bonds market. In Africa, only South African and Nigerian cities have so far succeeded in developing a municipal bond market.

Dear participants,

The United Cities and Local Governments for Africa (UCLG-Africa) initiative has put forward a proposal to set up a financing facility that would improve subnational and local governments’ access to capital markets. This is certainly a step in the right direction, particularly if local governments are willing to work together and share risks. Furthermore, this proposal complements efforts by the United Nations System through the Cities Investment Facility launched by UN Habitat and UNCDF [United Nations Capital Development Fund] to support investment portfolios in 250 cities from least developed countries by the year 2025.

Last year, we launched the Local2030 Coalition, a United Nations system initiative to turbocharge innovative solutions that can accelerate SDG progress at the local level by harnessing urban dynamics. It aims to engage and empower every local actor, everywhere. This Africities Trade and Investment Forum is a great opportunity for us to build a coalition between the United Nations, UCLG Africa, and other partners to unleash the power of trade and investments on the continent’s cities and territories.

Together, we can ensure that African cities and territories gain access to capital markets and raise the financing they need to build a more prosperous and sustainable future for all. I wish you fruitful deliberations.

Thank you. Asanteni Sana.

Source: United Nations

As 18 million people in Africa’s Sahel region teeter on the edge of severe hunger over the next three months, the UN released on Friday an additional $30 million from its emergency humanitarian fund, to boost the humanitarian response across four countries.

Food insecurity is set to reach its highest level since 2014, warned the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

“Entire families in the Sahel are on the brink of starvation,” said Martin Griffiths, UN Humanitarian Affairs chief and Emergency Relief Coordinator. “If we don’t act now, people will perish”.

Sobering numbers

In the Sahel, 7.7 million children under five are expected to suffer from malnutrition, of which 1.8 million are severely malnourished.

And if aid operations are not scaled up, this number could reach 2.4 million by the year’s end.

“A combination of violence, insecurity, deep poverty and record-high food prices is exacerbating malnutrition and driving millions to the fringes of survival,” said the humanitarian affairs chief.

Staggering hunger

The situation has reached alarming levels in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Niger, where almost 1.7 million people will experience emergency levels of food insecurity during the lean season between June and August.

In the emergency level – technically referred to as IPC phase 4 – households experience “large gaps” in food consumption; high levels of acute malnutrition and associated deaths; and families sell off items needed for their lives and livelihoods, such as farm tools.

“The recent spike in food prices driven by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is threatening to turn a food security crisis into a humanitarian disaster,” said the Emergency Relief Coordinator.

‘No time to lose’

OCHA has released $30 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to help meet most urgent food security and nutrition needs in the four States: $6 million for Burkina Faso and $8 million each for Chad, Mali, and Niger.

CERF is a mechanism through which donors pool their contributions in advance, allowing humanitarian agencies to provide initial, life-saving assistance when crises strike while awaiting additional funding.

“There is no time to lose,” said Mr. Griffiths. “Lives are at stake. This injection of cash will help agencies on the ground scale up the emergency response to help avoid a catastrophe”.

Cash infusions

This latest contribution brings to almost $95 million the funding amount channelled through CERF to the Sahel since the beginning of the year.

Other recent allocations were made for Mauritania, $4 million; and Nigeria, $15 million.

The humanitarian chief reminded that CERF is no substitute for “the more substantial donor contributions we need to maintain our response and help build resilient communities.”

Earlier this year, the humanitarian community launched six humanitarian appeals in the Sahel for a total of $3.8 billion to provide aid throughout the region for 2022.

However, halfway through the year, the appeals are less than 12 per cent funded.

Source: United Nations

Elmar Brok, the head of the EU electoral mission, told reporters Friday that as Zimbabwe prepares for next year’s elections, it must amend its electoral laws so that all parties have a fair chance of winning at the polls.

Brok and his team were assigned to Zimbabwe by Brussels to share their findings after their first visit to Zimbabwe during the July 2018 elections.

In an interview with VOA, Brok, a German national, said the mission gave Zimbabwean officials 23 recommendations for “genuine” electoral reforms.

“It has to do with even playing field, the impartiality of the [state] media, equal treatment of the parties, a proper voters’ registration, there is a multipart liaison committee, there will be proper conducting of elections, the conduct on election day – the transparency – and then counting and the collection of the counting to the final results. If that is transparently clear, no loopholes, then it’s the best way to have peace in the country, because nobody says there was something wrong with the elections, to get the credibility of elections.”

Zimbabwe officials would not comment Friday on Brok’s statement.

Earlier, though, Raphael Faranisi, the acting permanent secretary in Zimbabwe’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, said the government is looking forward to June 7, when Harare and Brussels officials meet.

“This will be yet another opportunity to candidly assess progress to date and plan for the future, based on realistic expectations. I have heard concerns expressed with respect to development in Zimbabwe. But I just want to put it on record that, in terms of the reforms that we have carried out, the challenge is: I just want you to give me three, four countries on our continent that have really done better than us. For those that have been following closely development in Zimbabwe, we are on that reform trajectory and it's not reversable.”

For years, Zimbabwe’s elections have been marred by violence, voter intimidation and allegations of rigging, leading to disputed results.

When President Emmerson Mnangagwa succeeded Robert Mugabe in 2017, Mnangagwa promised to improve how elections are held but the opposition continues to accuse the ruling Zanu-PF party and the government of manipulating the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.

Source: Voice of America