The global food crisis may push more than 100 million people into extreme poverty. In South Asia, home to more than half the world’s poorest populations, there is cause for concern. In just under one week, local Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) partners helped South Asia coordinate a rapid response to the crisis with a dialogue on Food Prices: a Global Perspective. On April 24, 2008, the event brought together ministers, academics and economists in six South Asian countries to speak with experts about the effects of increasing food prices on the region. Local GDLN partners such as the Energy and Resources Institute in India provided expert facilitation and assembled a high-level audience capable of carrying out the recommendations.
South Asia is among the most vulnerable regions for two reasons – its high concentration of people living beneath the poverty line and its status as the world’s largest net importer of food. The objective of the multi-country session was to identify the specific impacts of the crisis and immediate policy responses to mitigate any economic and social risks to the region. At the event, economists spoke about the causes of the price increases and offered recommendations, which included expanding safety nets, lowering import tariffs, and stimulating food production. “In the long term, prices should decrease as supply catches up with demand.” noted one of the experts.
Participating countries compared notes on the results of reactionary policies and highlighted priority issues. Participants recommended scaling up existing food for work programs and rehabilitating expanding irrigation in the short to medium term. Representatives also called on the World Bank to stimulate the development of public-private partnerships for rehabilitating agricultural infrastructure. The World Bank responded with an offer to increase policy advice and possible short-term financing.
“We must as a region, revisit export ban policies that are driving up prices and improve our coordination efforts on inter-regional trade to reduce the impacts”, commented a participant from Afghanistan.
By leveraging the power of the GDLN network, the dialogue successfully initiated critical discussions to further cooperation in South Asia and to help decrease the impact of a regional food crisis. The session was coordinated under theSouth Asia Regional Cooperation Dialogueseries held through GDLN.
For more information contact Juan Blazquez at jblazquez@worldbank.org.
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