World Bank to provide up to $600m for global food nutrition projects

The World Bank has hinted of increasing its finances to support maternal and early childhood nutrition programmes in developing countries.

The Bank is increasing the financing scale from $230 million to $600 million for those programmes in 2013 and 2014.

“An estimated 90% of this new funding ($540 million) will come from the International Development Association (IDA),” the World Bank said June 6, 2013 in a statement ahead of the Nutrition for Growth High-Level Event for the G-8 Summit in London.

The Bank explained that the projected increment in financing is in addition to “nutrition-sensitive investments the Bank Group is making in other sectors beyond health, such as agriculture, education, social protection, and water and sanitation”.

According to Dr. Jim Yong Kim, President of World Bank, 165 million children under age five globally are stunted as a result of malnutrition.

“This is the face of poverty,” Dr Kim added.

By Dorcas Appiah