On 27 September, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced that a new US$14bn programme was being planned to tackle the emerging food crisis in the Asia-Pacific region
With a primary focus on sectors such as farm inputs, food production, and distribution, the programme aims to boost long-term food security through new and existing projects in these sectors. “We need to act now, before the impacts of climate change worsen and further erode the region’s hard-won development gains,” said ADB president, Masatsugu Asakawa, in a report published by GMA News Online.
The programme will be targeted towards vulnerable people, especially women and will also cover social protection, irrigation and water resources management. At a virtual briefing, Asakawa mentioned that the ADB had adopted three strategies to build ‘stronger, more sustainable, and equitable’ food systems. These include: scaling up climate mitigation and adaptation investments across the food and agriculture value chain, digital transformation initiatives to improve production, and nature-based solutions to develop financial instruments.
Assistance under the programme is set to begin this year and continue through 2025. ADB is also willing to leverage an additional US$5bn for food security in private sector co-financing.
