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The food security crisis shows no signs of abating — but the U.S. Agency for International Development has announced that it will throw money at the problem while calling out China.
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In today’s edition: We’ve also got an exclusive story about Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, welcoming new countries, and why Bill Gates dropped a notch on the global rich list.
USAID Administrator Samantha Power announced a “surge” of nearly $1.2 billion in funding for global food security Monday that will be programmed into the current fiscal year. Additionally, USAID will give $200 million to UNICEF for child malnutrition, she said. The agency is also aiming to operationalize $90 million for development assistance in the Horn of Africa, pending U.S. Congressional approval, which will come from the $760 million fund already approved to help with the Ukraine crisis.
My colleague Adva Saldinger reports that Power called out China, urging Beijing to scale up its funding, sign onto a U.S.-backed road map for food security launched in May, and demonstrate “the country’s desire to be a global leader and a friend to the world’s least developed economies.” She contrasted the $3.9 billion Washington has given to the World Food Programme in 2022 with what she said was just $3 million from China.
Power’s speech came just days after a group of U.S. senators piled pressure on USAID to move more quickly on the global food crisis and get approved funding out the door, according to The Washington Post.
Despite the accusations of slow-walking the money she has, after her speech Power took to Twitter to promote a new GoFundMe campaign, to raise money for charities and U.N. agencies working on the food crisis.
Meanwhile, on Monday afternoon, the U.N. General Assembly held a session attempting to coordinate a global response to the food crisis, with a warning that the world has fallen behind on its food security goals — and that the situation in Ukraine will only make it harder to catch up.
“Despair solves nothing,” said General Assembly head Abdulla Shahid, presumably hoping to spur delegates into action.
Rebeca Grynspan, the head of UNCTAD, cautioned that a wave of social unrest could be on the horizon. She echoed Larry Fink, the head of the world’s largest money manager, BlackRock, who last week said the food crisis makes him nervous. “The one thing I worry about that we don’t talk enough about is food," Fink said. "There are also geopolitical concerns that result from this.”
Read: USAID's Power unveils over $1B for global food crisis, calls on others
ICYMI: Healthy diet costs are skyrocketing, reversing gains
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Ups and downs
Lebanon and Venezuela are now eligible to receive support from Gavi for their immunization programs, according to an exclusive report by my colleague Jenny Lei Ravelo. This could mean vaccine financing support, technical assistance, and access to doses at Gavi-negotiated prices.
In late 2020, Gavi approved a new program to help middle-income countries prevent backsliding on vaccine coverage, especially for children. More than a dozen countries have now become eligible for support.
Lebanon was recently reclassified by the World Bank as lower-middle-income due to its current economic crisis, which has seen gross national income drop 37% since last year. Venezuela, on the other hand, remains a bit of an economic mystery — it was once ranked as upper-middle-income, but a lack of data since 2021 has rendered it unclassifiable.
Exclusive: Lebanon, Venezuela now eligible for Gavi support
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Crude reality
The FSO Safer, a supertanker-turned-floating storage and offloading facility in the Red Sea, could cause an oil spill four times greater than the historic Exxon Valdez disaster — but as of last week, the U.N. says it’s still $20 million short of the $80 million needed to prevent a catastrophe. The damage when the Safer — abandoned off the coast of Yemen due to the ongoing war there — inevitably starts leaking the 1.14 million barrels of light crude it carries could cost as much as $20 billion to repair.
The math should be a no-brainer. But my colleague Vince Chadwick interviewed the U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, David Gressly, who said: “Prevention is much harder to get funding for.”
The lack of urgency is more shocking given that the oil spill could hit any country in the region, as it would depend on seasonal currents. Saudi Arabia, located along the Red Sea itself, has pledged $10 million to the fund so far, while the EU and Germany have offered a combined $11.4 million.
Wanted: $20M to stop environmental catastrophe in the Red Sea
Less is more
When I was a kid, the makers of Monopoly put out a board game called “Go for Broke” in which “you win by losing a million.” Well, no one is going broke here, but Bill Gates is succeeding at moving down the list of the world’s richest people.
Last week, my colleague Stephanie Beasley reported on the former Microsoft chief’s $20 billion gift to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s endowment as part of an effort to give more money annually. And this means, according to Forbes, that he’s now been replaced as the fourth richest person in the world by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, who tops the list of Asia’s wealthiest people.
Adani himself has been making some charitable pledges, announcing a recent $7.7 billion transfer to his family foundation.
From Devex World 2022: With trust-based philanthropy, donors 'don’t need to have the answer'
(Pro)
In other news
U.N. chief António Guterres told world leaders on Monday that not taking action against the climate crisis is “collective suicide.” [The Guardian]
Staple food prices are getting political in Kenya ahead of elections next month. [Thomson Reuters Foundation]
Sri Lanka’s acting president has declared a state of emergency ahead of a vote to install a new leader. [VOA]
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About the author
Shabtai Gold
Shabtai Gold is a Senior Reporter based in Washington. He covers multilateral development banks, with a focus on the World Bank, along with trends in development finance. Prior to Devex, he worked for the German Press Agency, dpa, for more than a decade, with stints in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, before relocating to Washington to cover politics and business.
