ON the eve of a UN-sponsored summit in Spain on the global food crisis, the World Bank said millions around the world continue to suffer from volatility in food prices.

Representatives from 95 countries gather in Spain today for a two-day follow-up meeting to the UN-sponsored summit held last year in Rome to tackle the global food crisis.

The international community needs to increase efforts to help the poor of the world, World Bank Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said.

"Food prices are now volatile and that factor, combined with the impact of the financial crisis, only serves to heighten the challenges confronting the developing world," Okonjo-Iweala said.

Bank economists "expect high price volatility to continue and it will hit the poorest the most, as they spend half their income on food," she said. "More needs to be done as we must ensure those who are vulnerable get the assistance they need."

Okonjo-Iweala is leading the World Bank's delegation to the meeting in Madrid.

Member states of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization agreed at the summit in Rome to reduce the number of people who live in hunger by 2015, but this goal is accompanied by limited financial donations.

Over the past seven months, the World Bank, "through its Global Food Crisis Response Program, reached over 13 million people directly through food distribution systems, cash for work initiatives, and seed and fertilizer distribution to small holder farmers," the statement read.

The World Bank said it was "disturbing" that poor countries, "especially in Africa, didn't have matching drops in their food prices."

They gave as an example maize prices dropping 32 per cent over the past quarter, but dropping only by 1 per cent in Mombasa, Kenya.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will preside over the closure of the Madrid conference, which is expected to end with a statement outlining specific measures to be adopted to fight hunger around the world.

The World Bank worked with UN agencies to help the world's neediest when food prices soared in 2008, the statement said.