Food security: EU to step up its support to African, Caribbean and Pacific countries in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine

The European Commission adopted a proposal to mobilize €600 million from the reserves of the European Development Fund to address the current food security crisis aggravated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. These funds will support African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries to cope with the dire situation, through humanitarian assistance (€150 million), sustainable production and resilience of food systems (€350 million), and macro-economic support (€100 million).

Announcing the new support measure at the 2022 European Development Days in Brussels, President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said:

“Russia’s war of aggression is taking a heavy and senseless toll, not only on the Ukrainian population but also on those most vulnerable around the world. Russia is still blocking millions of tonnes of desperately needed grain. To help our partners we will mobilize an additional 600 million euros to avoid a food crisis and an economic shock.”

Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, said: “Solidarity is at the core of our European Union values. The most vulnerable are facing tremendous suffering with a worsened food crisis following Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. With these additional €600 million, we will strengthen our support to address the crisis, while contributing to sustainable and resilient food systems.”

Support orientations

The Commission proposes to direct the €600 million mobilized from the European Development Fund reserves to support the most affected African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries. This will address different dimensions of the crisis by sustaining:

• Humanitarian assistance: €150 million for cash assistance whenever appropriate and where possible, support through existing social protection and safety net mechanisms.
• Food production and resilience of food systems: €350 million in the medium to long term to support investments in sustainable production to underpin more resilient food systems, including social sustainability (youth and women).
• Macro-economic support: €100 million for the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PGRT) of the IMF, which will facilitate support to affected countries. EU support to the PRGT is part of a Team Europe approach and the additional contribution is expected to incentivize other donors to contribute as well.

These €600 million to contribute to the EU Global Food Security Response to help tackle the food crisis, comes on top top of already mobilized humanitarian assistance worldwide, and funds from NDICI-Global Europe earmarked for projects on sustainable agriculture, basic nutrition, water, and sanitation, and social safety protection, amounting to over €2 billion in Sub-Saharan Africa and another €1 billion for the Southern Neighbourhood partners, that complement the EU’s Food and Resilience Facility worth €225 million in support of this region. Another €960 million are foreseen under NDICI-Global Europe for Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia until 2024.