Political Science > Agriculture & Food Policy
After a series of global and local shocks that have further exacerbated the economic challenges facing LICs, some of the immediate pressures have begun to subside in 2023 and the outlook is gradually improving. Median GDP growth would gradually regain pre-pandemic levels, but for many LICs—and especially the poorest and most fragile—it will remain too low. In addition, many LICs still face elevated inflation and high debt levels. All these challenges persist amid rising debt service obligations and declining net financing flows, which compress the space available for development spending. Risks to the outlook for LICs remain tilted to the downside due to persistent macroeconomic vulnerabilities and, in many cases, structural and institutional characteristics that make them highly susceptible to shocks.
Executive Directors welcomed the opportunity to discuss staff s proposals (i) to create a new temporary window under the Fund’s emergency financing instruments to address the urgent balance of payments (BOP) needs related to food shock that was exacerbated by Russia’s war in Ukraine, and (ii) to amend the policy on Staff Monitored Programs (SMP) to introduce an SMP with Board involvement (PMB) that will allow the Executive Board to opine under narrowly tailored circumstances on a member’s program approved by management. They broadly endorsed both proposals.
IMF POLICY PAPER
IMF POLICY PAPER
Climate change is intensifying food insecurity across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with lasting adverse macroeconomic effects, especially on economic growth and poverty. Successive shocks from the war in Ukraine and COVID-19 pandemic have increased food prices and depressed incomes, raising the number of people suffering from high malnutrition and unable to meet basic food consumption needs by at least 30 percent to 123 million in 2022 or 12 percent of SSA’s population. Addressing the lack of resilience to climate change—that critically underlies food insecurity in SSA—will require careful policy prioritization against a backdrop of financing and capacity constraints. This paper presents some key considerations and examples of tradeoffs and complementarities across policies to address food insecurity. Key findings include (1) Fiscal policies focused on social assistance and efficient public infrastructure investment can improve poorer households’ access to affordable food, facilitate expansion of climate-resilient and green agricultural production, and support quicker recovery from adverse climate events; (2) Improving access to finance is key to stepping up private investment in agricultural resilience and productivity as well as improving the earning capacity and food purchasing power of poorer rural and urban households; and (3) Greater regional trade integration, complemented with resilient transport infrastructure, enables sales of one country’s bumper harvests to its neighbors’ facing shortages. The international community can help with financial assistance—especially for the above-mentioned social assistance and key infrastructure areas—capacity development, and facilitating transfers of technology and know-how.