UN fund seeks big budget boost to tackle climate fallout
Paris: A major spending boost is needed to bolster agriculture in the fight against hunger, poverty, and other consequences of climate change, the head of the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development told AFP.
“We are seeking a 1.7 billion dollar contribution,” from member states to cover 2022 to 2024, IFAD president Gilbert Houngbo told AFP on Monday.
“The needs have considerably increased,” with the rise in hunger around the world, he added, explaining what would amount to a 54 percent jump in the budget for the UN agency tackling poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries.
“This leads us to launch an appeal which is all the more exceptional because of the growing challenges linked to the climate,” the former Togolese prime minister said in a telephone interview.
The appeal would be made at the fund’s board meeting in Rome this week. - AFP