Rockefeller Foundation’s Shah Sees ‘Massive’ Global Food Crisis

(Bloomberg) -- Rockefeller Foundation President Rajiv Shah called for debt relief and emergency aid to poorer nations to avert a “massive, immediate food crisis” emerging in poorer nations following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The war has put at risk exports of wheat, corn, sunflower oil and other foods from Russia and Ukraine that account for more than 10% of all calories traded globally, driving up food prices in low-income countries that are already reeling from pandemic damage to their economies.

The U.S. should lead efforts to “fully fund” the United Nations World Food Programme and pre-position emergency food supplies in countries expected to face food shortages in the next six months, Shah, a former U.S. Agency for International Development administrator during the Obama administration, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Balance of Power With David Westin.”

“These strategies have been done before and have worked in the past,” Shah said.

Disruptions in global fertilizer supplies caused by the war will have an “even worse” impact on global hunger, cutting crop yields in Africa and other parts of the developing world, he said.

Shah also called for debt relief for struggling nations so they can purchase fertilizer and food for their people with “money that would otherwise go to creditors in the rich world, including the World Bank.”

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