ADB president Masatsugu Asakawa stated during an online press conference on Tuesday that the Asia-Pacific region is now facing numerous challenges, such as monetary tightening, currency depreciation and severe food insecurity. Food insecurity, according to Asakawa, is the most worrying of these challenges because it affects all countries, rich and poor. Therefore, the ADB has decided to increase its assistance funding for food security in the region, where nearly 1.1 billion people lack healthy diets due to poverty and rising food prices this year. Existing and new projects in farm inputs, food production and distribution, social protection, irrigation, and water resource management, as well as projects leveraging nature-based solutions, will receive funding, the ADB president said. Meanwhile, the ADB will continue to invest in other food security-related activities such as energy transition, transportation, access to rural finance, environmental management, health and education.
