New report reveals: €75bn missing for world’s poor

On 26-27 May 2008, European Development Ministers will meet at the General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) in Brussels to discuss aid and development. Yet as a new report by NGOs campaigners across Europe reveals, European governments’ aid efforts are continuing to fail the poor to the tune of €75bn. The report, No Time to Waste, published by CONCORD, the European confederation of relief and development NGOs whose members represent over 1,600 NGOs supported by millions of citizens across Europe, reveals that on current trends the European Union (EU) will have given €75bn less in aid by 2010 than it promised, threatening progress on the UN Millennium Development Goals set for 2015. If the recent record of slow progress continues, Europe will find it harder to meet its target with every year that passes.

The official statistics, released by the OECD in April, showed that European aid fell sharply in 2007, with Belgium, France and the UK recording falls of 10-30%. According to the OECD, “most donors are not on track to meet their stated commitments to scale up aid and will need to make unprecedented increases to meet the targets they have set.” CONCORD’s report has found that European governments continue to “inflate” their aid statistics with debt relief and refugee costs. The report reveals that the 15 older Member States provided only 0.33% of their gross national income as genuine aid in 2007 – continuing to miss the target set for 2006 of 0.39% of GNI.

The report says the EU must also roll up its sleeves on the quality of its aid, making it accountable and transparent. The EU has committed to make aid work better by making it more predictable, better coordinated, and aimed at promoting gender equality and women’s’ empowerment, but NGOs are concerned that these targets are not being met and that more ambitious commitments are needed. 2008 is a crucial year for aid, testing the credibility of European governments. At the High Level Ministerial Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, Ghana this coming September, the EU will review its progress against crucial commitments made in 2005 in Paris.

When European Ministers will meet next week, members of CONCORD and campaigners of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) will stand outside the Council of the European Union in Brussels holding a huge banner to raise their voices against the continuing massive aid gap during. European NGOs join the OECD and the European Commission in calling on European governments to honour their promises and commit to clear, measurable, binding timetables setting out the year-on-year aid increases in aid that are necessary for the MDGs to be met.

Banks urged to stop fuelling harmful agrofuel boom

Many major European banks are funding the rapid expansion of agrofuel production in Latin America, leading to large scale deforestation, increasing human rights abuses and threatening food sovereignty, according to a new report of Friends of the Earth Europe, titled European financing of agrofuel production in Latin America. The report - amid global worries about the increasing impacts of rising food prices - calls for an end to investments by European banks in harmful agrofuel projects. Agrofuels have been blamed as a major factor driving up food prices. According to the UN and the World Bank, 100 million more people are currently facing severe hunger due to higher prices for basic foods.

The report documents how major European banks, such as Barclays, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, Axa, HSBC, UBS and Credit Suisse are investing billions of Euros in the production and trade of sugar cane, soybeans and palm oil in Latin American countries. Fuels from sugar cane, soybeans and palm oil are increasingly used in Europe. Their large scale production in countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Colombia is extremely controversial as it leads to the destruction of the Amazon and other valuable ecosystems, as well as to the contamination of drinking water. Large scale plantations (see photo with burning sugarcane) also lead to human rights violations against peasants, with working conditions on some plantations in Brazil classed as modern slave labour. At the same time agrofuel companies are making record profits, enabled by loans, investments and other financial support from private banks.

All major European banks have invested billions of Euros over recent years in agrofuel producing companies such as Cargill, Bunge, ADM, Cosan and Brasil Ecodiesel. Several of these companies have been involved in, and convicted of, illegal activities in Latin America. Some examples of European banks’ involvement: In 2007 Deutsche Bank owned 35% of the shares of Brasil Ecodiesel. Bunge currently has credit facilities worth more than 1€bn from banks such as Barclays, BBVA, BNP Paris, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, KBC and Credit Suisse. In 2007 Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse provided financial services totalling more than 1€bn to Cosan.

Friends of the Earth Europe says banks should immediately stop their investments in such harmful agrofuel development. The NGO is also calling on the European Commission to revise its plans for a mandatory 10% target for the use of agrofuels in transport by 2020, which it says will exacerbate the problems associated with the production of agrofuels.

Health insurance is no substitute for rich country aid, NGOs say

As governments from all over the world meet in Paris to discuss social health protection in developing countries, a group of NGOs has issued a report warning that health insurance continues to exclude the poor. The argument that health insurance could fill financing gaps to ensure health care in poor countries is now being strongly promoted by northern governments and international institutions. The paper, Health insurance in low income countries: Where is the evidence that it works?, says that while these insurance schemes can have a positive effect on the accessibility and on reducing catastrophic health expenditure for parts of the population, they can also pose a threat to equity and efficiency of health systems.

In its report, the NGOs argue that even insurance mechanisms made specifically for developing countries often exclude the poorest and most vulnerable groups. NGOs argue that most health insurance schemes developed for the poor seem unable to finance a comprehensive benefits package. Therefore poor people often continue to depend on the ability to pay 40% of their health needs – out-of-pocket – even when they are a member of an insurance scheme. “Far from being a magic bullet, health insurance schemes can exclude the poorest from health services. The money for health must not come from the pockets of poor people. The best way for countries like France and Germany to provide healthcare for the poor is by delivering on the aid they’ve promised,” said Luc Lampriere of Oxfam France - Agir Ici.

NGOs also call on countries and donors to respect their commitment to boost investments in health care. Only about a third of sub-Saharan African countries are allocating ten per cent or more of their national budgets to the health sector – despite a previous commitment known as the Abuja target, to invest 15 percent spending on health. The report says that all countries and donors should evaluate insurance mechanisms not just in terms of advantages to the populations they serve but also with regards to the contribution they make towards universal access.

“Health Insurance mechanisms are often promoted based on the assumption that they can fill financing gaps and contribute positively to universal coverage. But without significant public funding for the health sector and strong government stewardship, insurance mechanisms can actually increase inequity,” said Nicolas Guihard of Médecins du Monde. A specific focus is needed, the report continues, on the needs of vulnerable groups, such as women, poor and elderly people, and people living with HIV, who are most likely to be excluded by insurance mechanisms must also remain at the centre of any schemes and the overall debate.

Trade unions at CSD: Food prices, green jobs and decent work

A 50 member trade union delegation commenced its work at UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) in New York this week by asking member countries to consider ‘decent work’ a vital part of any agenda for sustainable agricultural and rural development. Trade Unions, one of nine Major Groups under Agenda 21, are meeting with governments and international agencies this and next week to review progress made towards Sustainable Development since the 2002 World Summit in the following theme areas: agriculture, desertification, drought, land, rural development and Africa.

Initial remarks prepared for the Opening Session, Thierry Dedieu, Confederal Secretary of the ‘Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail (CFDT) reminded that although world attention is focused on the disastrous effect of escalating food prices, the major players in the agricultural industry, the millions of waged and informal workers that bring the food to our tables, should not be forgotten. “The ILO Agenda for Decent Work is critical for the agricultural sector,” said Dedieu. “Large segments of the industry currently encompass all aspects of precarious employment; unacceptable pay levels, unhealthy & unsafe work, insecure employment prospects, and numerous other substandard terms and conditions. In 2007, for example, over 170,000 agricultural workers died because of their work. During the next two weeks, trade union delegates will report on progress made by trade unions to render industries related to agriculture and rural development more sustainable,” he said. “We have been able to bring health and safety to millions of workers through worksite negotiations and international Framework Agreements, at the same time as we continue to promote such international agreements as ILO Convention 184 on Health and Safety in Agriculture.”

Green & Decent’ employment policies in agriculture and the global food system can yield a high payoff as solutions to deal with drought, desertification and rural development, especially when combined with energy conservation and environmental protection, he said. A progress on a ‘Green Jobs’ report by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) will be unveiled in a high-level luncheon with country delegates next week.

Trade unions at the CSD will also highlight the need to integrate climate change, water issues, as well as public and occupational health as key cross-sectoral issues. Trade unions will encourage the CSD to harness the full participation of workers and trade unions in decision-making for workplace solutions and in building support for the aggressive policies that are needed at the community level. See >>> information kit

Oil industry undermines emissions reduction, says FoE

Oil companies have the potential to achieve more than 10% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 without using agrofuels, reveals a report launched last week by Friends of the Earth Europe. Released on the day Shell and BP announced combined quarterly profits of 14.4billion US dollars, Extracting the truth: Oil industry efforts to undermine the Fuel Quality Directive uses industry's own data to show how oil companies are falsely claiming that the target proposed by the European Commission in revisions to the Fuel Quality Directive is unachievable. It shows that at least 10% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions could be realised through reduced gas flaring, improved energy efficiency and fuel switching at refineries, and without the need for agrofuels which can have negative environmental and socials impacts and have not been proven to reduce emissions overall.

Friends of the Earth Europe's report calculates that reductions in greenhouse gas emissions of between 10.5% and 15.5% are possible through measures including less flaring and venting, energy efficiency improvements and fuel switching in refineries. The report comes at a time of record profits for oil companies and increasing attempts to portray themselves as environmentally responsible. In 2007, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, TOTAL, BP and ENI together earned together over 125billion US dollars.

The analysis puts oil industry attempts to obstruct the Fuel Quality Directive in the context of increased 'greenwashing'. Behind the scenes oil companies are lobbying against environmental legislation whilst in public they use advertising to suggest that they are reducing emissions. In 2007 Shell was found guilty of misleading advertising for an advert in which it claimed it used waste CO2 to grow flowers. A FoE speaker said: “Oil companies are not serious about their environmental performance. While they brand themselves as environmentally responsible, their CO2 emissions continue to rise. In reality the emissions of almost all of them are rapidly increasing and they are all investing heavily in energy-dirty tar sands, while their investments in renewable energy remain negligible or decrease.”

PWYP: Companies must go beyond their rhetoric

In the wake of a recent report published by Transparency International, showing that leading oil and gas companies should be doing more to fight corruption and poverty in resource-rich countries, Publish What You Pay calls on companies to publicly disclose how much money they pay to governments for the right to extract. “The report’s key findings and recommendations reaffirm longstanding demands by PWYP for greater transparency of revenue flows earned by resource-rich governments from extractive industries. Without this information, citizens cannot track how the revenues are being reinvested back in the country,” said Radhika Sarin, International Coordinator of PWYP.

In the 2008 Report on Revenue Transparency of Oil and Gas Companies, TI, a key member of the PWYP coalition, evaluates how 42 international and national oil and gas companies publicly report their operations in a total of 21 countries. Of those companies, only a third are categorised in the findings as ‘high’ performers and only a selected group report on a country-by-country basis, a reporting format identified as best practice. “The fact that leading oil and gas companies can retain competitive advantage while still reporting their operations on a country-by-country basis sets a standard for others to follow. It's time for companies to go beyond their rhetoric and start disclosing payments in the disaggregated format that citizens want," said Sarin.

The report recommends that:
* Companies should proactively publish what they pay to governments on a country-by-country basis;
* Governments, stock exchanges and regulatory agencies should urgently consider mandatory reporting for companies operating in-country and abroad;
* Governments from oil and gas producing countries should introduce legislation mandating revenue transparency by all companies operating in their territories;
* Regulatory agencies and companies should agree to publish information in a uniform and accessible format.

The recommendations show that encouraging companies to report their revenues transparently is not the only mechanism to achieving the overall goal of responsible government spending. Governments in both resource-rich countries and those who are home to oil and gas companies, in addition to regulatory agencies should introduce legislation mandating revenue transparency by all companies. “This report is an invaluable advocacy tool. PWYP coalitions around the world will be using the findings to challenge companies, governments and regulatory authorities over their responsibility to reduce corruption and in turn poverty,” said Ingilab Ahmadov, Director of the Public Finance Monitoring Center in Azerbaijan.

Rethink unfair EU trade deals, says new Oxfam study

The EU will do irrevocable damage to the development prospects of some of the poorest countries in the world unless it overhauls free trade deals due to be finalised this year, said Oxfam in a report published today. In Partnership or Power Play?, released at the XII UN Conference on Trade and Development in Ghana, Oxfam presents the first comprehensive analysis of the proposed texts. It concludes that, if finalised, these Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) would hurt poor people and undermine development across Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific (ACP).

According to the study, the cost will be enormous: annual losses from tariff cuts of $360m for Africa alone, and a further €9bn for compliance for all the countries involved. Not to mention the loss of independent trade policy, badly needed to promote development and protect livelihoods. Oxfam's analysis reveals that promised transition periods for liberalisation of up to 25 years have only been offered to a few countries, for handful of products. Furthermore, developing countries have been granted very limited scope to retain any protection and they have had to use it for agricultural products on which the EU still pays big trade distorting subsidies. Strict intellectual property rules proposed by the EU would deepen the digital divide and challenge traditional farming methods, including seed saving. They are offset by very weak EU commitments to helping poor countries access new technology.

The EU wants to finalise deals on goods by mid-2008 and wind up negotiations on services, investment and other areas over the following year. Yet legal experts say that deals initialled at the end of 2007 are not legally binding and could be revised. Ministers, MPs, trade and development experts and academics have all questioned the current approach. "In a fair deal, Europe would fully open its markets to all exports without demanding reciprocation. It would give developing countries the policy freedom to govern in the public interest and pursue regional integration on their own terms. And it would assist these countries to become more competitive, generate decent jobs and access new technologies," said an Oxfam representative at UNCTAD XII.

The report recommends:
* A thorough independent evaluation of what has been initialled before any deal is signed
* Adaptation of existing EU preference schemes to ensure that no ACP country is left worse off if it doesn't conclude an EPA
* Renegotiation of problematic aspects of the initialled deals
* ACP countries decide whether to negotiate on services, investment and other trade-related issues
* Additional support from the EU to tackle infrastructure and competitiveness constraints in the ACP
* ACP countries take stock within their regional blocs, fully consulting all affected parties including workers, producers and businesses

ActionAid: UNCTAD must be allowed to fully act on its mandate

According to ActionAid, UNCTAD as the apex trade and development body at the UN must be allowed to fully deliver its mandate without any hindrance from the developed countries. The pursuit of deliberate policies by the developed world through institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and the WTO over the years has relegated UNCTAD role of working to secure just trade and development policies for developing countries.

ActionAid condemns moves by the EU and the USA at this conference to further marginalise UNCTAD from the international trade and development agenda. For instance these countries are resisting G77 (Group of Developing Countries) demands to create a commission on globalisation. “UNCTAD XII must at the end of this conference be able to provide practical solutions that can be used to end the miseries of commodity dependent farmers, particularly in Africa”, says Aftab Alam Khan ,ActionAid’s international coordinator on Trade policy. “This would immensely contribute to the development of the commodity dependent Nations who are also among the Highly Indebted and Poor Countries (HIPC)”, he adds.

Amina Salifu, a woman farmer from Northern Ghana says, “The government must put in policies to ensure that the commodity boards are made stronger and where we have none they be set up to prevent us from losing our only source of livelihood”. In addition, to help stem the rising food prices, food aid needs to be increased and sourced locally or regionally, added the NGO. Countries need to be assisted to build up staple food stocks, procuring them from poor farmers in country, where possible. ActionAid believes a lasting solution to the pressures on food supply must include increased investment in smallholder agriculture, and action to reduce the devastating effects of climate change on developing country food production.

Trade unions on UNCTAD XII: Decent work and development

As trade ministers and Heads of State come together in Accra, Ghana to decide on the priorities for the UN’s Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for the next four years, trade unionists are calling for the UNCTAD XII Conference to endorse a strong UNCTAD agency as the main forum where discussions on the interlinkage between trade and development take place. “The development gains of trade depend largely on positive linkages between trade and employment, and on the capacity of trade to create decent jobs for people that currently are deprived from access to employment that provides a decent living”, said ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder. “UNCTAD should put full and productive employment and decent work at the heart of the trade and development discussion. Mainstreaming decent work in UNCTAD’s work would be a logical follow-up to the UN’s earlier commitments to prioritise decent work, and a first step towards providing essential policy coherence between UN agencies.”

A trade union delegation will participate in the meetings and will be lobbying for the key issues that should be taken up in UNCTAD’s future work programme, as summarised in an ITUC statement. The statement says that especially in a time where the benefits of trade and globalisation and the distribution of these benefits are being questioned, UNCTAD constitutes a crucial forum that needs to be strengthened. In particular, the statement calls for a reinforcement of the analytical strength and the independent research capacity of UNCTAD.

The ITUC strongly supports the creation of an UNCTAD Commission on Globalisation, which could take up numerous vital issues related to globalisation and development. These include employment impact assessments of trade liberalisation; the problems created by Export Processing Zones with regard to competition on the basis of labour standards; the gender impacts of trade liberalisation; and the policies that need to be developed to address income inequalities.

Aid system not able to tackle impending food crisis, say CARE and Oxfam

According to Oxfam and CARE the international aid system was not fit for purpose and called for fundamental changes in order to tackle the challenge of food price hikes and impending food crises in East and West Africa. The call comes at the end of a conference on how best the world can address global hunger attended by some 30 leading UN and aid agencies in Rome. "Food riots have pushed global hunger onto the political agenda but the aid business will not be able to tackle global hunger while it remains stuck in the past, seeing food crises as one-off events and not tackling the underlining problem - chronic poverty. The world has become much better at sending in teams to save lives but it seems incapable of doing what is needed to prevent crises happening in the first place," said Barbara Stocking, Oxfam's Chief Executive.

CARE and Oxfam warned that besides the impact of food price hikes there are also early signs of impending food shortages in East and West Africa. These potential disasters could be averted if the world takes immediate action. In East Africa the March to May rainy season has been slow to start, triggering concern that another widespread humanitarian crisis might strike for the second time in less than three years. Although there has been some rain over the last week, CARE and Oxfam are particularly concerned about hunger striking the poorest in southern Somalia and the Somali Region of Ethiopia and in West Africa there are worrying warnings of increased hunger hot spots in Mauritania and Niger.

Acting earlier not only saves more lives but makes economic sense. In 2004 and 2005 early warnings alerted world donors that in West Africa, Niger needed aid to avert famine. There was no immediate response, and it was not until television cameras showed emaciated children dying that the world acted. The cost of the delay was high in human life and in economic terms. The UN estimated that acting earlier would have cost $1 a day to prevent a child suffering from malnutrition. Because of delay it cost $80 to save a malnourished child. Another area of concern is the inefficiencies and high costs resulting from self-interest on the part of those delivering aid. Shipping surplus food aid thousands of miles provides a boon to shipping companies, but also increases the cost of delivering food anywhere from 50% to 100%.

CARE and Oxfam are calling for more aid of the right kind in the right place at the right time. Specifically, the organizations want:

* Appropriate aid delivered according to needs: The nature of food insecurity and vulnerability needs to be better understood in order to design more appropriate responses.

* Alternatives to emergency relief, including food aid, to be delivered when appropriate, for example cash for work and other cash transfer schemes. Often food is available during a food crisis. The issue is that it is too expensive for the hungry to buy it. Buying food aid locally can help stimulate the local economy and keep farmers in work. Chronic and cyclical problems need to be addressed through social protection mechanisms, such as social insurance and assistance.

* Support development of poor country governments' capacity to respond to chronic crises: National governments need to invest in the social protection of their citizens, implement 'safety net' programmes (cash for work schemes or targeted assistance to the vulnerable) for populations at risk of hunger, intervene before livelihoods collapse. Donors need to commit resources to support the establishment of local response and safety net mechanisms, e.g. the donors backed 'Productive Safety Net Programme' ensuring predictable assistance to eight million people in Ethiopia. Mechanisms allowing more effective monitoring and coordination of international aid against hunger need to be established within the UN system, and with NGOs.

Disaster risk reduction is a key factor in preventing future crises. Many weather-related crises are cyclical and preparedness and risk reduction strategies can reduce the loss of valuable agricultural production, but this requires a substantial change in emphasis from donors, who will need to make an investment before public support has been mobilized by images of starvation.

* On the recent food price crisis CARE and Oxfam called for: Increase donor and national government investment in small-scale agriculture in developing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Most African governments have failed to meet their 2003 promise to allocate at least a tenth of their spending to agriculture and they are now reaping the consequences. Countries such as Malawi and Zambia have shown the way, moving from dependence on food aid to become cereal exporters in recent years. Greater international support is needed. It is important that humanitarian organizations ensure that women can access the opportunities that are created.

Large-scale growth in biofuels demand has pushed up food prices and so far there is little evidence that it is reducing overall carbon emissions. Natural carbon sinks such as rainforests and grasslands are being destroyed to make way for new biofuel plantations and biofuel crops are displacing food production. Countries driving biofuel demand need to monitor the impacts of their policies on global food security and provide financial support for affected countries. Mandatory targets need to be reassessed in terms of likely impact on emissions and negative social and environmental side effects in developing countries, including higher food prices, land grabs and labour rights abuses. Developing countries need to integrate their biofuel strategies with food security policies to address issues such as land allocation and crop use.

* Ensure financial services such as insurance and credit are available to poor farmers. In Thailand, for example, small producers are going to the wall because banks will not lend them money to manage between harvests.

* Allow space for national trade policies to manage food security and rural development and to support the poorest and most marginalised farmers to gain from current price rises.

* Recognise that climate change is going to exacerbate these problems, requiring urgent mitigation and adaptation response

* Eliminate trade-distorting export agricultural subsidies, export restrictions and price controls. This will correct distortions in world markets and pave the way towards a long-term solution to unstable food prices.

"There is clearly a lot that governments and aid agencies must do to tackle hunger," said Jonathan Mitchell, CARE's emergency response director. "What emerged from this conference is that humanitarian and relief agencies are committed to new solutions. We now need aid agencies to be held accountable and for donor governments to get behind these changes."

The full report can be found here.

Rethinking food crisis solutions

In the midst of a commodity prices boom, high volatility in the oil marker, and record high food prices, the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) sets a new agenda for global food production. A new report suggests that modern agriculture will have to change radically if the world is to avoid social breakdown and environmental collapse. See Al Jazeera's video:

Global Unions: Policy shift needed at IFIs

Responding to concerns about a possible implosion of the financial sector and a major global economic slowdown, the ITUC and its Global Unions partners called on the 2008 Spring Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to mandate significantly increased assistance from the two institutions to countries that seek to protect their workers and citizens, particularly the most vulnerable, against the shock of an economic crisis. If there is no firm and coordinated policy response, the dramatic rise in financial and economic uncertainty since mid-2007 will lead to increased unemployment, declining living standards and higher poverty, particularly affecting women, in many countries, according to ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder.

In a Global Unions statement released on 11 April, the international trade union movement urges the IMF and World Bank to shift their focus from promoting deregulation, including labour market deregulation using the Bank's Doing Business report, in favour of policies promoting the creation of decent work. Global Unions set out a policy agenda for the international financial institutions (IFIs) that could support, rather than dictate to, developing countries.
Specifically, Global Unions call on the IFIs to assist countries that seek to control destabilizing capital flows, require emergency financial assistance to overcome balance of payments problems, that strive to improve social protection, and that extend workplace protection and labour rights to unprotected workers.

Global Unions are encouraging the IMF, in particular, to adopt measures to help cushion states against the global slowdown, such as assistance to offset the impact of higher food and fuel prices, an emergency credit facility for countries in financial difficulty, and measures to protect against destabilizing speculative capital movements. "Just a year ago, the IMF would have been content to let market forces resolve a crisis like this," said Ryder, "but at the recent G7 meeting, even the managing director of the Fund recognized the importance of a coordinated fiscal stimulus response to the current global economic slowdown."

The statement sees a role for the IMF not only in responding to the current crisis, but in preventing new ones. In the statement, Global Unions call on the IMF to take a lead role in developing new international regulatory frameworks to control the largely unregulated activities and new financial instruments that helped set off the crisis.

IMF/WB Spring Meeting: Don’t forget poverty, says Oxfam

Poverty should be at the top of the agenda at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington this weekend, said international agency Oxfam. With the global economy facing a crisis, Oxfam said the emphasis on the rich world must not eclipse action in developing countries, where rapidly rising food prices and increasingly erratic weather linked to climate change are wreaking havoc. Elizabeth Stuart, senior policy advisor at Oxfam said: "Global economic uncertainty, high food prices, more frequent floods, drought and other impacts of climate change all pose a serious threat to vulnerable people in developing countries. The situation requires urgent action and more money from rich countries and yet, aid levels have fallen for a second straight year."

Oxfam is calling for immediate action from donors and national governments to ensure that the poorest consumers are protected against high food prices and price volatility on food markets worldwide. "The New Deal on targeting world hunger from President Zoellick (>>> Zoellick's Newest Blueprint) is welcome. Past policies prescribed by the World Bank which fast-tracked liberalisation, including in the agriculture sector, have left many countries more vulnerable. Poor countries need the flexibility to support and protect small-scale farmers," said Stuart. While rising prices pose a serious threat to poor people, they may also be an opportunity. Efforts must be made by all actors to ensure that poor rural producers and farm workers can access the potential benefits of higher prices. The crisis should spur much-needed reform and increased investment in small-scale agriculture.

The World Bank has also a vital role to play in fighting climate change and helping poor nations adapt to its impacts, said Oxfam. But any new climate funds that Bank manages need to be linked to the UN climate process. "It's very encouraging that donors want to give more money to redress the devastating problem of climate change. But in doing so, they mustn't undermine the ongoing UN negotiating process," Stuart said.

The new Managing Director of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, will be looking to give a facelift to the institution this week. But Oxfam says the governance reform that will be rubber-stamped is a long way from what is actually needed. "This reform would be perfect if the Fund wanted to become completely irrelevant," said Stuart. "By continuing to suppress the voices of so many countries IMF bosses are ensuring that more stakeholders will walk away. You can't talk of real reform when the seven richest members hold more than 40% of the vote."

Patchy progress: Aid and accountability under the Paris framework

(Eurodad) A major new civil society report, Turning the Tables: Aid and accountability under the Paris framework, shows that the world’s rich countries have only made patchy progress in making aid more effective for helping the poor, despite high-profile commitments to reform aid. The report, by Eurodad in collaboration with nine other African and European NGOs, showcases fresh evidence from seven developing countries. It reveals that some development agencies have introduced new policies and procedures, but many are slow to change.

2008 is a critical year for evaluating how aid is helping tackle global poverty and inequality. It is time to review the commitments that 61 rich countries and multilateral agencies signed up to in Paris three years ago. This agreement was a step in the right direction, but donors still have a long way to go to implement their pledges for a more effective, transparent and accountable aid system. “Aid is still too often dominated by rich country agendas and spent on their consultants. When those programmes fail to produce results, nobody is held accountable”, said Lucy Hayes from Eurodad, the European Network on Debt and Development. “Donors such as the European Commission and European governments must deliver on their aid commitments. They have the power and the major responsibility to take the first steps to making their aid money work better for poor people”.

The report is based on case studies that have been carried out in Niger, Mali, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Honduras, Nicaragua and Cambodia. The report highlights current successes and failures by European donors, and sets out recommendations for changing practices. Some of the findings include:
1. Heavy bureaucratic procedures by the European Commission continue to hamper its aid, and make its payments very unpredictable.
2. France has been financing its aid to Mozambique by recycling its debt service.
3. Spanish debt relief to Honduras is boomeranging back to benefit Spanish companies and organisations.
4. The World Bank is still using its aid to try and force controversial economic reforms in Mali.

“It is very hard for us to see what aid is coming into our country,” said Christian Lawrence, from the Campaign for Good Governance in Sierra Leone, “Donors are not transparent enough about their aid and do not account to citizens in developing countries. Without good information about the money coming in, we cannot scrutinise whether it is being well spent”.

Alternative Ecofin endorsed Ljubljana Declaration

At the same time that the European Council for Economic and Financial Affairs (Ecofin) met in an informal meeting behind closed doors, trade unions, civil society groups and critical scholars have organised a public conference on the current economic and social policies of the European Union. In this Alternative Ecofin they made it clear that, contrary to the official view, the Union is in critical social and political difficulties. This is mainly due to the choice of policies which are harmful for the majority of the people in the Union and benefit only a small but powerful minority. The Alternative Ecofin challenged the assertion that there is no alternative to an increasingly neo-liberal policy and presented and discussed proposals for alternatives in various fields. They insist that broad public discussion must go on and this will contribute to the emerging of new relations of forces and power which are needed for a change towards a policy for a democratic, social and sustainable Europe. Find the full text of the Declaration if Ljubljana >>> here.

World Bank accused to hijack climate change

According to AlterNet/Reuters developing countries and environmental groups accused the World Bank of trying to seize control of the billions of dollars of aid that will be used to tackle climate change in the next four decades. "The World Bank's foray into climate change has gone down like a lead balloon," Friends of the Earth campaigner Tom Picken said at the end of a major climate change conference in the Thai capital. "Many countries and civil society have expressed outrage at the World Bank's attempted hijacking of real efforts to fund climate change efforts," he said.

Before they agree to any sort of restrictions on emissions of the greenhouse gases fuelling global warming, poor countries want firm commitments of billions of dollars in aid from their rich counterparts. The money will be used for everything from flood barriers against rising sea levels to "clean" but costly power stations, an example of the "technology transfer" developing countries say they need to curb emissions of gases such as carbon dioxide. As well as the obvious arguments about how much money will be needed - some estimates run into the trillions of dollars by 2050 - rich and poor countries are struggling even to agree on a bank manager.

At the week-long Bangkok conference, the World Bank pushed its proposals for a $5-10bn Clean Technology Fund, a $500m "adaptation" fund and possibly a third fund dealing with forestry. However, developing countries want climate change cash to be administered through the existing United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), which they feel is much less under the control of the Group of 8 (G8) richest countries. "Generally we have been unpleasantly surprised by the funds," said Ana Maria Kleymeyer, Argentina's lead negotiator at the meeting. "This is a way for the World Bank and its donor members to get credit back home for putting money into climate change in a way that's not transparent, that doesn't involve developing countries and that ignores the UNFCC process," she said.

EU development aid cut in 2007 unacceptable, Michel and Schiltz say

According to Reuters news agency, development aid from the European Union's 27 countries fell last year. EU aid amounted to €46.1bn ($72bn) in 2007, down about €1.7bn from 2006, officials said, adding that other major donors had also failed to fulfil their pledges. "2007 was a serious failure for financial aid to development," EU aid and development Commissioner Louis Michel wrote together with Luxembourg's aid minister Jean-Louis Schiltz, in a letter (>>> full text). "The major donors - EU member states, United States, Canada and Japan - failed to fulfil their financial pledges," they wrote ahead of the annual publication of world aid figures by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Aid relief from major donors had grown in previous years thanks to debt relief packages for countries such as Iraq and Nigeria.

The EU prides itself as being the world's largest aid donor. "The EU is still the biggest donor in the world, with Official Development Assistance amounting to €93 per citizen," the official said, adding aid was equivalent to €53 per person in the United States and €44 in Japan. But Michel and Schiltz said last year's cut in Europe was unacceptable. "These €1.7bn could have contributed to changing people's lives," they wrote in the letter, which was also published by a number of European newspapers. The EU executive estimates that the amount could have financed 4,500 schools or 1,200 hospitals.

"It is time for Europeans and other major donors to act," Michel and Schiltz wrote. As part of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, EU member states pledged to allocate 0.7% of their Gross National Income (GNI) to development assistance by 2015. Aid reached 0.38% of the bloc's GNI last year, below the EU interim target for 2006 of 0.39% - which the bloc did fulfil in 2006. EU states should make multi-annual plan to increase their aid, the letter said.

Is Sarkozy planing to cut aid?

On the occasion of President Sarkozy’s state visit in the UK last week, Oxfam has attacked his plans to go back on France's promise to increase aid to poor countries. There are rumors that France - the first G8 country to sign up to the UN target of delivering 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) as foreign aid by 2012 - is set to abandon that commitment. Instead the President is likely to propose an extension of the deadline to 2015, a decision that will represent a serious breach of promise for the millions of people in poor countries who rely on French aid. It will also send out a dangerous message to other rich country governments who came together at Gleneagles in 2005 to 'make poverty history' that they are free to break their aid commitments with impunity.

"President Sarkozy's plans to break promises on aid are morally indefensible and politically inept," said Sébastien Fourmy of Oxfam France - Agir ici. "If France breaks its 0.7% pledge, millions of people will be let down in their fight against poverty." France has consistently shown leadership on the vital issue of ending world poverty and fighting suffering in Africa. It was at the heart of the G8 decision to increase aid by $50bn per year by 2010 and was the first G8 country to set a timetable to meet the 0.7% of GNI, by 2012. This decision would represent a real fall from grace for a country that has historically been such an aid champion.

President Sarkozy met with Gordon Brown on Thursday morning to discuss issues such as closer cooperation on immigration and nuclear power, as well as the possible deployment of additional 1,000 French troops in Afghanistan. But it was also expected that Brown wanted aid and progress towards the Millennium Development Goals to be high on the agenda. In the end the two politicians outlined a range of common initiatives from the reform of the UN Security Council to an increased collaboration on defense and new nuclear power stations. They also announced to increase spending on education in Africa by an additional €1.27bn (£1bn) by 2010 (>>> joint communiqué).

This year's aid figures will show that overall levels of aid have fallen for the second year in a row and that progress towards the promises made in Gleneagles in 2005 has been minimal. A negative signal from France could send a very negative signal to other rich nations and especially EU member states in terms of breaking Gleneagles promises with impunity. Currently French Overseas Development Aid is 0.47% of GNI - a very tiny part of the French budget. It is set to fall for the second year in a row when figures are announced in early April. The cost to France of meeting its aid promises is just only 127 € per person, just under half what the average citizen spends on perfume.

IMF governance reform negligible and needs to go much further

As the Board of Directors of the International Monetary Fund met last Friday to agree on reform of the institution, Oxfam International has warned that the proposal for discussion means minimal change in the organization’s structure.
The Board signed off on a “quota formula” that will decide the share of votes that each country receives. But Oxfam warned that the poorest countries will not see any real increase in their voting share. After years of debate, a proposal that gives only a small increase in quota share for a handful of developing countries - and none for the rest – is more than disappointing. Also, this proposal must be the beginning of a longer debate that will give poor countries a bigger say in the decision-making process. This cannot be the end of the line, Oxfam said.

“The Europeans need to give up their overly-dominant position. It’s unacceptable that Ireland, Greece and Luxembourg are about to see an increase in their voice, while poor countries that make up 70% of the IMF's work, gain nothing,” said Oxfam International’s Elizabeth Stuart. Oxfam warned that the proposal on the table will barely increase the minuscule voice of Sub-Saharan Africa – which includes South Africa and 39 other countries – at the IMF. The G7 grouping of industrialized countries meanwhile, will keep more than 45% of the quotas in the Fund.

“The proposal under discussion does not represent the long-overdue reform that was promised. The new Managing Director of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, should use his influence on shareholders to bring about the necessary reform to the way the institution is run. The IMF needs to come into the twenty-first century,” Stuart said. The final decision will be voted on and passed on by Finance Ministers as part of the spring meetings on April 12-13 in Washington. However, the decision is likely to be a rubber-stamping exercise on what is agreed this week.

Protest Rallies Against Turkish Dam All Over Europe

Critics of the ill-conceived Ilisu Dam in Turkey today held protests and rallies all over Europe in front of government buildings, banks and companies involved in the dam project. Actions were planned for Paris, Milan, Rome, Perugia, Berlin, Stuttgart and other German cities today, March 14, to mark the International Day of Action for Rivers, Water and Life. At least 77 organisations from 20 countries, including France, Germany and Italy, are all urging the governmental and financial institutions to withdraw from the project.

The protesters' case against the dam was bolstered by revelations in a new report that environmental and social conditions are not being followed. Indeed, the report – written by a committee of experts hired by European governments – shows that the social and environmental risks of the project are as great as anticipated by NGO critics. The experts found that Turkish officials in charge of the project were completely unfamiliar with the additional social and environmental requirements, which were conditions of loans to the project from European financial institutions. Among their findings were that 200 additional experts would have to be hired for the resettlement plan alone, that plans to create an archaeological park with monuments from the flooded area are unlikely to attract tourists, and that those monuments cannot be transported without risk of destruction and damage. The experts also revealed that key environmental studies are missing.

The planned Ilisu Dam is extremely controversial because of its massive negative environmental, social and cultural impacts. At least 55,000 people would have to be displaced for the project and a 10,000-year-old town would be flooded. Last year governments of Germany, Austria and Switzerland granted export credit guarantees for the project. They justified this support by attaching environmental and social conditions to the contracts, claiming that the project would then adhere to international standards. But Heike Drillisch from the German organisation World Economy, Ecology & Development (WEED) asserts, “The European governments try to continue with business as usual and negotiate new deadlines with the Turkish officials. In reality, the report reveals the fiasco the European governments entered into by approving the export credit guarantees for Ilisu.”