The global economic crisis is turning into ''a human and development calamity'', with poorer countries being hit increasingly hard, the IMF and World Bank say.
''The global economy has deteriorated dramatically ... Developing countries face especially serious consequences,'' they said on Sunday. The crisis had already driven more than 50 million people into extreme poverty: ''We must alleviate its impact on developing countries and facilitate their contribution to global recovery.''
How to help the developing world cope with the worst global slump since the 1930s Great Depression was top of the agenda for the joint International Monetary Fund and World Bank Development Committee meeting.
A World Bank-IMF report warned on Friday that the crisis meant up to 90 million more people would remain trapped in extreme poverty this year, while the chronically hungry could top one billion.
African countries were among the most vulnerable in the crisis which had slashed investment and credit flows, jeopardising development gains and poverty reduction.
The head of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka, warned on Sunday that Africa was hit more quickly than expected by the crisis and, even worse, would pick up more slowly when recovery eventually came.
Most had expected problems after about 18 months because Africa was not tightly integrated into the global financial system
But the crisis had hit investment immediately while ''credit flows had almost dried up''.
Mr Kaberuka said, ''My concern [is that] once recovery sets in ... African countries will recover much more slowly.''
The IMF forecasts growth in Africa to plunge to 2 per cent in 2009 from 5.25 per cent in 2008 as exports slump and investment flows shrink.
The IMF-World Bank said member states needed to meet pledges, including commitments made at the London Group of 20 developed and developing countries summit on April 2, to boost resources available for states struggling to cope.
''Given the possibility of a slow recovery, we considered the need to deploy additional resources,'' they said.
World Bank president Robert Zoellick told a news conference after the close of the Development Committee meeting, ''No one knows how long this crisis will last.''
Mr Zoellick warned that it would be extremely difficult to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, which focus on reducing poverty, by 2015.
On Saturday, the World Bank launched a $US55billion ($A77billion) infrastructure investment program designed specifically to help developing countries weather the worst global slump in decades.
At the launch, Mr Zoellick said, ''As developing countries are facing the trials of the global economic crisis, it is vitally important that economic stimulus packages in the developed world are accompanied by support to those that cannot afford multibillion [dollar] bail-outs.''
United States Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the Development Committee earlier, ''A top priority must also be support for the poorest countries.''
He said the US Government was on track to meet a pledge to double development aid to Sub-Saharan Africa by next year and would increase other help ''to vulnerable populations ... so that we can give people the tools they need to lift themselves out of poverty''.
Brazil told the Development Committee meeting that a temporary increase in aid ''cannot be an option'' and attacked the idea free-market capitalism was the only answer to the problems.
Brazil's Finance Minister, Guido Mantega, said, ''We need to free the world [of] pervasive economic dogmas presented for many years as absolute truths.''
Steps to limit downturns ''must not be adopted only when a crisis is under way. Applied in advance by all ... they could be an effective protection against future crisis.''
The 185-member IMF and sister institution the World Bank met under tight security at their headquarters just blocks from the White House in Washington.
Last week the IMF sharply downgraded growth forecasts, saying it now saw the global economy contracting 1.3 per cent this year before returning to growth of 1.9 per cent in 2010. AFP
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