A farmer stands amidst a rice farm in Burundi, Africa. Photo taken from International Rice Research Institute’s flickr photostream used under a creative commons license.

This week in development…

• The International Finance Corporation released its 2014 annual report, in which they inform that they have provided a record amount of financing for the world’s poorest countries last year: $8.5 billion. These funds served to support more than 300 projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and Europe.

• Sierra Leone began a three day lockdown to enable health workers to find and isolate cases of Ebola. A team of almost 30,000 people is going from house to house to detect possible cases of Ebola and to distribute soap.

• The World Food Programme partnered with other local organizations to distribute food assistance for people affected by the conflict in East Ukraine since September. The WFP plans to expand the operation to reach 10,000 displaced people by Mid-October, and to feed 120,000 people over the next six months at a cost of US$15 million.  The assistance marks the first response of WFP to the crisis in Ukraine.

• According to the latest Food and Agriculture Organization hunger report, the number of people experiencing hunger declined by more than 100 million people from 2012-2014. The hunger eradication target demonstrated by the Millennium Development Goal—halving the proportion of undernourished people by 2015 is achievable. The report states that maintain political stability, with top priorities on food security and nutrition is a prerequisite for hunger eradication.

• The UNHCR held the first Global Forum on Statelessness this week, laying the groundwork for the launch of a global campaign to end statelessness in early November.  “For most of us, it is simply inconceivable to be without a nationality, yet many children are being born unregistered and stateless every year across the world and the future for these children could be very grim indeed unless we all act to stop this,” as explained by Volker Türk, UNHCR’s director of international protection.

• The Government of the Republic of Burundi and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) signed a $1 million grant agreement on September 19, aiming to bolster food security and rural development in two target areas of the mountainous country. The Burundi National Programme for Food Security and Rural Development is funded by IFAD, the OPEC Fund for International Development, and the Government of Burundi, and will focus on the establishment and reinforcement of hydro-agricultural infrastructure as well as bolstering institutional capacity along entire value chains and production diversification for smallholders and farmer co-ops.