Wolfowitz Calls For Reduction Of Agricultural Subsidies In Rich Countries

“The president of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz, called Tuesday for the reduction of agricultural subsidies by more developed countries which often serve to finance rich agriculturists to the detriment of other small poor agricultural nations.

The United States subsidizes their agriculturists strongly, which is damaging to agriculturists in the poorest countries who cannot compete, according to an example given by Wolfowitz during his participation in the 115^th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), which concluded Tuesday in Geneva. …” [Agencia EFE (Spain)/Factiva]

“… In Geneva, Wolfowitz said both rich and poor countries needed to show flexibility. ‘There has to be concessions from all sides, including the developing countries,’ he told journalists after addressing lawmakers of the IPU. …” [Reuters/Factiva]

“… Whatever else comes out of Doha, there should be something special that deals with the poorest countries,’ he told [the] meeting of parliamentarians from around the world... . Wolfowitz also indicated that one of the few successes in the five-year talks, a deal struck at a World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Hong Kong in December 2005 to grant some concessions to least developed countries, should go further. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

“… One of the concrete results from December was the decision by the 149 member states of the WTO to authorize the least developed countries to export 97 percent their products without customs duties or quotas to rich countries beginning in 2008 based on the ‘everything but weapons’ model launched by Europe. …” [La Tribune (France)/Factiva]

“… Wolfowitz told the assembly of the IPU, which groups MPs from 146 countries, that trading nations should expand on the deal on customs duties for the 32 poorest nations in the WTO. They should be much more generous on preferential treatment for the poorest nations, he added in response to questioning from parliamentarians which was dominated by concern about the deadlock in the WTO talks. … Wolfowitz stressed that trade reform was ‘critical’ for the fight against poverty. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

“Wolfowitz also told the assembly that ‘the fight against poverty in Africa can succeed. The continent is rich is raw materials, but also in its men and women. …’ … The President of the World Bank did not hide the extent of the challenge. Between 1981 and 2002, the number of people living below the poverty line almost doubled to 300 million. But there is also another side of the coin. Seventeen countries have witnessed an annual growth of more than 4 percent for the past ten years. Rwanda and Mozambique, formerly war-torn countries, post the best results. And, last year, Ghana and Tanzania emerged as the top reforming countries in the world.

But the war against poverty is far from being won. To get out of the rut, according to Wolfowitz, Africa must also take a stand against corruption. ‘Each dollar lost is a dollar which is not invested in the creation of jobs, health or education,’ he explained. He was pleased that 33 African countries ratified the UN Convention against corruption [and] he hailed the initiative of certain countries, such as Nigeria, which repatriated the fortunes sent abroad by corrupt politicians. …” [Le Temps (Switzerland)/Factiva]

Progress Made In Fight Against Oil Corruption: Conference

“A number of African and Asian countries have made progress in the fight against corruption in the oil and mining industries, delegates attending an international conference in Oslo concluded on Tuesday. 

‘Participants warmly welcomed the encouraging progress that had been made by several countries ... to improve transparency in the management of oil, gas and mining revenues,’ the 500 delegates at the third Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) conference agreed. They in particular praised Gabon, Guinea, Kyrgyz Republic, Nigeria and Azerbaijan, which has vowed to become the first country to fulfill the EITI's transparency criteria. The EITI is made up of some 20 countries, of which 14 are in Africa, as well as oil and mining companies and representatives of civil society. Its aim is to fight corruption by encouraging states and companies to render their transactions public. 

Delegates attending the two-day Oslo conference, who included World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz among others, also hailed recent progress made in Cameroon, Ghana, Kazakhstan and Mauritania. … [The conference] highlighted the two sides of corruption. ‘There is a tendency to believe that corruption is a main problem in some poor Third World countries,’ Norwegian Development Aid Minister Erik Solheim told reporters. ‘Yes, it's a big problem there but the source of this corruption is quite often in well-paid circles in the most developed countries in the world and they're as responsible,’ he said. ‘This is not a North- South (issue), it's simply a universal global problem which should be fought whether it's on Wall Street or in the poorest African countries,’ he added. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

“… Although the meeting's final statement had few binding measures, it did recommend moving ahead with a plan to allow countries to voluntarily get independent confirmation that they meet initiative standards. The group's criteria include regular disclosure of all company payments made to and received by governments, credible audits of such transactions, involving citizens and encouraging public debate and setting up a work plan with specific targets and dates for completion.

The meeting, which included government ministers from 21 countries, recommended ‘that EITI now establish a system of validating the performance of implementing countries' against the EITI criteria.’ At the meeting, the oil-rich Caspian Sea state of Azerbaijan announced its intent to be the first country to complete the validation process, by late 2006 or early 2007. The process will include comprehensive reporting and auditing of transactions. …” [The Associated Press/Factiva]

“[Speaking via satellite link from South Korea to the EITI conference billionaire George Soros said] the EITI had made terrific progress, but added [that] … the power of energy producing countries had grown, and power had also shifted to national oil companies from the international oil companies due to the energy market turbulence. ‘The quest for energy resources has driven large consuming countries like China and India to engage in pursuing resources at all cost,’ Soros said. That had undermined the influence of the international financial institutions -- the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund -- in the drive for transparency, he said. …” [Reuters/Factiva]

“[Speaking Monday at the opening ceremony of the EITI Third Plenary Conference in Oslo, Norway, Wolfowitz praised Nigerian] … President Olusegun Obasanjo for the fight against corruption singling out the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, as a remarkable man fighting to rid Nigeria of corruption. … [Wolfowitz] said Nigeria presents a classical example of how people in a resource rich country could wallow in abject poverty, but recognized the efforts of President Obasanjo whom he said is tackling corruption. … While admitting that a lot of ill-gotten wealth has been recovered in Nigeria with the latest being the $500 million returned by Swiss government last year, Wolfowitz said much more work still needed to be done since ‘Abacha loot is just a fraction of the money that has been stolen from the Nigerian treasury.’ …” [This Day (Nigeria)/Factiva]

EU Approves 28 Billion Euros Development Aid

“The European Union on Tuesday approved two schemes which together offer EUR 28 billion ($35 billion) in aid to developing countries from 2007 to 2013. 

EU foreign ministers, meeting in Luxembourg, gave the go-ahead for the creation of a new development cooperation instrument which will provide EUR 17 billion over seven years to developing nations in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. The money is also aimed at certain policy areas ‘in response to specific needs such as migration, education and health.’ The money is in addition to EUR 23 billion already agreed specifically for African, Caribbean and Asia Pacific (ACP) nations over the 2008-2013 period. 

The 25 EU nations also approved general provisions for a EUR 11 billion ‘European neighborhood policy’ fund, which would be financed from the EU's budget over seven years. This money is aimed at supporting ‘the development of an area of prosperity and good neighborly relations’ between the EU and a list of places including Egypt, Georgia, Israel, the Palestinian authority, Lebanon, Libya and Russia.” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

“…Countries in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East as well as South Africa will receive EUR 10 billion. Another EUR 5.6 billion will be allocated to food security, education, environment and non-governmental organizations worldwide. Some EUR 1.2 billion euros will help ACP countries deal with EU price-cutting reforms in sugar.

EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg formally approved the package and decided criteria for how the aid would be targeted. The money will come from the EU's central budget of EUR 864.4 billion allocated for the period. It adds up to aid given individually by EU states to poor countries. …   The 25-nation EU calls itself the world's biggest donor. The bloc's 15 major donors spent $55.7 billion in aid in 2005, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's latest figures.” [Reuters/Factiva]

WTO Chief Calls Bilateral Deals Bad For The Poor

“Poor nations will lose out if major global trade players opt for bilateral deals instead of working toward a global pact, World Trade Organization (WTO) chief Pascal Lamy said. 

Lamy told European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and European businessmen in Brussels that smaller countries couldn't focus on both the global approach to trade -- such as the WTO's Doha round -- and the bilateral deals that powers such as the EU and the US are pursuing. ‘There is a resource-diversion problem, given the limited number of competent trade negotiators on the surface of this planet,’ Lamy said in a panel discussion on international trade. He said all efforts should be on a multilateral deal. …” [The Wall Street Journal Europe/Factiva]

“…  ‘Most developing countries have more problems with subsidies, with anti-dumping than they have with tariffs. These are systemic issues, [Lamy noted]. … [Meanwhile,] Mandelson said the draft deal on the table in July was ‘not the highest level of ambition, but reasonable,’ and criticized the US for blocking an agreement on farm subsidies. Lamy and EU officials reiterated no headway in the negotiations is expected before the US elections in November. ‘After that we will try to inject fresh dynamism by the early months of next year. Otherwise, short delays may turn into long ones,’ said EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel.” [The Associated Press/Factiva]

“… Mandelson said he shared Lamy's concerns about stretching the resources of small countries, but the EU's planned talks in Asia would not be intensive any time soon, giving negotiators a chance to focus on the Doha round.

The new focus of Brussels received a mixed reaction from business representatives attending Tuesday's discussion which was organized by European employers group UNICE. …” [Reuters/Factiva]

Warning Over Global Bird Flu Plan

“A third of countries which have drawn up flu pandemic plans have failed to set out how they would distribute medical treatment, a report has found. 

Researchers at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Ben Gurion University Israel studied 45 national pandemic plans. They warned resources would be scarce, so decisions on who should get drugs or vaccines should be made in advance. They said prioritizing treatment could help reduce death and disease. … 

Researchers looked at 19 plans from developed nations and 26 from developing countries. In total, these represented around two-thirds of the world's population - 3.8 billion people. The countries included the US, Norway, Australia, India, China, Serbia, Bahrain, Israel, South Africa, UK, Mexico, Venezuela, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore. The report, Priority Setting for Pandemic Influenza: An Analysis of National Preparedness Plans, found almost half of the plans they examined favored antiviral medications, such as Tamiflu, while 62 percent prioritized giving citizens a flu vaccine. This was an unexpected finding, researchers said, as antiviral treatment may be the only pharmaceutical intervention available in some countries. …” [BBC News Online/Factiva]

“[The study also points out that] … not a single country has guidelines on how to distribute limited numbers of ventilators and face masks in case of such a global epidemic … . ‘At current capacity, we cannot expect to vaccinate more than 14 percent of the world's population within a year of a pandemic,’ the researchers wrote. ‘Similarly, although manufacturing capacity has recently quadrupled, it is estimated to take a decade to produce enough of the antiviral medication oseltamivir for 20 percent of the world's population.’ This is even with generic drug manufacturers in Bangladesh, Algeria, India, and China producing the drug. 

Most countries that do have a plan for distributing drugs and vaccines, including the United States, put health care workers at the top of the list. Some place children high up, while others target essential service workers, such as communications and telecommunications workers, fire fighters, key government decision makers and power supply workers, the survey found.” [Reuters/Factiva] 

In related news, “Pilot projects are being carried out in Rwanda and Indonesia to develop a mobile phone software that can be used in the fight against HIV/AIDS, avian flu and potential health pandemics, industry players said Tuesday. The GSM Association Development Fund has partnered with Voxiva Inc to develop an application that will allow health workers in the field to use handheld devices to submit critical health data to authorities in real time, they said. The aim is to allow health workers to use their mobile phones to report disease outbreaks, drug inventory levels, patient treatment status and other important information to a health management information system developed by US-based Voxiva. Health officials can view, analyze and respond to vital data immediately, the GSM Association Development Fund and Voxiva said in a statement issued on the sidelines of a telecom conference and exhibition [in Singapore]. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

“The European Union said Tuesday it would allocate EUR 28.3 million ($35.4 million) to fund 17 research projects into bird and pandemic flu. The projects will focus on developing better testing and vaccines for flu viruses. It will also seek to implement early warning systems and technology-sharing between the EU and partner states Russia, China, Vietnam, Australia, Canada, Croatia and the US. … The Commission said the funds would be used for both human and animal health research projects. …” [The Associated Press/Factiva]

Also In This Edition: Briefly Noted…

Sub-Saharan African is set for higher economic growth in 2007, a positive sign but a small step toward pulling the continent's people out of poverty, International Monetary Fund Assistant Director for Africa Sanjeev Gupta said Tuesday. Gupta noted that high prices for a range of commodities are driving Sub-Saharan Africa's economies toward 5.9 percent growth in gross domestic product -- a full percentage point increase over 2006 estimates. [The Associated Press/Factiva]

Governments in Africa need to start paying more than lip service to combat a virulent form of tuberculosis, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. South Africa, where 78 people from have recently died from either multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extremely-drug resistant TB (XDR-TB), is hosting a two-day conference of regional health officials in Pretoria, South Africa to discuss the tuberculosis crisis. [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

Highly drug-resistant tuberculosis could become a major killer in AIDS-hit parts of Africa where governments have been slow to roll out TB control programs, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday in Pretoria, South Africa where experts said that the best way to fight the dual problems of HIV/AIDS and TB is to overlap strategies to combat them. Representatives from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria have agreed to shift existing funds to combat XDR-TB and the US-backed PEPFAR is considering a similar request, said Paul Nunn of the WHO. [Reuters/Factiva] 

The Ministry of Mines and Energy announced that Ethiopia will host the 1st East African Geothermal conference November 24 - December 1, 2006. Minister of Mines and Energy, Alemayehu Tegenu, told ENA that the conference would be held under the theme "Geothermal Energy: An Indigenous Environmentally being and Renewable Energy Resource" at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa conference centre. [The Ethiopian Herald/Factiva] 

The World Bank on Tuesday said economic growth in Pakistan is more vulnerable than India and China, as it has few cushions (reserves) to finance external shocks. John Wall, the World Bank Country Director, Pakistan said on the occasion of presentation of report ‘Can South Asia End Poverty in a Generation?’ that though Pakistan has made major changes in its policies in last 15 years, investors trust has to be developed to enhance inflow of private direct investment and ultimately sustaining growth. [Business Recorder (Pakistan)/Factiva]

The World Bank's private-sector lender and guarantee agency said on Tuesday they will recommend in mid-November that their boards approve financing for a pulp mill project in Uruguay, which neighboring Argentina says will harm the environment. The Bank's International Finance Corp. and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency said the $1.7 billion project complied with their environmental and social standards. ‘The decision to proceed was based on an extensive due diligence process, which included the conclusive and positive findings of a cumulative impact study and a subsequent review of the study undertaken by independent experts,’ the agencies said.  [Reuters/Factiva]

The Colombian government on Tuesday said it plans to invest 18.5 trillion Colombian pesos ($783 million) in education, housing and health over the next four years to help lift about 7 million Colombians out of extreme poverty. The Strategy to Reduce Poverty and Inequality aims to give free education to about three million students, improve the housing of 1.5 million families and expand health services to the poorest sectors. [Dow Jones/Factiva] 

Almost two years after the tsunami ravaged villages along the Sri Lankan coast, the renewal of ethnic violence has all but stopped foreign-financed tsunami reconstruction in some of the island's hardest-hit areas in the north and east. Several humanitarian agencies said that they had been compelled to abandon their efforts amid the worst outbreak of fighting since a 2002 cease-fire between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. [The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune/Factiva] 

The Turkish government Tuesday presented its draft budget for 2007 which projects expenditure to increase by nearly 17 percent compared to this year. The budget "is one which strengthens economic stability, supports the environment for sustainable growth and maintains fiscal discipline," the finance ministry said in a statement, carried by the Anatolia News Agency.  [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

The world urgently needs a long-term post-Kyoto agreement to fight global warming to provide security for investors and raise more funding, Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, told a climate change conference in Amsterdam co-sponsored by the World Bank and the Dutch government Tuesday that governments had so far failed to generate enough funding to tackle climate change, especially in poor countries. [Reuters/Factiva]

School children in Gaza, cricket fans in India and African church-goers have helped set a Guinness world record for "the largest number of people to 'stand up against poverty,'" UN officials said on Tuesday. The record was set when 23,542,614 people stood up as part of 11,646 organized events around the world during a 24-hour period this week, according to the official Guinness verification text, released at a UN news conference timed to coincide with Tuesday's UN International Day for Poverty Eradication. [Reuters/Factiva]