IMF Approves Plan To Sell 403 Tones Of Gold

“The International Monetary Fund (IMF) board of governors Tuesday approved the sale of 403.3 tones of IMF gold reserves as part of a wide-ranging financial overhaul that helps boost its sagging coffers.   The plan would create an ‘endowment’ that helps provide a steadier source of income to the international organization that has drastically scaled back on lending. …

Governors from 176 of the Fund's 185 member countries cast votes, with all in favor of the plan. Approval required a majority of the votes cast. ‘With this decisive endorsement, the Fund's members have once again demonstrated their support for reforming key components of the institution's framework, including its financial structure,’ IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said. …

The new plan calling for the endowment requires an amendment of the Fund's Articles of Agreement, which will need to be accepted by at least three-fifths of IMF members. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

Dow Jones writes that “… The whole reform package, including plans to sell a chunk of the IMF's gold, now will have to be approved by the US Congress. The expanded investment regime and the quota reforms also need approval by some other countries' legislatures before they can take effect. …” [Dow Jones/Factiva]

WSJ adds that “…there is some optimism the package will eventually be approved: Congressional reaction to the IMF's plan to sell gold … is likely to be less hostile than in 2005 and 1999…Other countries also must approve parts of the overhaul package, but the US - with a 17 percent voting share - has effective veto power over the changes and is also the only country that has to give its blessing to the gold sales. …” [The Wall Street Journal/Factiva]

Sudan Donors Pledge $935 Million

“Norway and the EU pledged $935 million in aid to Sudan over the next four years at the start of a donors' conference in Oslo on Tuesday. Conference host Norway pledged $500 million between 2008 and 2011 to help Africa's largest nation recover from 21 years of internal warfare. The EU immediately followed up with a promise of $435 million in the same period.

Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha called on other delegates attending the conference to increase support for his country. …Most countries are expected to announce their pledges at a special session near the end on the meeting, which lasts through Wednesday. …”  [The Associated Press/Factiva]

Xinhua notes that “Sweden's government announced in Stockholm on Tuesday that it is prepared to raise its level of support to Sudan over the coming years in order to live up to the needs of the country.

The Swedish support is intended to contribute to the implementation of the different parts of the peace agreement in Sudan, with a particular focus on the growth of democracy and women's participation, Minister for International Development Cooperation Gunilla Carlsson said in a statement. …” [Xinhua/Factiva]

Reuters adds that “Rich donor states and the government of Sudan pledged on Tuesday to support further implementation of a 2005 north-south peace treaty and to work to prevent Africa's largest nation from breaking apart. …‘National unity is the key strategic concern and objective which can only be achieved through sustainable development,’ Sudan's Vice President Ali Osman Taha told the conference.

Taha urged donors to provide development aid to 2011 and said: ‘It is high time to make the transition from the humanitarian to the development focus because it is development that sustains peace.’ Taha also called on donors to help resolve debt problems. …” [Reuters/Factiva]

UN Food Aid Funds Growing, But Needs Growing Too

“The World Food Program (WFP), facing an unprecedented surge in the price of food it buys for the world's hungry, has secured about 60 percent of the extra funds it needs to cover planned aid donations this year…WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said in a speech at a Washington think tank.

But the agency has already been forced to cut some of the food rations it provides and its $755 million gap does not include new, emerging hunger needs that will require an additional $418 million to $430 million this year. … ‘We estimate an additional 130 million (people) will be unable to adequately meet their food needs because of high prices,’ Sheeran said. …” [Reuters/Factiva]

AFP notes that “…Rising shortages of basic grains, milk and foodstuffs that have led to deadly violence in developing countries is perhaps ‘the first global humanitarian emergency,’ she said in a speech at the Peterson Institute for International Economics…She said that more than 40 nations had imposed export controls on commodities since prices began their ‘relentless’ surge last June. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

Dow Jones adds that Sheeran “…also called on US lawmakers to restore funding in the farm bill that is currently under debate to a program that provides school lunches for children abroad. …” [Dow Jones/Factiva]

Asia Sets $2.5 Billion Farm Boost, Aid In Food Price Fight

“The Asian Development Bank (ADB) pledged $2.5 billion in emergency aid and loans in Asian nations hit hardest by soaring food costs as finance chiefs agreed on Tuesday to boost farm output as a long term solution to the crisis. …

Finance chiefs called on the ADB to take an active role in stabilizing surging food prices in a region that is home to two thirds of the world's poor and risks civil unrest after wheat and rice prices doubled in the last year. ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said … the best long term solution to painful price spikes was through boosting agricultural output, adding that the bank would double lending to agricultural and natural resource and infrastructure projects to $2 billion in 2009. …” [Reuters/Factiva]

AFP notes that “The ADB will provide $500 million in immediate assistance to member nations hit hardest by soaring food prices, the head of the bank announced Tuesday. … ‘This money will be made available to cushion the impact of rising fiscal burden due to rising food prices,’ Kuroda told a news conference at the end of a four-day annual meeting of the bank in Madrid. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

Warning Over Inflation Threat To Poor

“Emerging markets will face grave problems in controlling inflation and money supply because of the expansionary economic policies of industrialized countries seeking to prevent gridlock in their financial markets, the head of the UN Development Program (UNDP) warned on Tuesday. …

In an interview with the FT, [Kemal] Dervis said that the urban poor in developing countries were already facing an ‘inflation tsunami’ from soaring food and energy prices, which had made them up to 25 percent poorer in less than a year. …

Speaking before a conference in London to launch a series of private sector initiatives to relieve poverty in the developing world, Dervis said that the rise in food and energy prices had wiped out virtually all the modest increase in aid flows of the past decade. …Developing countries were facing an immediate humanitarian crisis, he said, but in the medium-term higher commodity prices should be good news. … ‘But on the negative side you have to remember that higher energy prices affect the prices of fertilizer and other inputs. … Seeds and fertilizers are absolutely essential. It will mean an increase in some subsidies in the short run.’ …” [The Financial Times (UK)]

Study Finds Africans Get Substandard Malaria Drugs

“Many Africans are getting substandard malaria drugs, with more than a third of the pills tested failing quality tests, according to a report published on Tuesday. Tests of 195 different packs of malaria drugs sold in six African cities showed 35 percent of them either did not contain high enough levels of active ingredient or did not dissolve properly.

‘Our study shows that efforts to increase access to quality antimalarial drugs in Africa are increasingly important,’ Dr. Roger Bate of the American Enterprise Institute, who led the study, said in a statement. ‘Substandard drugs not only endanger lives today, but also jeopardize future malaria treatment strategies by accelerating parasite resistance.’…researches wrote.

‘These incidents argue strongly for a rule against purchasing locally manufactured medicines, except where those medicines have received regulatory approval from a developed country or the WHO's prequalification scheme,’ they added. …” [Reuters/Factiva]

Health-e adds that “…antimalarial drugs sold in six major African cities failed basic quality tests according to a study published today in PLoS ONE, a peer-reviewed open-access journal. The cities were in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. The study further found that Artemisinin monotherapies, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) explicitly rejects as substandard, remain common in Africa. Substandard antimalarial drugs cause an estimated 200,000 avoidable deaths each year. …” [Health-e and All Africa/Factiva]

Also in this Edition; Briefly Noted… World Bank President, Robert Zoellick, will visit Colombia on Thursday. In Bogota, Zoellick will meet with President Alvaro Uribe and the mayor of the Colombian capital, Samuel Moreno, with whom he will talk about the progress that Colombia has made in the business arena and the challenges it faces. [ANSA/Factiva]

Leaders and representatives of several South and Central American nations will meet in Managua to discuss a regional strategy to avert the food crisis affecting poor nations around the world, officials said Tuesday. The meeting Wednesday hosted by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega will study emergency measures Latin America can take to ensure domestic supplies of staple foods, as well as establishing fair prices for the region's food exports, in view of the ongoing crisis, said Nicaragua Agriculture Minister Ariel Bucardo. [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

The global food price crisis is largely due to greed and market speculation rather than food shortages, the head of Southern Africa's development bank Jay Naidoo told Reuters on Tuesday. [Reuters/Factiva]

South Africa’s government was urged on Tuesday to implement an immediate review of its land reform policies in a report from a leading think-tank that said the current approach had a dismal record and threatened to lead to a crisis. [The Financial Times (UK)]

EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the EU wants to use the summit of 60 leaders in Lima next week to push Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico and others to join Europe in the fight against climate change. [The Associated Press/Factiva]

The Dominican Republic is seeking some $1 billion in external financing to boost food production and increase exports to neighboring Caribbean countries that are struggling with high prices of agricultural commodities, especially grains, Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso told Reuters on Tuesday. [Reuters/Factiva]

India's threat to impose a blanket ban on agricultural commodities futures trading would not ease food prices, analysts, traders and food executives warned yesterday, describing the measure as political posturing. Analysts pointed out that the ban New Delhi imposed last year on the trade of pulses, wheat and rice futures had not halted a rise in the wholesale and retail prices of those commodities. [The Financial Times (UK)]

World Bank President Robert Zoellick Tuesday urged the Burmese Junta to accept international aid after the deadly cyclone which has claimed over 22,000 victims. We share our sympathy with the thousands of victims of this terrible tragedy, he added in a statement sent to the press. [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

EU Budget Commissioner Dalia Grybauskaite said some countries in Central and Eastern Europe had failed to take up as much as 20 to 30 percent of EU regional aid funds available to them. [The Financial Times (UK)]

The World Bank Office in Croatia on Tuesday presented a partnership strategy for Croatia in the 2009-2012 period to representatives of civil society organizations from the area of Zagreb.[HINA (Croatia)/Factiva]

Egyptians on Tuesday criticized fuel and cigarette price increases meant to fund a 30 percent hike in government salaries, worried the latest move by the authorities will once again leave them struggling to buy basic goods. [The Associated Press/Factiva]

The International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday Lebanese authorities have expressed interest in quarterly IMF monitoring of the country's economic policies and performance. IMF monitoring, which would likely be under a follow-up IMF emergency loan program that expired in 2007, would allay donor and investor concerns about Lebanon's economy. [Reuters/Factiva]

Saudi Arabiasaid it is setting up a $5.33 billion investment firm that may be open to partners, and could initially focus investments in the technology sector. Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf also urged countries' to keep their doors open to foreign investment at a conference in Riyadh on Tuesday. [Reuters/Factiva]

For years, food policy in the Middle East and North Africa was very simple: hydrocarbon exports paid for carbohydrate imports. Rising agricultural commodities prices and a large population increase mean that the traditional policy is now untenable even if crude oil trades at about $120 a barrel, forcing countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia, to reconsider how it feeds its population. [The Financial Times (UK)]

Climate change is harder on women in poor countries, where mothers stay in areas hit by drought, deforestation or crop failure as men move to literally greener pastures, Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai said on Tuesday. [Reuters/Factiva]

The International Finance Corporation will hold its biennial education conference in Washington DC from May 14-16, bringing together key stakeholders to explore the future of private education in emerging markets. [UzReport.com/Factiva]