World Bank President Urges Countries Not To Ban Food Exports

“The President of the World Bank [Robert Zoellick] called Thursday for governments of developed nations to not impose export restrictions or tariffs on food that could be funneled to relief agencies or countries facing severe food shortages. …

Zoellick and [WFP Executive Director Josette] Sheeran, as well as representatives from the African Union, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the Food and Agriculture Organization, met Thursday to reiterate their commitment to addressing the short- and long-term affects of high global food prices in Africa. In a joint statement issued after the meeting, they said the food crisis represents both a challenge and an opportunity for the continent to increase its agricultural productivity. …” [The Associated Press/Factiva]

Dow Jones adds that “… ‘We need to move from discussions to action,’ said Zoellick …

He expressed hopes that the heads of states from the G8 leading countries will tackle food problems. … The joint statement said most institutions think food prices will peak in this year or next but even from then will stay at ‘relatively high’ levels.

While various international organizations have taken steps to assist countries under stress, ‘more needs to be done,’ the joint statement said. ‘And it requires a united action. We appeal to developed countries and the International Financial Institutions to continue assisting countries most affected.’ …” [Dow Jones/Factiva]

Jiji Press reports that “Zoellick indicated Thursday that participants at the upcoming UN food security conference in Rome are due to map out an action plan to address the current food crisis, including steps to help African farmers boost output.

‘We hope that coming out of that meeting, there will be clear signals on the actions to be taken,’ Zoellick said in a press conference in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, where the fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, or TICAD IV, is being held. …

Zoellick said that the action plan will also include full funding by donor nations of humanitarian food supplies for the UN World Food Program without tax and other restrictions and providing smaller farmers in Africa with better access to seeds and fertilizers, whose prices have been surging, so that they can increase production.

He also unveiled a plan to call on food exporting countries to roll back limits on food exports, such as taxes and bans, noting that such restrictions exacerbate food shortages. In addition, Zoellick said the World Bank will create a facility this week to provide African growers with swift financial assistance through grants and in the form of trust funds. …” [Jiji Press (Japan)/Factiva]

In related news Reuters notes that “Major industrialized countries are expected to create a multibillion-dollar fund later this year to help developing countries cut greenhouse gas emissions, Zoellick was quoted as saying. In an interview with Japan's Asahi newspaper published on Thursday, Zoellick said the fund would likely be finalized at the G8 summit to be held on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on July 7-9.

‘(The fund) will be an important contribution because the climate change issue is one where we need to support UN negotiations (on a framework to succeed the Kyoto Protocol),’ Zoellick said. … [Reuters/Factiva]

German Chancellor Merkel Pledges Additional EUR 500 Million For Forest Protection

“German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday pledged EUR 500 million ($788 million) to protect global forests over the next four years… and an additional EUR 500 million every year after that.

She urged other countries at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity also to pledge support, saying it was a ‘good investment in our common future’ and that ‘Germany cannot alone shoulder this enormous international obligation.’ …The Chancellor's announcement was hailed by environmental organizations as an important step in the right direction. …

Merkel, who has made climate protection a centerpiece of her government's agenda, said that the protection of natural habitats is closely bound to fighting global warming because forests can absorb the carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels. …” [The Associated Press/Factiva]

AFP notes that “Ministers from nearly 60 nations pledged Wednesday on the sidelines of a UN biodiversity conference to support a global effort to halt deforestation by 2020. Top environment officials from every continent literally lined up to make the pledge, organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a highly influential environmental protection group. [Agence France Presse/Factiva ]

In a separate piece, AFP reports that “An ambitious plan to put more than 10 percent of Brazil's Amazon forest beyond the grasp of loggers and agribusiness could slash carbon emissions by 1.1 billion tones by mid-century, according to a study released Wednesday. …

Researchers at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil and the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts calculated that the areas pegged for protection under the Amazon Region Areas Program (ARPA) stock some 4.6 billion tones of carbon, equivalent to 20 times the annual emissions of Germany.

The ARPA network, slated for completion in 2012, would cover 12 percent of Brazil's tropical forests. They then estimated how much carbon would be released into the atmosphere over the next four decades if the designated areas were not protected - a total of some 1.1 billion tones of CO2. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

Africa Debt Relief States Must Prove Record - Fitch

“Sub-Saharan African countries have benefited from debt relief but will only see their credit ratings improve slowly as they need to prove a solid economic record, rating agency Fitch said on Wednesday.

Fitch said that while debt relief had allowed these countries to address their lack of infrastructure, they still needed to do more to improve their ratings - effectively a measure of confidence in their creditworthiness. …Fitch currently rates 15 African countries including eight which received debt relief under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. …While their debt alone is no longer constraining their ratings, their capacity to manage and service debt is seen as remaining low. Fitch said huge demands remained on countries with still weak public finances, institutional weaknesses, poor business environments and vulnerability to shocks. …” [Reuters/Factiva]

FAO urges farming investment to combat hunger

“Twenty-two nations are particularly threatened by the global food crisis that has seen soaring prices increase hunger, leading to protests and riots in some countries, the UN said Wednesday. …

The three-day conference that opens Tuesday is expected to draw a number of world leaders. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said it will provide a ‘historic chance’ to relaunch the fight against hunger and poverty and boost agricultural production in developing countries. …The crisis underlines ‘the fragility of the balance between global food supplies and the needs of the world's inhabitants,’ said the FAO's Director-General, Jacques Diouf. …” [The Associated Press/Factiva]

NYT notes that “In anticipation of a global summit on the food crisis, the UN called on world leaders Wednesday to agree to urgent measures to ease demand for grains and alleviate high food prices. The report, by the FAO… suggests that countries might need to reconsider policies that encourage the production of ethanol and other biofuels. …

While noting that price spikes in agricultural markets were not uncommon, the report suggested that the current run-up in prices was different because it had lasted longer and affected nearly all major food and feed commodities, instead of just a few crops. It predicted that higher food prices would continue but was vague on how long the higher prices would last. …

The report encourages targeted food giveaways and food subsidies to the world's poor, and short-term subsidies to small-scale farmers to provide them with seeds, fertilizer and animal feed to increase production. For the long term, it emphasizes that the public and private sector should invest in agricultural research and outreach programs.” [The New York Times/Factiva]

Reuters writes that “The world community should urgently boost investment in agriculture to fight hunger and malnutrition in the face of soaring food prices, the …FAO said on Wednesday. …

Governments and international organizations should boost public investment in such "long neglected areas" as agricultural infrastructure and research, and create a favorable environment for private investments, the Rome-based agency said. FAO called on the world leaders to reconsider export curbs and other unilateral trade policy measures aimed at boosting domestic food supplies as they ‘can exacerbate price instability on world markets and affect food security in other countries’.

FAO also urged the world leaders to look into challenges of global climate change and re-examine the role of biofuels which have contributed to the rally in agricultural commodities. …” [Reuters/Factiva]

Dow Jones reports that “African countries need to be assisted to make food trade tariffs the last resort to combat high inflation, a senior executive at the FAO told Dow Jones Newswires. [Dow Jones/Factiva ]

Food Crisis May Worsen African Child Mortality - UN

“The global food crisis could reverse some of the progress Africa has made in bringing down child mortality, the head of the UN’s children's agency said on Wednesday. ‘If more children become undernourished, that could contribute to additional child mortality,’ Ann Veneman, Executive Director of UNICEF, said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday. …

Veneman is in Japan to launch UNICEF's State of Africa's Children 2008 report which says that five million children died in Africa before they reached the age of five in 2006. The sub-Saharan African countries accounted for nine of the 10 highest mortality rates for children under five in the world, said the report which was launched on Wednesday at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD). …” [Reuters/Factiva]

AFP notes that “…UNICEF, or the United Nations Children's Fund, released a report saying that four of the world's poorest nations - Eritrea, Ethiopia, Malawi and Mozambique - saw mortality rates for children under five fall by 40 percent or more since 1990.

Deaths from measles in sub-Saharan Africa fell 91 percent in 2000-2006 while access to antiretroviral treatment for HIV-positive mothers and children increased and at lower costs, the study said. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

Kyodo News writes that “…The report recommends a ‘'radical transformation of health systems in sub-Saharan Africa, such as through community partnerships and comprehensive maternal, newborn and child health packages, that covers all stages of child-rearing.’ …” [Kyodo News (Japan)/Factiva]

Also in this Edition; Briefly Noted…

South Africa's economy slowed dramatically in the first quarter, with the growth rate falling by more than half on an annualized basis after rolling power outages hamstrung the country's key mining and manufacturing sectors. GDP expanded at an annualized pace of 2.1 percent in the first three months of the year, down from 5.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007 and the slowest rate in seven years, Statistics South Africa, the government's data agency, said Tuesday. [The Wall Street Journal/Factiva]

The World Bank will prepare a plan of action on transparency in El Salvador, which will contain recommendations to improve the auditing processes carried out by public and private entities, and at the same time allowing the country to improve its accountability, said World Bank Senior Financial Management Specialist Henry Fortin. [La Prensa Gráfica (El Salvador)/Factiva]

The World Bank warned Thursday that an exceptionally high tide could inundate the Indonesian capital next week, forcing thousands of people to flee homes and cutting off the highway to the international airport. The situation could mean flooding will exceed last November's roof-high levels in the hardest-hit areas, said World Bank Lead Infrastructure Specialist Hongjoo Hahm. [The Associated Press/Factiva]

The Philippines may borrow money from abroad to finance expenses to reduce the impact of high food and oil prices on the poor, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said on Wednesday. She added that the government may issue and sell bonds worth anywhere from $500 million to $750 million this year, Philippine TV network GMA News reported. [Xinhua/Factiva]

As foreign aid workers test Myanmar's commitment to allow them to operate inside the country as part of the relief effort for Cyclone Nargis they face not only administrative hurdles erected by a xenophobic military government but an economy warped by years of misrule. [The International Herald Tribune/Factiva]

The Indonesian government's decision to hike the price of fuel by around 30 percent last week was necessary to tackle poverty and inflation, Information minister Mohammad Nuh said Thursday. [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

Pakistan is likely to get a World Bank $4.5 billion loan but the country needs to lower its fiscal deficit to qualify for such loans in future, the Bank's Vice President for the South Asian region Praful Patel told Dow Jones late Tuesday. [Dow Jones/Factiva]

Russia is not planning to repay its debt to the World Bank ahead of schedule in the coming months, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said at a news briefing Wednesday. The Finance Ministry is examining the terms of such a repayment, but it is not going to happen in the coming months, he said. [Prime-TASS News (Russia)/Factiva]

Over 6 million Romanians, almost 28 percent of the country's population, live under the poverty line, according to a study released Wednesday by the Partners Romania Foundation for Local Development (FPDL). [Xinhua/Factiva]

The International Labor Organization (ILO) opened its annual conference in Geneva on Wednesday with a series of issues on agenda, including rural poverty reduction, labor rights and the worsening world food crisis. [Xinhua/Factiva]