The African Development Bank (AfDB) has launched a $5.1 billion Global Energy and Fertilizer Crisis Response Framework (GEFCRF) to mitigate the energy and fertiliser crises bedevilling African countries and farmers.

The Middle East conflict, the AfDB said, triggered global inflation and rising food and fertiliser prices, commodities that many African countries heavily rely on imports to meet their needs.

“The Bank’s new Global Energy and Fertilizer Crisis Response Framework gives us a way to respond to the pressures African farmers are facing as the conflict in the Middle East disrupts global trade,” Martin Fregene, officer in charge vice president for the agriculture, human and social Development, said in a statement on Tuesday. 

The Framework, approved on September 1, and scheduled to run for an initial period of one year will provide $4.1 billion in additional AfDB lending and $960 million from the African Development Fund, raising the Bank’s 2026 lending target to about $12.7 billion.

The GEFCRF seeks to stabilise macroeconomic conditions, secure critical food, energy and fertiliser supply systems, protect essential spending and vulnerable households and sustain reforms for medium to long-term resilience building.

“This framework is about listening and responding to the urgent needs of African countries, helping them protect households and vulnerable populations, keep food, fertilizer and energy systems functioning, and preserve hard-won development gains while building greater resilience for the future,” Abdul Kamara, acting vice president for country and regional operations said. “A crisis response must do more than cushion the shock. It must make countries stronger. That is exactly what this framework aims to achieve.”