World Bank chief urges G8 to boost food aid

"World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Monday urged the Group of Eight powers to boost food aid for poor nations and tear down trade barriers that make it hard to buy emergency shipments.

‘How we respond to this double jeopardy of soaring fuel and food prices is a test of the global system's commitment to help the most vulnerable. And it's a test that we cannot afford to fail,’ he said on the sidelines of the G8 summit.

Zoellick urged the rich nations' club to provide ‘safety net support’ for the most needy, to boost support for food assistance provided by the UN World Food Programme and to provide seeds and fertilisers to poor farmers.” [Agence France Presse]

“He said no one would expect that the G-8 summit can solve all the world's ills, partly because ‘many of the important players are missing’

But he said, ‘This summit can make an important start, here and now,’by focusing on the needs of the most vulnerable and making commitments in increasing production of food and fuel in the medium and long term.” [Kyodo News]

“[Zoellick] said there was an urgent need for $10 billion to provide food and cash handouts for the poorest and for farming inputs in time for the next growing season.

‘To solve this problem, we don't need a scientific breakthrough. We know what we need to do,’Zoellick told the news conference. ‘What we need now is resources, actions and results in real time.’” [Reuters]

Meanwhile  “Leaders of the G8 nations kicked off their annual summit Monday in Japan with the pressing challenges to draw up initiatives to tackle climate change, food security and fuel price rises, and also intend to reaffirm commitments on African development.

Africa is taking the spotlight on the opening of the three-day meeting at Hokkaido's Lake Toya resort as the major nations' club began an outreach dialogue with heads of seven key African countries to hear about African needs…”  [Kyodo News (Japan, 07/07)/Factiva]

In a separate piece, Kyodo News adds that “The EU on Monday announced a fresh package worth $1.5 billion, in aid to developing countries to support agriculture through the provision of fertilizers and a seed to poor farmers as the developing world has grown concerned about food security.” [Kyodo News (Japan, 07/07)/Factiva]

WP notes that “Leaders of the G8 major industrialized nations expect to sign off this week on a plan to provide detailed assessments of how well individual countries are fulfilling promises of development assistance to Africa, according to sources familiar with the initiative.

The plan is likely to be viewed as a significant breakthrough by nonprofit groups pushing the G8 to be more accountable about the billions of dollars in well-publicized aid its members have promised Africa for fighting malaria, AIDS and other diseases. …The plan to set up a monitoring system to track development promises to Africa has been one of the main US objectives for the summit. …US officials say they are on target to meet their goal of $8.7 billion in development assistance for sub-Saharan Africa by 2010, and independent groups confirm these statements. …” [The Washington Post (07/07)/Factiva]

WSJ writes that “….The summit participants are headed toward an agreement for international food reserves to help the poorest countries deal with soaring grain prices. But progress on other fronts has appeared to slow in recent days, as differences between the old-line and emerging countries have become obvious, and more-immediate worries about the global economy have intensified. …

In a best-case scenario for the summit, the developing countries could agree to the need for a long-term global target - say, a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050 - in exchange for broadly worded promises by the G8 countries to take the lead in reductions over the next decade or so. …” [The Wall Street Journal (07/07)/Factiva]

Donors Give $847 Million To Cut Poverty In Ethiopia

“Donors funding Ethiopia's programs to cut poverty Friday said they would provide $847 million in 2008/09 for projects such as free education and distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets. The World Bank and the UK Department of International Development (DFID) jointly gave the money to Ethiopia's Protection of Basic Services (PBS) program. Last year, they gave $573 million. …

Keniche Ohashi, the World Bank Country Director said the PBS was the largest single development assistance in Ethiopia and that it would help the poor country achieve universal goals to halve poverty by 2015. ….” [United News of India (07/04)/Factiva]

Reuters adds that “… ‘After reviewing the results of PBS implementation since 2006, both the government and development partners are of the view that the programme has been successful and will be crucial in supporting Ethiopia's plan towards poverty alleviation,’ said Paul Ackroyd, head of DFID in Ethiopia. …Under the PBS programme, an extra three million children and 65,000 teachers were now in school since 2006, Ackroyd said.

A total of 24,000 insecticide-treated bed nets have been distributed so far in 2008 compared with 2,700 in 2006 and as a result, new malaria cases have dramatically dropped to 370,315 in 2007 from 780,019 in 2006, he said.

Donors had also raised an extra $200 million out of the $420 million that the government says it requires for humanitarian needs. Efforts were also underway to raise a further $150 million, Ackroyd added. The fund will distribute to the UN World Food Programme and other agencies and will be used to purchase food, fertilizers and for other humanitarian purposes, he said. …” [Reuters (07/04)/Factiva]

British Report Calls For New Look At Biofuels

 “A British government report on food policy to be published on Monday says the link between demand for biofuels and rising world food prices needs to be more closely examined. The EU's proposal to get 10 percent of road transport fuels from renewable sources, such as biofuels, by 2020 has faced growing criticism. …

Alongside the government's food report, Britain will also publish a document on Monday known as the Gallagher review which examines the environmental case for biofuels and the impact of 2020 targets on food prices, according to a government briefing. …

As part of his plan, [UK Prime Minister Gordon] Brown wants the G8 to set new benchmarks for sustainable levels of biofuel production, according to the briefing. He is also calling for a new expert food panel… to track global food supplies and sound the alarm early when crises loom. …”  [Reuters (07/07)/Factiva]

Dow Jones notes that “…In its paper Monday, the government will also blame poor harvests, the higher cost of energy, fertilizer and transport and a long-term rise in grain demand for rising global food prices. It will also say that food demand could be trimmed by better processing, storage and transport facilities in developing nations, noting that up to 40 percent of food harvested is lost before it's consumed. …Brown will urge the G8 this week to reverse the overall decline of aid and investment in the agricultural sector in the developing world, to create an early warning system to examine long-term food supply trends to support investment in research and development and investment in irrigation, transport and the supply chain to reduce waste, according to the statement. The statement also reiterated the government's call for a rapid conclusion to the Doha round of trade talks. …” [Dow Jones (07/06)/Factiva]

FT adds that “…The Cabinet Office paper will also urge British households to cut down on domestic food waste…it argues that by far the biggest pressure is on households in the poorest countries of the world, where between 50 and 80 percent of expenditure is on food and where rising prices are causing social unrest. …” [The Financial Times (UK, 07/06)/Factiva]

UN Urged To Lead Drive For Fuel Price Cuts

 “Eight developing countries will call on the United Nations to take the lead in trying to bring down global oil and food prices when their leaders meet in Malaysia Tuesday.

Foreign ministers of the Developing Eight (D8) met Sunday in Kuala Lumpur and their draft declaration also put forward ideas to increase intra-member trade more than 10-fold to $517.5 billion a year. The 11-year-old organization comprises Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.

Rais Yatim, Malaysia's Foreign Minister and D8 Chairman said the group wanted the UN's lead because oil producers, particularly Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members, ‘do not seem to see the logic that by producing more oil they would reduce the price’. …A D8 food bank was one of the options being considered to help poorer Muslim nations cope with soaring food prices, a Bangladeshi spokesman said. ...” [The Financial Times (UK, 07/07)/Factiva]

AFP notes that “The D8 group of developing nations must tackle the issue of rising fuel and food prices at its summit this week, Yatim said Sunday. …The group's leaders are expected to endorse a 10-year trade roadmap aimed at boosting economic cooperation and trade among member nations. …” [Agence France Presse (07/06)/Factiva]

Asia Pulse writes that “Political will is a vital ingredient among the Group of Eight Islamic Developing Countries (D8) if they want to join hands to tackle the food crisis and exploit biotechnology in the process.

For instance, commitment by all leaders would enable the D8 countries to jointly undertake large-scale agriculture projects and adopt the latest findings in biotechnology to increase food production. …The forum, which is a prelude to the Sixth D8 Summit and related meetings starting Friday, was attended by delegates from the grouping. …Apart from biotechnology and halal food, the business forum discussed renewable energy. …

Meanwhile, calls were also made for the private sector to urge their respective governments to ratify the D8 Preferential Tariff Agreement (PTA) on selected goods of member countries as they stood to benefit from it. It is designed to gradually reduce tariffs and other barriers to trade on specific goods in order to improve intra trade. …” [Asia Pulse (Australia, 07/04)/Factiva]

Global Tourism Defies Slowing Trends

 “Confronted with the gloom-inducing uncertainties of the credit squeeze, soaring food and oil prices, and global warming, anyone who can still afford to is opting to get away from it all.

International tourism is apparently defying the global trend towards belt-tightening and actually grew year-on-year by about 5 per cent in the first four months of 2008, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)'s bi-annual World Tourism Barometer, due to be published next week …

But in a week in which UN economists reported that concerns about the future were spiraling in all regions and among all economic -sectors, the UNWTO sounded a note of caution.

Francesco Frangialli, UNWTO's Secretary-General, said: ‘The extent of any tourism demand adjustment and its consequences for the sector will depend on how the economy evolves and consumers react, both of which are directly interrelated to oil and food prices.’

As for the global crises that beset the travelling and non-travelling world alike, UNWTO believes tourism has a role to play. In a recent strategy statement it noted that tourism was a strong contributor to -balance of payments, highly labor-intensive and helped promote farming and -fishing, handicrafts and -construction. …” [The Financial Times (UK, 07/05)/Factiva]

Also in this Edition: Brieflly Noted...

Briefly Noted… Hundreds of activists from around the world gathered in the dusty town of Katibougou, Mali on Sunday for the opening of a poor people's summit organized to counterbalance the G8 summit in Japan. In her opening statement organizer Barry Aminata Toure of the Malian coalition on debt and development (CAD-Mali) stressed that social justice is an obligatory and unavoidable phase to ensure a durable and definite solution to the problems of development in the world. [Agence France Presse (07/06)/Factiva]

In an interview with Expansion, World Bank Vice-President for Latin America and the Caribbean, Pamela Cox reviews the decoupling process of the region, inflation, social inequality and the region's main challenges. Defending that international financial architecture should adapt to the 21st century, she underpins the progress between the G8 group of nations and the five largest emerging markets. [Expansión (Spain, 07/07)/Factiva]

Myanmar's premier promised better housing for cyclone victims in the devastated Irrawaddy Delta, where many people have received only a plastic sheet to use for shelter, state media said Monday. Cyclone Nargis left more than 138,000 people dead or missing when it struck Myanmar on May 2, washing away entire villages. Another 2.4 million people are in need of food, shelter, or other aid. [Agence France Presse (07/07)/Factiva]

Bangladeshwill receive a $95 million loan from the World Bank to implement two new projects to help poor families affected by last year's deadly cyclone, officials said on Sunday. The cyclone Sidr killed more than 3,000 people in November, causing extensive damage to property, livestock, and crops, estimated at a total of $1.7 billion. [Reuters (07/06)/Factiva]

International overseers are calling for crisis talks in Bosnia-Herzegovina this week after one of the country's two entities finished May with just $346 in its treasury. The acute state of the Muslim-Croat federation's finances has raised questions about the long-term stability of the Balkan state, which relies on a complicated system of inter-ethnic checks and balances. [The Financial Times (UK, 07/07)/Factiva]

Krores Ltd, a global prepaid card solutions provider announced its focus on emerging markets with the launch of two new products, the unique VISA/MasterCard remittance solution 'Money Transfer Card' and the world's first combination card 'Pay-Remit Card'. These two new products have been designed for Middle East-based migrant workers and their families back home in both India and the Philippines. [Middle East Company News (UAE, 07/06)/Factiva]