African Aid Programs To Be Consolidated Into Single Action Plan

All the commitments made by both donors and African countries to lift the continent out of poverty will be consolidated into one action plan and monitored on an annual basis, The Guardian (UK) reports the Department for International Development said Wednesday.

           
The leading Group of Eight nations have pledged universal access to HIV treatment by 2010. There has also been a commitment to set a date for the ending of export subsidies, which will give poor countries a fairer trading environment with the west. Anti-malarial drugs and treated mosquito nets will be available to 85 percent of Africans vulnerable to malaria by 2015. Meanwhile, African nations have pledged to undergo a review of democratic processes once every two years. All of these promises will be consolidated into an action plan that will be reviewed annually. The action plan will be formulated by next April and the first annual review will be in October, the DfID said.

           
BBC News Online further reports that the plan was agreed at the Africa Partnership Forum. Members met in London to discuss how to ensure pledges made for improving the continent are met. A support unit, based at the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, will be created to help with the [monitoring] task.

           
On whether the forum would sanction those who did not fulfill their promises, the UK's International Development Secretary Hilary Benn said: "It's not a question of compelling or censuring. It's each of us taking on the responsibility to do the things that we said we were going to do. "In the end, what will call all of us to account is pressure from within our own countries, the normal operation of democracy, the cut and thrust of politics." The Africa Partnership Forum involves representatives of the G8, OECD, African Union, the New Partnership for Africa's Development and international institutions like the UN, World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Climate Change And Pollution Are Killing Millions, Says Study

Almost a fifth of all ill health in poor countries and millions of deaths can be attributed to environmental factors, including climate change and pollution, according to a report from the World Bank, reports The Guardian (UK).

           
Unsafe water, poor sanitation and hygiene as well as indoor and outdoor air pollution are all said to be killing people and preventing economic development. In addition, says the Bank, increasing soil pollution, pesticides, hazardous waste and chemicals in food are significantly affecting health and economies.

           
More controversially, the report, released yesterday in New York, links cancers to environmental conditions and says global warming has a major impact on health. "For almost all forms of cancer, the risk of contracting this disease can be reduced if physical environments are safe for human habitation and food items are safe for consumption," says the report. It also cites the spread of malaria and dengue fever as climate change intensifies. Global warming, says the report, is leading to lower yields of some crops and the salination of coastal areas.

           
While tobacco, alcohol and unsafe sex are still the most likely threats to health in developing countries, rapid urbanization and the spread of slum conditions are now major hazards, says the report. "Some 1.1 billion people lack access to safe water and 2.6 billion lack access to safe sanitation. [This leads to] about 4 billion cases of diarrhea a year, which cause 1.8 million deaths a year, mostly among children under five," it says. Sanitation, says the Bank, which is committed to increasing spending on the environment, is very much "a forgotten problem," with spending on improvements estimated at just $1billion in 2000 - less than 10 percent of that spent on water.

           
Millions of people who have moved to cities to find work have swapped indoor for outdoor air pollution, suggests the report. Urban air pollution is estimated to cause about 800,000 premature deaths, it says, approaching the number of people affected by indoor air pollution from wood fires in poorly ventilated homes in rural areas. According to the report, which uses World Health Organization statistics, high concentrations of minute particles released by smoky fires are now responsible for over 1.6 million deaths a year. Acute respiratory infection, largely caused by indoor air pollution, it says, was responsible for 36 percent of all registered infant deaths in Guatemala between 1997 and 2000.

           
The report also says manmade chemicals such as pesticides have an increasing impact on the health of poor people. A survey of child labor in several developing countries, it says, found more than 60 percent of all working children were exposed to hazardous conditions, and more than 25 percent of these hazards were due to exposure to chemicals. "Without a healthy, productive labor force, we will not have the economic growth that is necessary to ensure a pathway out of poverty. Poor people are the first to suffer from a polluted environment," said Warren Evans, Director of the Bank's environment department.

International Migrants Send About $240 Billion Home, Commission Says

International migrants send about $240 billion to their home countries yearly, a significant engine of growth for the world economy, the Global Commission on International Migration said Wednesday, reports The Associated Press. The 19-member independent panel said in the report that world governments have failed to take advantage of the enormous opportunities that result from such migration or to manage the challenges posed by the foreigners' arrival.

           
The clearest finding from the commission's nearly two-year study is "the great importance in (economic) growth terms and development terms that is created out of migration" said Jan Karlsson, Sweden's former minister for migration and development who co-chaired the panel. Manphele Ramphele, the World Bank's former managing director, said the 200 million migrants are generating enormous revenues for their home countries by sending remittances to their families. "The latest figures from the World Bank show that it's even more than what we have in the report which is $150 billion -- they're (now) talking about $240 billion," she told a news conference. "If you think about migrants sending home, let's say 10 percent of their income, we're talking about them generating at least $2 trillion that gets added to the value of GDP of the countries where they are, and overall enhancing global development," Ramphele said. According to the report, the US was the top remittance-sending country in 2001, dispatching $28 billion overseas.

           
Reuters further writes that the commission's main recommendation was to create a new grouping with the task of bringing together heads of organizations involved in migration, such as the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization of Migration, and coordinating worldwide immigration policies. Another proposal was for rich and poor nations to develop temporary fixed-term migration programs for foreign workers under agreed conditions. Even though this might appear as second-class status for the immigrants, it would make more sense than the current uncoordinated approach, the report said.

           
Ramphele told a news conference that debt relief and fairer trade policies would make staying home more attractive so people "need not jump into the Mediterranean to get better job opportunities." But the sensitivity of the subject was apparent in the report, which gave few detailed examples of how governments handled or mistreated migrants. The report noted that the economies of many industrial countries, especially those with a low birth rate, would collapse without foreign nurses, computer engineers or farm workers. "If information percolated throughout economies, people would stop moaning about migrants taking away work," said Ramphele.

           
Meanwhile, writing in an opinion piece in The Financial Times, Jagdish Bhagwati, Professor at Columbia University and Director of the Program on Migration and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, argues that there is a need for a new international architecture addressing the international flows of humanity in the shape of a World Migration Organization (WMO). Evidently, the issues need an overarching view. The Report of the Global Commission on International Migration (…) seeks to do just that. Regrettably (…) the resulting analytical weaknesses are only too manifest, Bhagwati argues.

           
There is a lack of clarity in treating the different cases of skilled and unskilled migration and, within the latter, in distinguishing sharply among the source countries, such as India, which treat skilled outflows as an opportunity and those, as in much of Africa, which treat it as a threat. Equally, the report panders to political correctness, is frequently economically illiterate and is queasy in avoiding the idea of an international institutional architecture that puts a new WMO at the core of its vision. The commission has certainly written one more chapter in the debate on global migration policy. But more chapters need to be written if informed policy choices are to be made, concludes Bhagwati.

European Union Considers Doubling Financial Aid To The Palestinians

The European Union, the biggest donor to the Palestinians, is set to ramp up its aid in the wake of the Israeli pullout from the Gaza strip, The Financial Times reports the European Commission said Wednesday. The Brussels body said it was contemplating doubling its aid to the West Bank and Gaza by up to EUR300 million a year. This year the Commission has provided about EUR280 million.

           
However, the Commission said the increase in aid, the details of which will be announced early next year, would depend on progress on the stalled "road map" to Middle East peace and contributions by other donors. In particular, it wants to see reforms to the Palestinian Authority's (PA) security services, as well as Israeli guarantees about border crossings that could end the Palestinians' economic isolation. The Commission's plans also sound a self-critical note, reflecting internal pressures from EU officials who have called for the Union to do more to revive the road map, which sets out a path to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

           
The EU is also dispatching experts to train Palestinian police forces and is in talks with the Israelis and Palestinians about plans to help the PA manage its customs borders. Brussels has been criticized in the past for insufficiently monitoring the PA's use of its funds, which some Israeli politicians allege have been used for terrorism. But the Commission says the management of its aid is much more rigorous than before because money is now channeled through a World Bank trust fund rather than going directly to the PA.

           
The Associated Press further writes that EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner called on other donors to follow suit, telling reporters. She said a hefty rise in aid was needed in the 2006-2008 period to fund reform of the Palestinian civil service, finance election observer missions, rebuild battered air and seaports in the Gaza Strip, help Palestinians find markets for their goods and secure investments. In her report to the 25 EU governments, Ferrero-Waldner sketched out a strategy for the 2006-2008 period that would cover political and economic help to enable the Palestinians put in place a government with credible judicial, taxation and other branches.

           
AFX adds the commission said in a statement that the West Bank and Gaza would need to diversify their markets and lower their dependence on the Israeli economy if their own was to have a sustainable future. The commission's plan is an immediate response to an assessment by the international envoy to the region, James Wolfensohn, that the Palestinian territories would need around $3 billion a year to survive. According to a study by the Rand Corporation, a future Palestinian state would need capital investment of $3.3 billion annually over the first decade of its existence to achieve solid economic growth.

India Faces Severe Water Crisis In 20 Years: World Bank

India will face a severe water crisis in 20 years if the government doesn't change its ways, the World Bank warned Wednesday, reports Agence France Presse. The report says that India has no proper water management system in place, its groundwater is disappearing and river bodies are turning into makeshift sewers.

           
"Estimates reveal that by 2020, India's demand for water will exceed all sources of supply," the report says. With the Indian government unable to provide its citizens a 24-hour supply of water even in the national capital, those who can afford to, have found other ways to turn on the tap. The result is an unregulated system with no incentive to conserve water. "What has happened in the last 20 or 30 years is a shift to self-provision. Every farmer sinks a tube well and every house in Delhi has a pump pumping groundwater. Once that water stops you get into a situation where towns will not be able to function," said John Briscoe, author of the Bank's draft country report on India.

           
The Financial Express (India) writes that the World Bank said the complacency of the Union government over water issues is resulting in "little civil wars" between various stakeholders. It suggested a prioritized, sequenced and pragmatic path be followed to deal with issues concerning availability and usage of scarce water resources. Briscoe said that water was becoming a big issue and [that these] "little civil wars" are going on between states; between different users in a basin; between community and state; between farmers and the environment; between farmers and the city; and between farmers and the command areas. Briscoe attributed the water scarcity in India to complacency on the part of the government. He regretted that not much was being done to prevent excessive exploitation of ground water.

           
The Associated Press also notes that demand for water is increasing rapidly because of India's growing population -- already above 1 billion -- and high economic growth. But increased demand has not been matched by efforts to conserve and better manage water supplies, meaning that the resource is being depleted faster than it can be replenished, Briscoe said. The report predicted that availability of surface and ground water would decline to less than 80 cubic kilometers (2.8 million cubic feet) in 2050, from about 500 cubic kilometers now. "Fifty years, in water management, is a blink of the eye," Briscoe said. "It is an extremely, extremely grave situation." About 15 percent of the country's aquifers are already in critical condition, a number that could increase to 60 percent by 2030, he said. Briscoe said the problem is more serious for some states, such as Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan in northern India and the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

           
The Hindustan Times (India) further adds that World Bank expert said 84 percent of India's irrigation is done by way of ground water. Some of the measures suggested by the World Bank include creating awareness by way of advocacy programs on water conservation, especially in rural areas, and limiting the ground water use by laying down proper rules and regulations. The Bank said the public irrigation departments and water utilities must also be de-monopolized, adding the federal and state governments must seriously consider President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's pet project of interlinking rivers. Additionally, the Bank also warned against economic populism and said people consuming water must pay fair tariff sans any subsidy.

           
The World Bank outlined some of the projects it will fund over the next four years. These include $700 million for rural water sanitation, $100 million for urban water and sanitation and $600 million for hydroelectric projects. In addition, funding will also be provided for information systems, watershed management, infrastructure, irrigation and capacity building at a cost of $400 million, besides $200 million towards rural livelihood programs.

Also In This Edition: Iraqi Parliament Reverses Election Rules; And Briefly Noted...

Iraqi Parliament Reverses Election Rules.Under US and UN pressure, Iraq's Shiite-led parliament Wednesday reversed its last-minute electoral law changes, which would have ensured passage of a new constitution but which the United Nations called unfair, reports The Associated Press. Sunni Arab leaders who had threatened a boycott because of the changes said they were satisfied with the reversal and were now mobilizing to defeat the charter at the polls.

           
The reversal of the election changes passed by parliament over the weekend was a political victory for UN and US officials, boosting chances that Sunnis will see the referendum as fair and participate, thus giving the outcome credibility. Yet that success restored the possibility that Sunnis will manage to veto the constitution, which would prolong Iraq's political instability.

           
Agence France Presse explains that the constitution will now be approved if a simple majority of all those who turn out to vote say "yes" and if two-thirds of voters in at least three provinces do not say "no." The move was approved by 119 of the 147 MPs present. Sunday's change had said two thirds of "registered voters" would be required in three provinces to block the charter, but the new decision has changed this back to read just "voters".

           
Reuters further reports that the Shiite-dominated parliament had, however, added three conditions to its resolution with the overall effect that it asserted its legal right to challenge the outcome of votes in particular regions if it felt voters had been intimidated. Deputy speaker Hussain al-Shahristani said he was particularly concerned about voting in mixed Sunni and Shiite areas, such as around Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, where Sunni Islamist insurgents had threatened violence against people voting in the referendum.

           
 The government, Shahristani said, had agreed to parliament's conditions that security forces be posted to dangerous areas and remain there after the voting to deflect reprisals, and that staff at polling stations be vetted to weed out any who might pass information on voters to the militants. The third condition, he said, was that if parliament felt the vote in an area to have been distorted by violence or threats it would challenge the result in a judicial process overseen by the Independent Electoral Commission.

           
The New York Times adds that some independent political figures called the drama an embarrassment for the fledgling Parliament. Most members appear to have voted Sunday without clearly understanding what they were voting for, and then reversed themselves on the orders of their party leaders , who were themselves taking orders from the United Nations. A United Nations official in Baghdad acknowledged that the organization had made a "very strong statement" to Shiite and Kurdish leaders on Tuesday, telling them the rule change "would have put the UN in a position not to be able to help in the electoral process."

           
Briefly Noted…EFE reports that an aid coalition of seven nations, the World Bank and the European Union said here Wednesday that Nicaragua must preserve the rule of law to ensure continued assistance from the Budget Support Group. The group's coordinator in Managua, Swiss diplomat Jurg Benz, said at a press conference that the rule of law must prevail in a country to justify the aid in the view of taxpayers in donor countries. Benz stressed the recipient's need to have solid macroeconomic policies in place, as well as anti-poverty efforts, free and fair elections, accountability and anti-corruption measures.

Concerned that leftist Sandinistas and right-wing opposition leaders are engaged in a "creeping coup" in Nicaragua, US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick replaced the usual diplomatic niceties this week with an unyielding and blunt message, writes Reuters. President Enrique Bolanos "is democratically elected and for those who think they can remove him, my message is there will be consequences in terms of their relations with the United States and, unfortunately, for Nicaraguans, if democracy is undermined," said Zoellick, on a two-day trip to Managua.

           
BBC News reports a rescue operation is under way in Central America and southern Mexico, where mudslides caused by a tropical storm have killed at least 160 people. Although Tropical Storm Stan has passed, heavy rain is still falling and river levels are dangerously high. The worst affected countries, El Salvador and Guatemala, are struggling to evacuate everyone at risk. Shelters in both countries are holding thousands of people, while road links have been cut off.

           
Xinhua writes the World Bank and Vietnam Thursday signed an agreement for a credit of over $31.7 million slated for reducing the rate of accidents, injuries and deaths associated with road transport in the Vietnam. The money will be used to support Vietnam's Road Safety Project totaling $34.9 million, which is designated to improve infrastructure and institutional development to strengthen safety management, World Bank acting country director, Rakesh Nangia, said at the signing ceremony.

           
Agence France Presse reports that the new UNDP administrator will on Sunday begin a three-day maiden visit to Nigeria during which he will meet President Olusegun Obasanjo, the body said Wednesday. Nigeria is the first country Kemal Dervis will visit since taking over as UNDP administrator and chairman of the UNDP Group August 15, an official statement said. Dervis, a 56-year-old former World Bank vice president, will use the visit to explain his vision for UNDP and discuss the challenges of and opportunities for development in Nigeria and Africa.

           
The East African reports that Uganda can do without IMF support programs, the country's Ministry of Finance officials have said. The officials were reacting last week to an alert by IMF's managing director, Rodrigo de Rato, that Uganda is one of the poor countries that could soon stop getting money from the fund. They said the money the country gets from the fund is negligible compared with that from other donors such as the World Bank. "What we cannot do without at present are the other donors, because they fund programs critical to the economy. Unlike the IMF, if they pulled out of Universal Primary Education, road construction and other areas, we would suffer."

           
BBC News further reports that Zimbabwe's economic decline has worsened, the IMF has said, with inflation set to reach 400 percent by the end of the year. In its 2005 review, the IMF estimated that Zimbabwe's GDP would fall 7 percent this year, a widening of 2004's 4 percent drop. The IMF blames the situation on the growing inflation, foreign exchange shortages and low farm output - and on recent attacks on black market traders. In contrast, the government in Harare predicts the economy will grow in 2005.

           
The Financial Times reports Kofi Annan is expected to call later this month for talks on independence for the UN-administered province of Kosovo. The UN's view on whether Kosovo is ready for independence from Serbia will be based heavily on the report submitted on Tuesday night by Kai Eide, Annan's special envoy to the region. Eide is understood to have recommended imminent negotiations, after heavy, behind the scenes diplomatic pressure to end the stalemate.

           
The Wall Street Journal writes Albania's new prime minister, Sali Berisha, rattles off goals that sound like the combined wish lists of the World Bank, European Union and international investment community. For example, Nadir Mohammed, World Bank country manager in Albania, says Berisha should push his plans to slash income tax for small businesses to 20 percent from 40 percent and improve tax collection before increasing spending. Still, Mohammed believes Albania should be ready in 2006 to start drawing infrastructure loans from the IBRD, as opposed to being a mere recipient of aid. The World Bank has provided $800 million of interest-free loans to the country during the past decade, and he says more will be forthcoming "if progress is made on reforms."

           
According to Reuters, three major gold producers on Wednesday said they would put $2 million toward cleaning up Peru's abandoned mines in a bid to win local support for mining, an industry poor farmers see as a big polluter. The World Bank estimates Peru needs $250 million to close exhausted mines that still pollute rivers and farmland, most from a past era when mining faced few environmental laws. Peru's government, which has given about $1 million so far, puts the clean-up figure at up to $500 million. Peru's government said recently it would seek funding from the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank to boost the clean-up fund.

           
Reuters notes Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers will hold an extra meeting in London on December 2 and 3, the British Treasury said on Wednesday. US officials say policymakers want to get together to pay tribute to Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan who steps down early next year after 18 years at the helm of the US central bank. But there has also been talk that holding a pre-Christmas meeting when London still holds the presidency of the rich nations club will make it unnecessary to hold a full G7 meeting in Moscow in February, when Russia has taken the chair of the wider G8.

           
BBC News Online reports the first meeting of the Asia-Pacific climate pact, scheduled to take place in November in Australia, has been postponed. The Australian government declined to confirm the postponement, but said that there had been no formal announcement of a date or location. The timing is significant because the meeting will now take place after the next round of United Nations climate negotiations, which opens in Montreal on 28 November.

According to The Financial Times, rich and poor countries yesterday papered over their deep divide in regard to strengthening patents and other intellectual property rights, breaking a deadlock that had threatened to paralyze work in the World Intellectual Property Organization. The uneasy truce came after industrialized nations agreed to establish a new committee in WIPO for discussing the so-called "development agenda" being pressed by a group of developing nations, led by Brazil. Brazil and others in turn agreed to further talks on harmonizing patent law, stalled by disagreements about its scope and objectives. The decision calls for a work program to be agreed next year after the holding of an open forum to discuss the issues involved.

           
Kyodo (Japan) reports the US State Department will host a two-day international conference starting Thursday to discuss approaches to fighting the spread of bird flu, it said Wednesday. The event is part of an international initiative aimed at increasing coordination between countries in fighting avian influenza, increasing transparency in reporting the disease and increasing the ability of countries to contain an influenza pandemic. The United States has earmarked more than $30 million for the initiative.

           
BBC News meanwhile reports that the Spanish flu virus that killed 50 million people in 1918-19 was probably a strain that originated in birds, research has shown. US scientists have found the 1918 virus shares genetic mutations with the bird flu virus now circulating in Asia. Writing in Nature, they say their work underlines the threat the current strain poses to humans worldwide. A second paper in Science reveals another US team has successfully recreated the 1918 virus in mice.

           
Business News Americas(Chile) reports that the IFC and Visa International have agreed to support the development of credit bureaus in emerging economies, the IFC said in a release. Visa International will be the first private sector organization to contribute to the IFC's Global Credit Bureau Program. Visa will provide financial support to the program in emerging and developing markets, which will include Brazil in the first year of the scheme. Further, Visa will provide technical support where needed, which may include sharing expertise on credit risk management and disseminating best practices to banks, according to the release. The program supports private credit bureau development in more than 30 countries through feasibility studies, legal and regulatory advice, research, public awareness projects, and long-term coaching and support.

           
Dow Jones writes the Bush administration announced Wednesday it has accepted petitions from the US textile industry to launch investigations into whether quotas should be imposed on 21 categories of clothing and textile imports from China. The decision further escalates a trade battle between the two nations. It also is expected to bring more pressure to bear on China to settle the disputes by reaching a comprehensive agreement covering clothing and textile trade to escape being hit by further individual quota cases.