DHAKA, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Bangladeshi caretaker government finance adviser Mirza Azizul Islam Tuesday slammed international lenders, including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), for "not doing anything" to help ease the food crisis.

    "Food costs are on the rise and Bangladesh and many other countries are in trouble. Our government is having a hard time coping with the burden of ever-increasing subsidies on food as the prices are climbing in the international market," the adviser told a seminar held here and was quoted by private news agency bdnews24.com.

    "The World Bank and IMF are expressing concern over the crisis, but they are not doing anything to ease the problem," he said at the seminar on "social protection as a strategy in transformative social policy," organized by United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

    Policymakers from eight countries in South Asia joined the three-day gathering from Tuesday to examine the role social protection can play in reducing poverty and inequalities in the region.

    The finance adviser said that donor agencies talked at length about their concern over the global food crisis but did not provide poor countries like Bangladesh with any help to overcome the crisis.

    He added that the "so-called development agencies" did not come up with any mentionable assistance to countries facing natural disasters caused by climate change.

    The adviser said he hoped these agencies would lend a hand to developing nations soon to overcome food crisis.