WASHINGTON, DC – The World Bank Group (WBG) on Wednesday announced details of its global crisis response package to help Caribbean and other developing countries navigate multiple, compounding crises that are hitting the poor and most vulnerable the hardest.
Photo credit: World Bank Group“Multiple crises – including rising inflation, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, large macroeconomic imbalances, and the shortages of energy, fertilizer, and food – are hammering developing countries,” said World Bank Group President David Malpass.
“The World Bank Group is responding with speed, scale, and impact with financing to respond to food insecurity, protect people, preserve jobs, strengthen resilience, and restore growth.”
The Washington-based financial institution said details are set out in a Global Crisis Response Framework paper published on Wednesday, “Navigating Multiple Crises, Staying the Course on Long-Term Development: The World Bank Group’s Response to the Crises Affecting Developing Countries.”
The paper outlines a framework that will guide the WBG’s operational response over the 15-month period from April 2022 to June 2023.
It follows up on the April 2022 Roadmap Paper that highlighted that the WBG will make up to US$170 billion in financing available over this 15-month period to support developing countries as they navigate these unprecedented crises.
The World Bank said the allocation of resources across countries and issues will evolve according to specific needs and the strength of programs that achieve development and support people on the ground.
The crisis response framework includes: Responding to Food Insecurity through supporting production, facilitating trade, supporting the vulnerable and investing in sustainable food systems, aligning with the WBG response to food insecurity announced on May 18, 2022; protecting people and preserving jobs to help mitigate the medium- to long-term impact of crises; strengthening resilience by identifying and supporting paths to build long-term resilience; and strengthening policies, institutions, and investments for rebuilding better to utilize long-term policies to improve development outcomes.
The World Bank said the framework builds on the lessons learned from responding to the pandemic as well as to past food crises.
“It acknowledges that these unprecedented crises require a strong, rapid engagement to help countries avoid sliding backward, as well as to stay the course on longer-term development objectives,” it said, adding that its operations will continue to be underpinned by its Green, Resilient and Inclusive Development (GRID) approach.
The WBG will make available around US$170 billion in financing to support the multiple crisis response. Of this, US$105 billion will be provided by the World Bank (IBRD and IDA), US$48 billion by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and almost US$9 billion by the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Association (MIGA).
Nearly US$9 billion is expected to be financed through trust funds, the World Bank said.
It said the WBG has already delivered about US$53 billion of this support April-June 2022, as it stepped up support for food security and continued to deepen its pandemic response.
