World Bank plans $170bn support package

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The World Bank Group is discussing how to prepare and package $170bn of support to help countries address multiple overlapping crises. 

As the World Bank undertakes its Spring meeting, it has emerged that its Governors and Board of Executive Directors are examining how it can prepare and structure a 15-month crisis response package of around $170bn, with around $50bn expected to be issued by the end of June.

World Bank Group president David Malpass explained: “Developing countries are facing multiple overlapping crises, including the pandemic, rising inflation, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, large macroeconomic imbalances, and energy and food supply shortages. These are causing massive reversals in poverty reduction, education, health, and gender equality. The World Bank Group will respond to these crises with impact, speed, and scale.”

The scale of the response will require extensive targeting and it is expected that analytical work and policy advice will be provided alongside any funding at national, regional, and global levels to help inform well targeted crisis and medium-term impact.

This surge response follows the World Bank Group’s huge interventions to help countries address the pandemic. That programme saw more than $200bn committed over the past two years and the new programme is intended to continue this level of impact as challenges proliferate.

War in Ukraine
The World Bank is especially concerned about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is provoking a rapidly expanding global crisis. The economic and social impacts of Russia’s actions are spreading through commodity markets, trade, financial flows, and market confidence. The resulting surge in the cost of food, fuel, and fertiliser is leading to increasing hunger, malnutrition, food insecurity, and hardship for millions of people around the world and these hardships will exacerbate the existing effects of the ongoing pandemic, climate change, and already severe poverty, inequality, and other development setbacks.

While addressing the social and economic impacts arising from the war in Ukraine, the World Bank Group has pledged to continue its focus on protecting the poor and vulnerable around the world, boosting the response capacity of developing countries and restoring momentum on longer-term development priorities that may otherwise suffer.