More than 400,000 Cameroonians Receive World Bank Support to Mitigate Impacts of Food and Nutrition Insecurity

WASHINGTON – The World Bank approved today a credit from the International Development Associated (IDA)* in the amount of $100 million, of which $50 million is from the Crisis Response Window, to support Cameroon’s efforts to strengthen food and nutrition security and increase resilience to climate shocks of targeted households and producers.

The project will benefit more than 260,000 food insecure and vulnerable people and 159,000 farmers, pastoralists and fishermen from crisis affected communities based in the Far North, North, Northwest, Southwest, Adamawa, and East regions. In addition, the project will help increase productivity and access to markets in the agriculture, livestock, and fisheries sector.

“We know that agriculture plays a key role in Cameroon’s employment and employs nearly 43% of the workforce. But with the current climate conditions, about 2 million people, 9 percent of Cameroon’s population, are living in drought-affected areas, which means that about 8 percent of GDP contribution from agricultural production is compromised annually,” said Abdoulaye Seck, World Bank Country Director for Cameroon. “In this context, it is also important that we focus on activities that will maximize our impact and think of activities that will be anchored in a complementary way where beneficiaries will progressively graduate to resilience-building activities.”

The Emergency Project to Combat the Food Crisis in Cameroon, seeks specifically to (i) support early shock-response food and nutrition stabilization; (ii) strengthen climate smart production of smallholders; and (iii) support the Government’s food security crisis monitoring and coordination capacity including through innovative digital and information systems. The project aims to build long-term economic, climate, and community resilience.

* The World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), established in 1960, helps the world’s poorest countries by providing grants and low to zero-interest loans for projects and programs that boost economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve poor people’s lives. IDA is one of the largest sources of assistance for the world’s 76 poorest countries, 39 of which are in Africa. Resources from IDA bring positive change to the 1.6 billion people who live in IDA countries. Since 1960, IDA has supported development work in 113 countries. Annual commitments have averaged about $21 billion over the last three years, with about 61 percent going to Africa.