The US has urged the World Bank to announce a global crisis fund for nations affected with displacement, pandemics or natural disasters at the UN General Assembly by September.
The call was made by Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew at the joint World Bank-IMF Development Committee talks in Washington this week.
The fund, which will be called Global Crisis Response Platform, would bring together both the World Bank’s existing financing instruments and the UN’s newly developed mechanisms, he explained.
“We urge the World Bank to present the Platform at the UN General Assembly this September,” Lew said. He noted that the initiative would fill a “gap” between the international community’s humanitarian response capabilities and the work of development institutions on the refugee crisis in Syria. ”With no permanent home, these marginalised populations lack access to the essential services and opportunities needed to sustain their livelihoods,” he said.
