HOKKAIDO, Japan, July 7, 2008– The following is a statement by World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick at a joint news conference with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the sidelines of the Group Of Eight Summit in Japan:
"It’s a pleasure to be here with the Secretary-General today. I’d like to commend him for his leadership on the Global Food Crisis and for guiding the preparation of the Comprehensive Framework for Action. We are united in our determination to address the crisis that now endangers millions of people around the world.
How we respond to this double jeopardy of soaring food and fuel prices is a test of the global system’s commitment to help the most vulnerable. It is a test we cannot afford to fail.
This G8 Summit must bring hope to those without hope. Food to those without food.
For globalization to succeed and to achieve its promise, it must be both inclusive and sustainable. We must protect the most vulnerable even as we offer a pathway to opportunity. Never has such protection been more needed than now. Food and fuel, sustenance and energy, malnutrition and health -- it does not get more basic than that.
We need resources, action, and results in real time, starting in three areas:
The first is to meet immediate needs. This means safety net support and programs such as school feeding, mother to child nutrition, food for work, and conditional cash transfers, which can get nutritious food and cash quickly to the most needy.
We must boost support for food assistance provided by the World Food Program. The WFP usually requires about $3 billion a year in voluntary contributions. But this year it could be between $5 and $6 billion, and it is likely that the WFP will need a similar sum next year. Money should not be earmarked or tied, since this reduces its effectiveness. We should think about a special UN funding assessment, or a commitment to core funding, which would reduce the need to raise the full amount every year from scratch.
If the UN makes assessments for peacekeeping after societies have broken down in conflict, why not commit to resources in advance to prevent the breakdown of societies?
A second pressing step is to give small farmers, especially in Africa, access to seeds, fertilizers and other basic inputs. For a number of countries – for example in Southern and West Africa– the farming season is from September to December. Others will need help for their next growing season. We have an opportunity now to boost yields in the short term.
Overall, we estimate that short-term financing requirements for safety nets and rapid agricultural inputs in over 50 countries that we have assessed, through teams on the ground, is $3.5 billion. In addition, the WFP and IMF assessments amount to approximately $6.5 billion, bringing total short-term needs to about $10 billion. The international community must step up to this challenge.
A third step should be to ease export bans and restrictions that have contributed to higher world food prices. Some 26 net food exporting countries have maintained or introduced such measures.
These walls are leading to a breakdown in the international agriculture system. They make it hard to acquire and ship food to the most needy, even when funds are available.
At a minimum, governments around the world should ensure access to local purchases for the WFP and for humanitarian purposes. These humanitarian purchases should be exempt from export restrictions and taxes. This is not the case now, and this is an outrage.
I urge the United Nations General Assembly to vote in September for a resolution to scrap such restrictions on WFP’s purchases. This is a step that all the world’s countries can take to demonstrate a common determination to tear down the barriers that stop food reaching the hungry. These beggar-thy-neighbor policies are placing lives and countries at risk.
While responding to the immediate needs of this crisis, the G8 should also consider measures to ensure that this disaster never happens again. One such measure would be to study the value of having an internationally coordinated “virtual” humanitarian strategic reserve system for food emergencies.
As I have previously urged, the U.S. and Europe also need to take action to reduce mandates, subsidies, and tariffs benefiting grain and oilseed-based bio-fuels that take food off the table for millions. We must move quickly to further develop second generation cellulosic bio-fuels which won’t put fuel in gas tanks at the cost of food in stomachs.
Even as we take these immediate steps to get beyond the danger zone, we need to turn this crisis into an opportunity for development over the long term. With wise investments, we can vastly expand production and yields in developing countries, especially Africa, to increase the incomes of the poor while producing more food.
Today, only 4.9 percent of the cultivated land in Africa is irrigated, compared to 40 percent for South Asia.
In 2006, only 11 percent of Sub-Saharan African land was planted with improved seed varieties, compared with 55 percent in Asia and 48 percent in the Middle East.
We need to fund more research through the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, so we have seeds that can grow with droughts, floods, and salty conditions, as well as boost yield. With changes in climate, this stepped up research is even more vital.
We need to boost public and private investments all across the value chain, from property rights to inputs, irrigation, storage, logistics, markets, and risk mitigation measures, especially for small-holder farmers. We need to complete the Doha Round in the WTO to overcome the barriers and subsidies that block an efficient global trade in agriculture.
To solve the problem we don’t need a scientific breakthrough. We know what it is we have to do. In May, I outlined a 10 point plan. The Secretary General, the High Level Task Force, the World Bank and others have now worked together on a Comprehensive Framework for Action. The points are the same. What we need now is resources, action, and results in real time.
Summits cannot solve all the world’s ills. Nor should we expect them to. For a start, many of the important players are missing. But I believe this Summit can make an important start, here and now, to focus on the needs of the most vulnerable, as we work to boost production of food and fuel over the medium and long-term. I urge the G8 leaders to seize this opportunity."
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