Spain Pledges $1.95 Billion To Boost Development Of Latin America.

“Spain will provide $1.95 billion to promote the development of Latin America, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Thursday at the 18th Ibero-American summit in San Salvador. Attending the first plenary session … Zapatero said the funds will be contributed to the region's Official Aid to Development.

Spanish aid to Latin America has grown by more than 50 percent from 2004 to 2007, surpassing $3.9 billion. The region will continue to receive priority in the Spanish agenda of international cooperation and development, Zapatero said. …” [Xinhua/Factiva]

EFE notes that “The heads of state and government of the Ibero-American nations expressed Thursday in San Salvador a variety of opinions with regard to the serious world economic crisis, though they did agree on promoting the political participation of young people to achieve more just societies. …” [Agencia EFE/Factiva]

AFP adds that “…The leaders plan to present a joint statement at a meeting of the G20 leaders on the global financial crisis in Washington on November 15. …Business leaders warned that the crisis could affect financing for key regional infrastructure projects, including roads across the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and tunnel projects in the Andes. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

Reuters reports that “The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) has cut its forecast of economic growth in Latin America next year to 2.5 percent from 3 percent previously, the bank's chief said on Thursday. Latin America's economies are much better cushioned against economic shocks than they were in the past, but a reliance on oil, commodities, US demand, and migrant remittances means a feared global slowdown will hammer the region.

‘We're thinking in the area of 2.5 (percent) for next year,’ IADB head Luis Alberto Moreno told Reuters during the Ibero-American summit in El Salvador, which was dominated by the global financial crisis. …” [Reuters/Factiva]

OECD Calls For Aid Pledge From Developed Countries

“The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Thursday called on the world's main donor countries to honor their pledges to aid the developing nations while wrestling with the global financial turmoil. …

OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria and the Chair of the Development Assistance Committee DAC, Eckhard Deutscher, in a joint letter urged these countries to sign an ‘Aid Pledge’ to keep their commitments and avert budget cuts for development aid.

‘Let us not repeat the mistakes we made following the recession of the early 1990s when many OECD governments let aid efforts decline, with the consequent impacts on developing countries in such areas as agricultural production, infrastructure, social welfare and political stability,’ said the letter. Cuts in budgets for development aid will pile more pressure on developing economies over food and energy prices in the following years, said Gurria and Deutscher. Such a move will also constrain donor countries' ability to help developing nations adapt to climate change. …” [Xinhua/Factiva]

Graft Robs Public Sector Of $400 Billion A Year: Watchdog

“An estimated $400 billion dollars that is meant to be spent on public sector projects is lost to corruption every year, the head of the anti-graft watchdog Transparency International said Thursday.

Huguette Labelle, speaking at the start of a four-day conference in Athens, said around 10 percent of the four trillion dollars (EUR 3.1 trillion) spent annually on public procurement is siphoned off by corrupt officials and their associates. …The comments came at the start of the 13th International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) which is focused on how corruption impacts on politics, finance, resource management, climate change and crime.

The biennial conference is attended by over 1,200 delegates from 135 countries, organizers said, including experts from the United Nations, the World Bank and Amnesty International. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

Xinhua reports that “Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis urged in Athens on Thursday the international community to combat corruption with a persistent effort at a national and international level…. [He] said the deeper problems of the real economy are now on the forefront, while cautioning that the world is faced with a recession of unknown intensity and duration. …

‘Behind the explosion in prices and the credit crisis lies inadequate transparency,’ he said, adding that the conference's thematic sessions on natural resources, energy and climate change must generate answers, ‘as climate change comprises a nightmare threat for the planet's future.’…” [Xinhua/Factiva]

UN Role Stressed At Panel Discussion On Addressing Global Financial Crisis

“The role of the 192-member UN was stressed Thursday as economists and diplomats discussed ways to tackle the global financial crisis at the General Assembly. ‘Solutions must involve all countries in a democratic process,’ UN General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann d'Escoto told the opening of the one-day panel discussion. … ‘Only full participation within a truly representative framework will restore the confidence of citizens in our governments and financial institutions,’ d'Escoto said.

AP notes that “...d'Escoto Brockmann convened a daylong debate on the global financial meltdown to position the world organization squarely at the center of a possible fix as world economic leaders prepare to meet to discuss the crisis at a Nov. 15 summit in Washington. …

French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, representing the EU, said the Bretton Woods institutions and UN would play essential roles addressing a crisis that cannot be treated as if were another simple downward phase. …” [The Associated Press/Factiva]

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that “UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged rich countries on Thursday not to lose sight of the developing world in tackling the worst global financial crisis in decades that could see development efforts suffer. …

On his first visit to India as the UN chief, Ban gave a bleak outlook on the impact the financial crisis could have on countries such as India if measures were not taken swiftly. …Addressing business leaders on Thursday in a meeting on tackling climate change, Ban said he was worried the financial crisis would discourage businesses from investing in green technology, and insisted that eco-friendly growth would benefit companies in the long run. …” [Reuters/Factiva]

Commentary: Amid The Turmoil, Do Not Forget The Poor

In a commentary published in the FT, Africa Progress Panel members Kofi Annan, Michel Camdessus and Robert Rubin write:

“There are two lessons that history and our personal experience teach us. One is that when crises occur, the least responsible are usually the worst affected and the least able to cope. The second is that crises can provide the momentum for reform and radical change. …

A response to the crisis that does not take into account the needs of the world's poor - or, worse, that results in reduced levels of engagement - would be grossly unfair. We all share responsibility for the persistence of poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy on a vast scale. The sense of injustice they engender is a threat to economic and political security. …

At mid-point to 2015, it is clear that the MDGs are off track, but also that they need not be so. …A combination of political commitment by leaders in the developing world and of increased levels of investment, and technical and financial assistance from richer countries can make it happen. And in relative terms, this is not a costly proposition.

The G8 and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries must honor their existing commitments, particularly aid levels, to the developing world and not use the crisis as a pretext for abandoning them. …

The energy going into discussions to establish a new global system of financial governance is welcome. … The new system needs to involve all players, not just from Europe, the US and Japan but also Brazil, China, India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and others. Poorer countries need a voice at the table, too.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) needs to be engaged in monitoring global markets and responding to crises, as well as being made more representative and participatory. …

Another step should be to broaden the G8 annual meetings to reflect current economic and geopolitical realities. …

In four weeks, the Doha high-level meeting on financing for development will be the time to ensure that sufficient resources are available to meet the challenge set out at the turn of the millennium. And in two weeks' time, the global financial summit will be taking place in Washington. Now is the moment to ensure that an inclusive approach is taken and the needs of the poor are not forgotten.

Big problems are the opportunity for big thinking. We know that globalization can be a force for good. But if its benefits are to be shared, and the world not to be polarized between those who are in and those who are ever more marginalized, we need a new mindset and new global arrangements. We face a moment of risk and opportunity. We urge political leaders to summon the courage and vision to seize it.” [The Financial Times (UK)/Factiva]

Also In This Edition… Briefly Noted…

The Bank of Japan has cut its main interest rate from 0.5 percent to 0.3 percent - its first reduction for seven years. The move followed a global wave of rate cuts to contain the financial crisis. Japan has the lowest interest rates in the developed world. [BBC News (UK)]

The World Bank Friday said it was lending Vietnam $60 million for a project to help the State Bank of Vietnam and other institutions to reform and modernise the financial sector by improving delivery of their main functions in line with international standards. [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

The World Bank has warned the governments of the Pacific island countries that they need to do more to cater for their young people, Radio New Zealand International reported on Friday. The Bank has launched a new report in the Pacific island country of Vanuatu called Giving South Pacific Youth a Voice, which reflects the concerns and hopes of youth across six countries in the region. [Xinhua/Factiva]

The International Monetary Fund agreed in principle on a $9.6-billion economic stabilization plan for Pakistan during a week-long meeting between the two sides in Dubai, an official from the country's finance ministry told Dow Jones Newswires late Thursday. [Dow Jones/Factiva]

Pakistan's major donors will meet in Abu Dhabi on November 17 to decide on economic aid for the country, a German official visiting the emirate said on Thursday. [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

World Bank will provide $130 million to help Bangladesh respond to food crisis and especially to benefit poor families affected by high food prices. The Food Crisis Development Support Credit Project, approved Tuesday by the World Bank, is part of the bank's fast-track Global Food Response Program (GFRP), a release of the World Bank said Thursday. [Xinhua/Factiva]

The World Economic Forum opened a regional meeting in Turkey on Thursday that organizers hope will shape solutions to the global economic crisis. The three-day meeting, which ends Saturday, will also focus on business opportunities that might arise from the crisis, energy and resources security, Central Asia's role in the world and Turkey's position as a bridge among Europe, Asia and the Middle East. [The Associated Press/Factiva]

Former UN human rights chief and Irish president Mary Robinson was named Thursday as head of the GAVI alliance's executive board, the public-private health partnership said in a statement. [Agence France Presse/Factiva]