Washington, Apr 19 (IANS): Three out of five people in developing countries lack effective social safety net coverage as they struggle to forge ahead through global financial volatility and food and fuel price hikes, the World Bank said.

"If you wait until crisis to put the social safety net in place, it's too late," said the World Bank president Robert Zoellick, ahead of the Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank scheduled to kick off April 20.

"We are living in a very uncertain world. In 2007 when I came here most people didn't expect food crisis, then fuel crisis, then financial crisis. If you don't prepare, it is the vulnerable that suffer the most."

Zoellick also noted that expanding cost-effective safety nets can transform people's lives and provide a foundation for inclusive growth without busting budgets, and it can also overcome poverty and promote economic opportunity and gender equality, reported Xinhua.