The World Bank announced the disbursement of $60 million to support agricultural resilience in six African countries. Beneficiaries are Senegal, Mali, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Zambia.

The initiative aligns with the institution’s ambitions expressed during the 2019 Climate Action summit. The World Bank promised to support food security research in Africa based on climate-smart agricultural technologies. The challenge is to enable farmers and breeders to benefit from innovative techniques to better anticipate climatic events and reduce impacts on yields.

Agriculture is a main economic driver in many African countries and several projects are being developed to support the sector, which contributes 15% to the African GDP. Despite this real potential, the continent faces tough challenges (climate change included) that hinder its development. The increase in temperatures and the decline in water reserves, coupled with the loss in biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystems are driving down agricultural outputs.

The World Bank also announced that over the next five years, an average of 35% of its financing will have positive repercussions for the climate. Over the past five years, the target was 28% of financing. 

As a reminder, the Maputo Agreements of 2003 recommended that States devote at least 10% of their budget to agriculture. But this recommendation is followed by very few countries.

Vanessa Ngono Atangana