LUSAKA, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- The World Bank on Wednesday called for increased investment in climate resilience technologies especially in African countries.

World Bank Vice President for Africa Hafez Ghanem, who is in Zambia on a three-day state visit, said it was imperative to increase investment in climate resilience technologies as Africa was bearing the brunt of the effects of climate change.

Speaking when he met Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe, the visiting World Bank official said investment in climate resilience was vital because climate change was a threat to the agricultural sector and food security in Africa.

The bank, he said, was supporting Zambia in implementation of various projects through a 1.2 billion U.S. dollars concessional loan under the International Development Assistance (IDA) portfolio.

He said the IDA 18 portfolio, which has been running for the past one-and-half years now has mainly focused on women and girl empowerment, improvement of the health sector as well as supporting increased access to electricity.

Meanwhile, the official said the IDA mid-term review meeting to be held in Zambia's southern city of Livingstone next month is meant to review the progress made under the IDA 18 portfolio during the period it has been running.

On her part, the Zambian minister thanked the World Bank for its continued support to the country's development.

She said the projects being supported by the Word Bank trough concessional funding were key to Zambia's development aspirations.