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Africa cannot blame the current\u00a0Russia-Ukraine\u00a0war as the cause of hunger on the continent, Ghana\u2019s former president John Mahama has said.
Mahama\u2019s comment comes after the\u00a0World Bank\u00a0said the world is facing a \u201chuman catastrophe\u201d from a food crisis arising from\u00a0Russia\u2019s invasion\u00a0of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they say there is a Russia-Ukraine war that is going to create hunger in Africa, it\u2019s crazy. With the kind of land, water and sunlight we have here, why would the Ukraine war be a problem for us,\u201d Mahama told Uganda-based\u00a0NBS Television.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery country and every continent must take advantage in respect of what it\u2019s comparatively good at.We must leverage our comparative advantage. We have sunlight, water, arable lands, and natural resources. That\u2019s what God blessed us with,\u201d he told host Samson Kasumba. In an interview with BBC economics editor Faisal Islam, Malpass, who leads the institution charged with global alleviation of poverty, warned that record rises in food prices would push hundreds of millions people into poverty and lower nutrition, if the crisis continues.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a human catastrophe, meaning nutrition goes down. But then it also becomes a political challenge for governments who can\u2019t do anything about it, they didn\u2019t cause it and they see the prices going up,\u201d he said on the sidelines of the\u00a0IMF-World Bank meetings in Washington.<\/p>\n The World Bank calculates there could be a \u201chuge\u201d 37% increase in food prices, which is \u201cmagnified for [the] poor\u201d, who will \u201ceat less and have less money for anything else such as schooling. And so that means that it\u2019s really an unfair kind of crisis. It hits the poorest the hardest. That was true also of COVID\u201d.<\/p>\n The price rises are broad and deep, he said: \u201cit\u2019s affecting food of all different kinds oils, grains, and then it gets into other crops, corn crops, because they go up when wheat goes up\u201d.<\/p>\n There was enough food in the world to feed everybody, he said, and global stockpiles are large by historical standards, but there will have to be a sharing or sales process to get the food to where it is needed.<\/p>\n Malpass also discouraged countries from subsidising production or capping prices.<\/p>\n Instead, he said, the focus needed to be on increasing supplies across the world of fertilisers and food, alongside targeted assistance for the very poorest people.<\/p>\n The World Bank chief also warned of a knock on \u201ccrisis within a crisis\u201d arising from the inability of developing countries to service their large pandemic debts, amid rising food and energy prices.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a very real prospect. It\u2019s happening for some countries, we don\u2019t know how far it\u2019ll go. As many as 60% of the poorest countries right now are either in debt distress or at high risk of being in debt distress,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to be worried about a debt crisis, the best thing to do is to start early to act early on finding ways to reduce the debt burden for countries that are on have unsustainable debt, the longer you put it off, the worse it is,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Featured Video\n<\/p>\n
Warning<\/em>
The world is facing a \u201chuman catastrophe\u201d from a food crisis arising from\u00a0Russia\u2019s invasion\u00a0of Ukraine, according to the President of the World Bank,\u00a0David Malpass.<\/p>\n\n
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