Emergency help for countries hit by food crisis
Updated
The World Bank has endorsed what it says is a new deal for global food policy.
At its spring meeting in Washington, the bank's president, Robert Zoellick, said emergency help would be given to a number of countries.
That includes an additional $US10 million to Haiti, where a number of people have been killed in food riots.
Loans to African farmers will also be doubled by next year.
Marcus Prior, from the UN World Food Programme for eastern central Africa, says hunger has entered a new phase.
"In a number of countries across the continent in recent months we've seen people on the streets protesting the rising cost of living and in particularly the cost of basic foods.
"We're seeing a new face of hunger - we're seeing people who previously could afford food, could afford to put three meals on the table for themselves and their family, now seeing food on the shelves but not being able to afford it," he said.
