World Bank Warns Danger Of Chronic Illnesses In Poor Countries

“A new World Bank report released on Wednesday warned that chronic illnesses, namely cancer, diabetes, obesity and heart disease will be the leading cause of death in developing countries by 2015.  

The report - Public Policy and the Challenge of Chronic Non- communicable Diseases -thus called for actions to slow down the trend, and to prepare for subsequent heavy demand on health care budgets.  

Rising life expectancy for all age groups, lower fertility rates, better control of infectious diseases, and changing lifestyles with more smoking, bad diets and lack of exercise, mean that poor countries face a future where non-communicable diseases (NCDs) become a major problem, according to the report. …” [Xinhua (China)/Factiva]

           
All Africa writes that “…Joy Phumaphi, Vice President of the Bank's Human Development Network and a former Health Minister in Botswana, warned in a statement that the increase in diseases like cancer and heart disease will place a strain not only on national health budgets, but also on families and caregivers. …” [All Africa/Factiva] 

           
Reuters adds that “…The report cautioned that social and economic costs of dealing with the problem would be expensive. It said treating heart disease costs between 1 and 3 percent of GDP in most developed countries. …

The report also said the direct costs of diabetes are between 2.5 to 15.0 percent of annual health-care budgets, depending on local prevalence and treatments. …It suggested that countries focus on encouraging healthy aging and to adapt their health systems to cope with the growing number of elderly people who will need long-term care and expensive treatments. … 

The report said countries could discourage tobacco use, obesity, high cholesterol and high blood pressure by enforcing legislation such as cigarette taxes or mandatory nutrition labeling. Countries could also push for screening for the diseases during normal check-ups and providing timely treatment.” [Reuters/Factiva]  

AP notes that “…The 188-page report highlights two themes: first, governments need to prevent non communicable diseases to the greatest extent possible, and in doing so, promote healthy aging to avoid premature death.  

At the same time, the report says, governments need to recognize that the burden of non communicable diseases will increase ... and thus they have a role to play in dealing with the pressures that this will impose of health care services. … 

The report says low and medium income countries have a number of options to help them promote healthy living. ... The report said cigarette taxes are possibly the most effective way to get people to stop smoking, which in turn reduces cancer, heart disease and other forms of chronic illness. The tax increases have the twin virtues of raising tax revenues as well as discouraging new smokers and encouraging older ones to quit, the report said. …” [Associated Press/Factiva] 

Economist Urges WTO-Like Body For Migration

“The World Bank's chief economist for Latin America said that international migration should be regulated with a system of multilateral accords similar to those negotiated under the auspices of the World Trade Organization.

           
In an interview with Efe, Guillermo Perry called for global accords on the movement of people - not unlike those signed for international trade and capital flows - and said such agreements would benefit both the recipient countries and the countries of origin. Immigrants' rights activists often complain that under the existing arrangements, goods and capital enjoy more freedom than people. At present, Perry said, developed countries tend to put more restrictions on the least qualified workers while opening their doors more readily to the most highly skilled migrants, a situation that has direct economic consequences in the countries of origin.

           
He noted that the least qualified emigrants are the ones who send the most money home and that, although initially these funds go directly to their families, they are not used only for consumption but also for investment in areas such as housing and education. This is already occurring in countries like El Salvador and Mexico, where emigrants come from very poor families and their remittances are doing a great deal to reduce poverty.

           
Perry said that, by contrast, qualified workers who immigrate to more developed nations have less impact on the economies of their countries of origin because it is in the recipient countries that they contribute to productivity while they send less money home because they come from middle-class or upper-class families.

           
In order for there to be a better distribution of wealth and for the benefits of migratory movements to be more equally shared, Perry proposes a multilateral system of agreements. Among the measures that could be agreed upon, he alluded to the legal, temporary movement of workers so that they improve the productivity of a developed country during their stay and later return to their country of origin to contribute their experience and knowledge.

           
Perry was in Madrid this week to present a report at Spain's central bank on the negative effects of the informal, or underground, economy on Latin America's development.” [EFE News Service/Factiva]

Romania, Bulgaria Escape EU Sanctions Over Lack Of Reforms To Combat Corruption, Crime

“New EU members Romania and Bulgaria escaped legal sanctions but not criticism by the European Union on Wednesday over their lack of progress in fighting widespread corruption and organized crime.  

EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini said the two countries, which joined the bloc in January, needed to step up their battle against corruption and work to overcome a backlog of cases waiting to go to court, in order to meet EU rules. … The European Commission had threatened to invoke so-called safeguard clauses under the two countries' membership treaties. The clauses would have suspended their participation in EU justice and interior policies until they meet EU standards in the area.

Frattini warned them, however, that the threat of such a sanction would be extended until June 2008, when another report card is to be issued on their reforms. The threat is meant to put extra pressure on the two countries to redouble efforts to overhaul their judicial systems. …” [The Associated Press/Factiva]

Reuters adds that “… Both governments responded by promising to work to remove the remaining shortcomings identified in the reports, although the Bulgarian president struck a note of defiance. …  Romanian Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu said: ‘I consider the Commission's evaluation as fair and strict. The report shows our efforts are paying off but that there are still problems to solve and we will pursue eliminating the weak points.’ Bulgarian EU Affairs Minister Gergana Grancharova said: ‘The report on Bulgaria's progress is balanced and objective. The big challenge ... remains to speed up procedures in the justice system and have enough court sentences with convictions.’ …” [Reuters/Factiva]  

AFP notes that “… EU countries and the commission can sanction either country for failures in their judicial systems or in the management of EU funds and food safety. They can refuse to recognize legal decisions and can even suspend farm aid to Bulgaria and Romania. …

The commission is due to make visits later this year to the two countries to study their progress on the use of agricultural funds and on animal health and food safety, as well as aviation safety in the case of Bulgaria. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva] 

FT writes that “… Supporters of future EU enlargement fear the slow pace of reforms in Bulgaria and Romania could harm the club's expansion deeper into the Balkans. Meanwhile, EU cash intended to boost Bulgarian and Romanian development could end up in the pockets of bent politicians and criminals, …” [The Financial Times (UK)]

More Than Half Of Humanity Will Live In Cities By Next Year, UN Report Says

“By next year, more than half the world's population, or about 3.3 billion people, will live in towns and cities, a number expected to swell to almost 5 billion by 2030, according to a UN Population Fund (UNFPA) report released Wednesday. …

This surge in urban populations, fueled more by natural increase than the migration of people from the countryside, is unstoppable, said George Martine, author of the report, State of World Population 2007: Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth.

Cities will edge out rural areas in more than sheer numbers of people. Poverty is now increasing more rapidly in urban areas as well, and governments need to plan for where the poor will live rather than leaving them to settle illegally in shanties without sewage and other services, the UN says. …”  [The International Herald Tribune]

Reuters adds that “…The UN has sounded the warning several times before, most notably in UN Habitat's 2003 report on the growth of slums which are home to a third of the world's urban population. But the UNFPA's latest report is the clearest message yet. … 

The report noted that, contrary to expectations a decade ago, mega cities - those with more than 10 million people - were not where most growth was now taking place. Instead, the expansion was occurring in cities of half a million people or less which had largely escaped planners' attentions to date. These cities had few facilities and even fewer plans to cope with their burgeoning populations. …” [Reuters/Factiva]

AP notes that “…Without proper planning, cities across the globe face the threat of overwhelming poverty, limited opportunities for youth, and religious extremism, UN Population Fund Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid told The Associated Press in London. …  

The population fund found current policy initiatives often aim to keep the poor out of cities by limiting migration and cutting lower-income housing. …Birth rates are driving urban population growth - instead of migration from rural areas, the report said. Family planning policies will be most effective in slowing urban growth - including comprehensive reproductive health services and sex education, it said. …” [Associated Press/Factiva]  

           
AFP writes that “…Developing countries should not try to put the brakes on urban growth, but instead implement social policies to benefit from the phenomenon, the UNFPA said. …As a result, by 2030, 81 percent of the world's urban population will be concentrated in developing countries, nearly 70 percent of them just in Africa and Asia…

Urban explosion would be all the more difficult to control…However, if it is anticipated, urbanization can play a positive role in economic development, the UN agency highlighted, raising a ‘call to action’ from developing countries to draw its benefits. … 

Putting forward two main recommendations, the UN agency suggested regulating urban population growth by enabling women to avoid unwanted pregnancies through action to promote equality of the sexes, such as allowing girls to attend school and providing adequate contraception. The second line of attack, it said, was to take ‘explicit concern with the land needs of the poor’. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]  

Desertification Threat To Global Stability-UN Study

“Desertification could drive tens of millions of people from their homes, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and central Asia, the UN study [Re-thinking Policies to Cope with Desertification] warned on Thursday.  People displaced by desertification put new strains on natural resources and on other societies nearby and threaten international instability…  

The study urged governments to work out ways to slow the advance of deserts, from the Sahara to the Gobi, caused by factors such as climate change and land over-use. Better plantings of crops and forests in nearby dry lands were simple measures to help. …” [Reuters/Factiva] 

BBC notes that “…The study was produced by more than 200 experts from 25 countries.

This report does not pull any punches - desertification is an environmental crisis of global proportions, it says, and one third of the Earth's population is potential victims of its creeping effect. …[It] suggests that new farming practices, such as encouraging forests in dry land areas, were simple measures that could remove more carbon from the atmosphere and also prevent the spread of deserts. …” [BBC News (UK)]

AP writes that “…The report said about 2 billion people… are potential victims of desertification… If the problem is left unchecked, some 50 million people could be forced from their homes over the next decade, the report said. …

Policies on preventing desertification are often inconsistent, frequently not implemented at local levels or inadvertently fuel conflict over land, water and other resources. Funding is also a problem, with major donor nations cutting funding by 29 percent at the last Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification in 2005, the report said. … 

Along with reforming land use policies, [UN University's International Network on Water, Environment and Health Director and lead author of the report Zafar] Adeel said, governments could provide financial incentives for herders and other dry land users to preserve threatened land while giving them greater authority over what often is communal land. …” [Associated Press/Factiva]

           
IHT and NYT add that “…The report's authors say that governments and international groups must collaborate to solve what has so far been an under-recognized crisis-in-the-making.

Water resources are over-exploited because poor people have no other options and climate change has exacerbated the cycle. Governments and wealthier nations must aid these populations to develop more sustainable livelihoods, or themselves suffer future consequences, the report says. …

In an interesting twist, the report's authors suggests that dry marginal lands can be partly restored and utilized as carbon traps, helping to absorb emissions from the developed world. Developed nations might invest in programs to prevent desertification as a way to compensate for the emission their cars and factories create through emissions trading schemes that already operate in Europe, for example. …” [The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times]

Also in this Edition: Tonga To Become WTO's 151st Member Next Month; EU To Encourage Skilled Africans To Return Home To Aid Devt; Briefly Noted…

TongaTo Become WTO's 151st Member Next Month. “The South Pacific kingdom of Tonga will become the 151st member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) next month, the Geneva-based organization said on Wednesday. Tonga, one of the poorest countries in the world, submitted ‘its acceptance of the terms and conditions of membership’ on Wednesday, the WTO said. …” [Xinhua (China)/Factiva]

Reuters writes that “…Tonga, an archipelago between Hawaii and New Zealand, has a population of about 117,000. Its accession was cleared by the world trade body in December 2005 but needed government approval to become final. The ratification was deposited with the Geneva-based WTO on June 27 and automatically becomes effective one month later.  

Farm goods such as squash, coconuts, bananas and vanilla beans make up two-thirds of the aid-dependent Commonwealth country's exports. It imports much of its food from New Zealand. …” [Reuters/Factiva]

AP adds that “…As part of its accession package, Tonga has agreed to make several commitments to liberalize its trade regime, including lowering all import tariff lines to 15 or 20 percent within one year. The country also was required to eliminate all industrial subsidy schemes prohibited by the WTO by the final date of its accession.  

The terms were criticized in 2005 by the international aid agency Oxfam, which… warned that because Tonga earns some two-thirds of its revenue from trade taxes, cutting tariffs would affect its ability to provide basic health care, education, water supply and other essential services. …” [Associated Press/Factiva]

EU To Encourage Skilled Africans To Return Home To Aid Devt. “The European Union wants to encourage skilled Africans to return home, saying their countries need them to develop their own economies, the European Commission said Wednesday.

           
As part of a paper listing ways it can help African development, the EU's executive arm said it wanted to reduce problems African countries face when professionals - particularly doctors and nurses - leave to take up better-paid jobs in Europe. …  The paper stressed that the 27-nation EU and African nations had to build a "strategic partnership" to better handle migration issues, notably a brain drain of talented and educated professionals who are recruited by richer nations, like the EU bloc and others such as Canada, the US and Australia. …

           
The EU said it would work with African Union countries to promote "circular migration" to encourage African workers in Europe to find work at home. It didn't set out any formal suggestions but mentioned better links between African and EU universities and hospitals as one way of helping this happen. EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini has already begun pilot projects with EU governments to set up information offices in Africa on migration issues. A job center is planned to open this year in Mali to help match potential migrants with seasonal or longer-term jobs in Europe, in both manual labor and professional openings such as engineers, doctors or nurses. …” [Dow Jones and The Associated Press/Factiva]

Briefly Noted… The International Monetary Fund completed its first review of Peru's economy under a standby agreement Wednesday, noting that Peruvian officials will have to remain committed to sound policy and structural reforms to ensure continued economic prosperity.  

[Dow Jones/Factiva]

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda introduced an electronic and online procurement system to avoid markups and the misuse of its Rp 4 trillion budget for material and service purchases.  The new system was officially launched on Wednesday and the Minister said e-procurement will ensure that public announcements and tender processes and assessments are conducted publicly and transparently. [The Jarkarta Post (Indonesia)/Factiva]  

Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves hit an all-time high of $5 billion on Wednesday, thanks to robust growth in money sent home by expatriate Bangladeshis and exports, a central bank official said. Besides, aid disbursment by the development partners including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank also boosted the reserves, he added [Reuters/Factiva] 

The EU approved a new 2007-2013 strategy with Central Asia countries and is seeking to actively develop collaboration with these countries to maintain peace, democracy and economic prosperity in the region. [Interfax-Kazakhstan News agency and BBC monitoring/Factiva]

The Balkan region offers major economic opportunities as all countries in the region are striving towards EU accession, Greek Economy and Finance Minister George Alogoskoufis said on Wednesday in an address to the 4th Conference on Strategies to Reduce Poverty in the Balkans, organized in Athens by World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in cooperation with the Greek government. [Athens News Agency (Greece)/Factiva] 

The EU should launch an enhanced partnership of equals with Africa this year in areas from trade to aid to meet a rise in Chinese influence, an European Commission policy paper published on Wednesday. The ultimate goal is to better position Europe in the quest for energy and other vital resources also sought by China as its economy surges ahead. [Reuters/Factiva] 

Countries are making progress in fighting bird flu but concerns remain for some nations - specially Indonesia, Egypt and Nigeria - where human contamination is still possible, the UN said Wednesday. Scientists and officials gathering in Rome for a three-day technical meeting on bird flu said that in most cases the virus is rapidly detected and kept under control, as most countries are equipped with improved response systems. [Associated Press/Factiva]