Islamic Development Bank allocates $1.5bn to meet food crisis in member countries

This was announced in the presence of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, by Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohamed Al-Khalifa, IDB chairman of the Board of Governors and finance minister of Bahrain.

"A financial package of $1.5bn will be allocated to help provide food security in member countries," Sheikh Ahmed said while addressing the opening session of the IDB 33rd Annual Meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The program, which will go over a 5-year period, known as Jeddah Declaration, is targeting needy countries in particular in various short term programs that include helping in building strategic inventory of food security, provide agricultural inputs, pesticides, fertilizers to help countries in the coming agricultural season, help provide fodder, agricultural machinery and equipments.

For the medium and long term, the program will work towards identifying projects that will enhance agricultural development in member countries through cooperation between public and private sectors, assess current projects to help them be more effective and support research institutes in the field of agriculture.

The program will also encourage partnership between member countries with private sector inside and outside those countries as well as with other regional and international development institutions.

The bulk of financing, or $1.05bn will come from IDB itself in form of grants and soft financing.

IDB affiliates, the Islamic Corporation for the Development of Private Sector (ICD) and the International Islamic Trade Finance Corp.

(ITFC) providing $200m and $250m respectively in areas related to their activities.

The program will be carried out under the umbrella of the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD), launched last year

The list of countries that will be targeted include: Afghanistan, Bangladesh. Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kyrgyz Republic, Maldives Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Mozambique, Palestine, Senegal, Sierra Leon, Somalia, Sudan, Tajikistan, Togo, Uganda and Yemen.

IDB is a development institution established back in 1975 with an authorized capital of 30 billion Islamic dinars ($46bn) to promote economic development and cooperation between its member states.

Last year it approved 183 development projects amounting to $2.7bn funding, and trade financing of $2.8bn for 82 trade operations.

Projects and technical assistance received a $2.1bn funding.