YOKOHAMA — Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda pledged Thursday $50 million in additional aid for Africa to deal with soaring food prices and the World Bank and three U.N. food-related organizations renewed their commitment to address food shortages and high food prices on the continent.
On the second day of the three-day Tokyo International Conference on African Development being held in Yokohama, Fukuda told a meeting of the four organizations that Japan's aid will help the agricultural sector and that he will attend the Food and Agriculture Organization's meeting in Rome in June to discuss the food crisis.
"Record high prices of (oil and food) are a painful pinch for consumers all over the world, and for those who are living (on) less than $1 a day, it's devastating," World Food Program Executive Director Josette Sheeran said at a news conference after the joint meeting of the World Bank, WFP, FAO and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.