World Bank Asks G8 to Address Food Crisis

[sharon sanders]

<table summary="The Details about World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick Welcomes Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda's Call to Put Food Crisis on G8 Agenda displayed below" class="Table100per" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td colspan="3">World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick Welcomes Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda's Call to Put Food Crisis on G8 Agenda

</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="3">Zoellick says international community cannot afford to fail in response to food crisis</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="AWpagetitleLineBlue" colspan="3">

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WASHINGTON , April 21, 2008 – The following statement was release today by World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick in response to a letter from Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda calling for the food crisis to be put on the G8 agenda.

“I welcome Prime Minister Fukuda’s intention to put the food crisis firmly on the agenda of the G8 summit in Japan in July, and his request that the World Bank, the United Nations, and other international institutions coordinate closely to prepare joint action. We will be pleased to support Japan as chair of the G8.

Soaring food prices and their impact on hunger, malnutrition and development threaten to push 100 million people further into poverty. For more than 2 billion people, high food prices are now a matter of daily struggle, sacrifice, and, for some, even survival, with no apparent relief in sight. Malnutrition threatens to harm not only this generation but the generation to come. This is a test for the international community that we cannot afford to fail. We must make globalization work for all. Nowhere are we seeing this more clearly than in the issue of food where millions are now at risk.

Donors must act now to support the World Food Program’s call for emergency funds to fill what is an urgent financing gap. Without this money, millions will go hungry. For them, the international system will have failed.

Ministers from more than 180 countries meeting at the World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings recently endorsed a New Deal for Global Food Policy. This will require coordinated action over the short, medium and long-term: immediate support to the World Food Program’s emergency appeal; short and medium term support for safety nets, such as school feeding, food for work and conditional cash transfer programs. Over the medium and long term, support for increased agricultural production, a better understanding of the impact of bio-fuels, and action on the trade front to reduce distorting subsidies and trade barriers. Balance of payments and fiscal issues for countries most severely affected must also be addressed, and we will work closely with the IMF to support this agenda.

As an immediate response, we are working with partners in the UN to identify countries most in need so that, with others, we can provide concessional financing and other support where appropriate. We are exploring the creation of a rapid financing facility for especially fragile, poor countries, those with little margin for survival and little access to finance. We will also double our lending for agriculture in Africa over the next year to make sure that we address the need to boost supply.

It will be important that as an international community we coordinate closely, minimize overlap and attack the issue from a variety of different fronts to ensure support reaches where it is needed most, and that longer-term supply issues can be fully addressed.

These short, medium and long-term issues will be a critical part of international action. But let us first raise the money to meet the most immediate needs. The world can afford this. The poor and hungry cannot.”

Robert B. Zoellick.

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:21737299~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html







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[sharon sanders]

Re: World Bank Asks G8 to Address Food Crisis

Hat tip Treyfish

Japan to offer $100 million in emergency food aid

<!-- End of Headline -->04/25/2008
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN To alleviate the global food shortage and political unrest in developing countries, Japan will provide more than $100 million (10 billion yen) in emergency aid before the Group of Eight summit in July, sources said.

The government hopes the additional assistance will strengthen its leadership when it hosts the G-8 meeting at Lake Toyako, Hokkaido.

The emergency aid will come on top of the $68 million that Japan provided this year to the U.N. World Food Program, which offers food assistance to developing countries.

The amount will be the second largest in emergency aid committed by a single industrialized country, following the United States, to deal with the current food crisis, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who will chair the summit, has said he will make the global food crisis one of the key items on the agenda.

Japan will provide about $50 million to the WFP in May, which will be distributed as food aid to about 10 countries hit hard by the deepening food crisis, the sources said.

The recipients will include many African countries, such as Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic, the sources said.

Japan also plans to offer more than $50 million to countries in critical condition through bilateral programs by July, the sources said.

Amid soaring food prices, the WFP has reported a $500-million revenue shortage and requested additional contributions from industrialized countries.

Japan annually provides more than $100 million to the organization.

For the $100 million in additional aid, the government plans to use revenue earmarked for other official development assistance programs for the current fiscal year and may also compile a supplementary budget if necessary, the sources said.

Japan plans to propose discussions on mid- to long-term measures for the food shortage when delegates from member countries of the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization meet in Rome in June.

The government then plans to have the G-8 leaders express their commitment to addressing the global food crisis.

The United States has announced plans to offer food aid worth about $200 million to African and other countries through the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Washington is also considering an additional $350 million in emergency aid to the WFP and nongovernmental organizations.

According to the FAO, 37 countries are facing a food crisis.

The bills for the world's poorest countries for grain imports are expected to rise by 56 percent year-on-year in 2007 and 2008, up from 37 percent in 2006 and 2007, according to the organization.(IHT/Asahi: April 25,2008)




http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200804250168.html