Russia’s attack on Ukraine is creating a global food crisis, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said during a meeting on food insecurity with representatives from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the World Bank.
“The war has made an already dire situation worse. Price and supply shocks are already materializing, adding to global inflationary pressures, creating risks to external balances, and undermining the recovery from the pandemic,” Yellen said.
“I want to be clear: Russia’s actions are responsible for this. But the United States is urgently working with our partners and allies to help mitigate the effects of Russia’s reckless war on the world’s most vulnerable,” she said.
Even as Washington escalates sanctions against Russia, she said, it is also acting to ensure that the world has enough agricultural commodities along with basic foodstuffs.
The meeting was planned with three objectives in mind, Yellen said. First, to understand the factors driving global food insecurity. The destruction of Ukraine’s economy and infrastructure by Russia is a “key factor” affecting commodity prices worldwide. These actions could result in 10 million people from sub-Saharan Africa being pushed into poverty due to rising food prices.
The second involves applying “valuable lessons” learned from previous food crises to the current scenario. Yellen highlighted how the leading industrial nations of the G-20 launched the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program in response to the food crisis in 2008. That program sought to boost investment in the poorest nations as well as develop an agricultural market information system.
The third step is about how international financial institutions (IFIs) can take concrete actions for an “effective response.” IFIs can make use of analytical tools to evaluate macroeconomic impacts of the Russia–Ukraine war as well as assess the specific needs of affected nations. Moreover, they can help in smoothing out the supply chain crisis, mitigate fertilizer shortage, boost domestic food production, and so on, Yellen stated.
“We will coordinate with IFIs and donors and look to them to step up humanitarian assistance and grants for the hardest-hit low‑income countries. And we will deploy the new Resilience and Sustainability Trust to help countries adapt agriculture to a world of more frequent and severe climate shocks,” Georgieva said.