The agency called for the immediate allocation of funds to help 41 million people in various countries at risk of a famine. According to the UK-based charity The Hunger Project, 690 million people around the world are living with chronic hunger, 850 million are at risk of poverty due to covid-19. Of those 690 million, 60% are women.
Inflation, the main problem
During the pandemic, many countries saw the production of raw materials fall, from crops to vegetable oils. Measures to control the virus and the disease limited production and distribution.
As supply has recovered, many economies have been unable to adjust to demand, leading to higher prices. Rising energy costs have added to the burden manufacturers face. According to UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths, “when the door finally opens, famine goes viral in a way that other threats may not.”
Women and girls are particularly vulnerable as a result of increasing poverty and rising food prices.
“Women tell us about the desperate measures they must take to find what to feed their families, including exchanging sex for food, resorting to early and child marriages, as I heard recently when I was in Syria,” she recalled.
Some of the most food insecure in the world are small farmerssays Karen Hampson, Program Development Manager at Farm Radio International.
“The current rise in food prices It is a weapon of double wire for them, “he pointed out to the BBC.” On the one hand, peasant families need to buy the food they cannot grow, so their costs increase or their access to food decreases, which generates hunger and malnutrition, “he explained. .
And “on the other, at least in theory, the rise in food prices should mean more income from the products they sell.” “However, in most cases, rising food prices do not seem to translate into more income for farmers. “
The International Monetary Fund’s steering committee, which is made up of 24 finance ministers and central bank governors from IMF member countries, urged world authorities last week to closely monitor price dynamics.
In addition, a final communiqué specified that governments should “carefully calibrate” domestic policies in the face of an evolving pandemic. “We will continue to prioritize health spending and protect the most vulnerable, while shifting focus, as appropriate, from responding to the crisis to promoting growth and preserving long-term fiscal sustainability,” they said.
At the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank that took place this week they were items on the agenda concerns about inflation, supply chain bottlenecks, higher energy and commodity prices, and weather events.
“Central banks are closely monitoring price dynamics and can watch through inflationary pressures that are transitory. They will act appropriately if the risks of anchoring inflation expectations materialize, “the IMFC said.
According to the draft, it had a more directive language where central banks were asked to be ready to take “decisive action to maintain price stability“.
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