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The Power of the Rising Development Generation Africa
The Power of the Rising Development Generation Africa
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Early Impacts from the World Bank's Global Response Food Program
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The $1.2 billion Global Food Response Program (GFRP) - the World Bank's fast-track food crisis initiative - was created in May 2008 to rapidly disburse assistance to countries hardest hit by the food crisis.

"Hunger knows no boundaries," said Africa Region Vice President Obiageli Ezekwesili. "All across the African continent, poor people are bearing the brunt" of soaring food prices.

As of end-September 2008, the World Bank has approved $83 million in GFRP financing to ten Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries: Burundi, Central African Republic, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Madagascar, Niger, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Somalia. In addition, $100 million in IDA financing has been approved or reallocated for eight countries: Ghana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Malawi, Togo, Eritrea, Cote d'Ivoire, and Madagascar. Through these projects, farmers are receiving seeds, fertilizers, and technical expertise. School feeding programs are also being launched, and food safety nets targeting vulnerable groups are being created. The Bank expects to provide a total of more than $800 million in financing to the GFRP.

The GFRP is based on several dimensions:
across time-thus addressing short-term and medium-term needs;
across sectors-such as agriculture, health, social protection, energy; and
across instruments-budget support to help mitigate short-term financial stresses; safety net programs for the most vulnerable; and investment lending to stimulate an agricultural supply response.

A basic principle of the GFRP is that a country can select from a large comprehensive menu of possible interventions, depending on its specific needs. The Bank provides detailed technical guidance appropriate to these interventions. A sample of interventions in SSA includes:
Food Distribution to School Children and Other Vulnerable Groups
In Liberia ($10 million disbursed), monthly distributions of 300-400 tons of food targeting more than 60,000 school children in five counties started at the beginning of the school year in October, 2008. Distributions of food rations for pregnant and lactating women attending clinics and hospitals have also started.

In Burundi ($10 million disbursed), the WFP has been implementing a school feeding program in six provinces (out of 17) in the country. The GFRP grant makes it possible to provide 120,000 additional students in 60 additional primary schools with hot meals since the beginning of the school year. The Grant has also helped the Government to maintain fiscal stability after the suspension of import duties on 13 basic food items undertaken by the authorities to mitigate the impact of food crisis.

In Sierra Leone ($3 million disbursed), the Bank is providing budget support to partly compensate for lost revenues resulting from reduced tariffs on food and fuel imports. The budget support is creating fiscal space for the Government to provide food to more than 21,000 people, including school children and patients (lactating mothers and children under the age of five) in district hospitals and community health centers. In addition, 78 food-for-work projects will begin shortly; and preparations are underway to distribute 300 to 400 metric tons of food in target communities.
The GFRP is also working for bountiful harvests. In Rwanda, $10 million has been allocated for filling a financing gap for bulk fertilizer purchase and supporting the development of private sector-friendly auctions and voucher distribution schemes. Vouchers for purchasing fertilizers have been distributed to farmers ahead of the fall planting season.

Reform of Food Policies:

In Madagascar ($10 million disbursed), the increase of rice prices has been slowed, due in part to the temporary elimination of VAT on rice. The Bank's budget support operation helped mitigate the fiscal impact of this policy action.

In Guinea ($10 million allocated), budget support from the Bank is supporting the Government's policy to reduce customs duties on rice from 12.75 to 2.75 percent.

In Burundi ($10 million allocated and disbursed), Bank financing has helped mitigate the fiscal impact of the suspension of import duties on 13 basic food items.

Other SSA countries in the pipeline to receive GFRP disbursements include Benin ($9 million for fertilizer); Central African Republic ($7 million, school feeding, inputs, extension, infrastructure); Comoros ($1 million for seeds, risk management, access to credit); Guinea-Bissau ($5 million for safety nets, inputs); Mali ($5 million for budget support); Mauritania ($9 million for inputs, safety nets, irrigation, livestock); Mozambique ($20 million for budget support); Somalia ($7 million, for inputs, irrigation, livestock); Southern Sudan ($5 million for seeds and other inputs); and Togo ($7 million for safety nets, agricultural production).

October 17, 2008 | 2:28 PM Comments  0 comments
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Gender equality and empowerment of women.
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Women’s full participation in decision-making

The full participation of women in political decision-making at all levels, including their involvement in measures to achieve all other MDGs, is of paramount importance to achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women. In addition to the political arena, women’s full participation in decision-making positions in the private sector, academia, civil society and the media is also crucial to build synergies across different sectors. Women’s public participation is a human rights issue; women have a right to be represented. Increased women’s participation also ensures that women’s interests are represented in decision-making and their participation widens policy debates and priorities. Research has shown that increased participation of women in decision-making has a positive impact on development priorities and poverty reduction, and that, when empowered, women make decisions that not only have a positive effect on themselves, but the lives of their families and communities as well. Progress in increasing the political representation of women in national parliaments has been increasing at a steady but slow pace, but growth has been uneven across regions. Insufficient data are available on women’s role at local government level as well as on their role in senior positions in other areas, such as the private sector and civil society.

Women’s economic independence

Women’s economic independence is critical to achieving all MDGs, not only MDG3. Even though women’s participation in paid employment outside agriculture has increased, women’s work continues to be characterized by a concentration in low status and low pay jobs, which are often temporary and informal. Globally, gender wage gaps exist and unemployment rates for women are higher than for men. While inequalities continue to define the quality, conditions and characteristics of women’s labour market participation, they also shoulder a disproportionate share of responsibilities at home. Women perform the majority of unpaid work which restricts their access to employment opportunities outside of the home and reinforces the traditional division of labour between women and men. Increasing women’s participation in paid employment is one of the most important strategies for poverty reduction, as is the promotion of women’s entrepreneurship. However, the employment must be based on decent work principles such as labour standards, social protection and recognition of workers’ rights. In addition, it is important to recognize the value of women’s unpaid work, and develop and promote policies that facilitate the reconciliation of employment and family responsibilities for all workers, women and men.

In addition, women’s access to and control over productive and economic resources is central to their empowerment and must be expanded if gender equality is to be achieved. Women’s access to land and property, including through inheritance, is critical to their economic empowerment. Land ownership has direct economic benefits, for example as a source of income, as a key input for production, and as collateral for credit. Without equal access to credit and other financial services, such as insurance or savings, women’s economic empowerment will remain limited.

Issues for discussion

What good practices exist to increase women’s access to decision-making positions at all levels?
What measures need to be taken to increase women’s access to employment opportunities, and access to and control over productive resources?
How can measurement of progress in these areas be strengthened?

October 16, 2008 | 2:07 PM Comments  0 comments
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GLOBAL: Donor response to food crisis inadequate, agencies say
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Food security experts say international donors' response to the world's food crisis has been inadequate when compared to interventions to contain the global financial meltdown.

"Huge financial resources have been mobilised by the international community in a matter of days" in response to the global financial crisis, wrote Teresa Cavero in a report by the international NGO Oxfam released on 16 October - World Food Day.

While the US government put up US$700 billion to bail out financial institutions in one day, on 3 October, total global development aid for 2007 was $104 billion, according to Alexander Woollcombe, food security advocacy adviser at Oxfam in Dakar.

This year's food crisis threw an additional 75 million people into hunger and poverty in 2007 according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The World Bank estimates there are currently 967 million malnourished people in the world.

FAO says the financial crisis, following on the heels of the food price crisis, could deepen the plight of the poor in developing countries.

Remittances dropping

FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf stated in a 15 October news release: "Borrowing, bank lending, official development aid, foreign direct investment and workers' remittances - all may be compromised by a deepening financial crisis."

There are no precise numbers yet about the impact of the financial crisis on developing countries, said Josef Schmidhuber, senior economist at the FAO's Global Perspectives Unit, but he noted that when industrialised countries face a crisis, fewer people work and fewer remittances are sent to developing countries.

"We're already hearing noises from Mexico that fewer remittances are being sent back. These [remittances] are more important than credits and foreign direct investment," he stressed.

Mexico receives $22 billion in annual remittances, and Bangladesh $4 billion, according to Schmidhuber. In Haiti and Honduras remittances make up over 20 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Response 'a slow trickle'

The FAO's Schmidhuber said donors promised $20 billion in aid to agriculture at the Rome FAO conference in June 2008, but according to Oxfam, five months on just $1 billion of this has been dispersed. Oxfam's Woollcombe said this is partly because "it takes time to distribute cash for agricultural production. The problem is it is not clear when or where it is actually coming."

The UN has estimated that $25 billion to $40 billion is needed to lessen the impacts of high food prices on developing countries.

"With the new commitments of the financial crisis, I would not be surprised if we don't get much more than the trickle that has arrived so far," said Schmidhuber.

The UK government's commitment of US$ 1.4 billion pledged at the Rome meeting still stands, said Matt Wells, spokesperson for the UK Department for International Development (DFID).

"Yes, there are challenges we are all facing, but we are continuing to call on other donors not to let the economic crisis deflect the fact that we need to remain focused on supporting those most in need," Wells told IRIN.

Building up resilience

To boost vulnerable people's resilience to crises, Oxfam and the Washington DC-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) stress the need for donors and international finance institutions to support 'social protection' such as aiding access to health and education, which they say will have a knock-on boost on their food-purchasing power.

Such measures could include targeted cash transfers, nutritional interventions, and fee waivers on targeted services, according to an October World Bank report 'Rising food and fuel prices: addressing the risks to future generations.'

It is the erosion of the global food system's resilience that underlies the food price spikes, according to Steve Wiggins, research fellow at the UK-based Overseas Development Institute.

The world needs to replenish severely depleted global grain reserves, which have dropped from 30 percent to 19 percent of annual grain use, Wiggins said. "Rebuilding stocks would help to calm nerves and restore the resilience of the global food system."

See related story: Cereal banks in Niger

FAO's Schmidhuber said as an alternative to real grain reserves, which are expensive to build and keep up, 'virtual grain stocks' should be developed; developing countries would purchase the right to buy at subsidised prices.

He said such alternatives would lead to a more efficient market that could also protect poor communities, adding that export bans and subsidies in the developed world distort markets and discourage production.

Progress is being made on both sides, he said. "We are starting to see a convergence between the developing and developed world as they shift these opposing approaches."

As the FAO's World Food Security Committee discusses these and other challenges in Rome from 14 to 17 October, Schmidhuber said governments should start by taking a simple step. "They need to do what they've said they are already committed to doing, and deliver the money."

October 16, 2008 | 2:05 PM Comments  0 comments
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Blog Action Day 2008: Make Poverty History
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Poverty is making people get mad. Support the world movement against poverty and be your brothers and sisters neighbour.

October 15, 2008 | 4:11 PM Comments  0 comments
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Corruption in Africa in the Cross-Hairs of UN-Sponsored Conference
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Scholars, policy makers and civil society leaders from within and outside Africa are currently meeting in Addis Ababa in a three-day United Nations-sponsored conference aimed at giving momentum to the fight against corruption on the continent.

It is vital for Africans to "regain the discourse and agenda on anti-corruption in Africa" and "explore ways by which [they] can effectively tackle the problem," UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Deputy Executive Secretary of ECA Lalla Ben Barka told the conference on "Institutions, Culture and Corruption in Africa" which opened yesterday.

She stressed the need for Africans to "think outside the box" in tackling the problem and urged delegates to "come up with practical suggestions and policy options on how we can move the anti-corruption drive ahead in Africa."

The conference, jointly organized by UNECA and the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa is (CODESRIA), an independent pan-African research organization, is one of the key events marking the Commission's 50th anniversary.

"The problem of corruption remains intractable in many African countries, and it is widely acknowledged that there is a need for more innovative, creative and strategic approaches to deal with it," UNECA said in a news release.

The Commission is currently at the forefront of the regional anti-corruption agenda and has adopted a holistic approach that includes engaging major stakeholders, such as the judiciary, national anti-corruption institutions, parliament and the pan-African body of national anti-corruption institutions in Africa.

In 2006 and 2007 UNECA conducted a study on "Deepening Judiciary Effectiveness in Combating Corruption" and convened two ad hoc expert meetings on its findings. The report on the study and its related expert meetings will soon be published and widely disseminated.

The Commission is currently undertaking a study assessing the efficiency and impact of national anti-corruption institutions in Africa." In February it will convene an ad hoc expert group meeting of heads of national anti-corruption institutions to present the findings of that study.

In addition, UNECA will shortly undertake training workshops for civil society organizations on monitoring and reporting corruption, the first of which will convene on 11-12 November in Kampala, Uganda.

October 15, 2008 | 4:08 PM Comments  0 comments
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IMF Calls for Focus on Food, Energy Crisis
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IMF Managing Director Dominique has called for special attention on food and energy on high food and energy prices in developing economies.

He said that the call became imperative, saying "as we deal with the financial crisis the world should not forget the other crisis facing developing economies, which are the problem of high food and energy prices".

He said: "We are in a big crisis, but don't forget the other ones (food and energy crises)."

The managing director spoke yesterday at a meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee on the sidelines of the 2008 World Bank/IMF Annual General Meetings in Washington DC. The committee is the policy-setting body representing the IMF's 185 member countries.

Strauss-Kahn urged donor countries not to abandon promises of aid to the developing world because of the financial crisis otherwise many of the worlds poorest would starve or suffer from malnutrition.

Also speaking, Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank Group, noted that in the face of the current downturn, the developed countries are not expected to help 28ccountriesreeling from twin shocks of rising food and fuel prices.

Zoellick stated: "For the poor, the costs of the crisis could be lifelong."

NAN reports that the IMF and the World Bank are holding annual meetings amid increasing strains in the global financial system caused by the spreading credit crisis triggered by the U.S. subprime meltdown.

Developing countries fear the financial crunch could affect them severely.

October 15, 2008 | 4:02 PM Comments  0 comments
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A day in the life of hyperinflation
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Tendai Moyo, 28, living in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, goes into a shop in the downtown area and heads for a shelf where, a day ago, she saw a feeding bottle she wanted to buy for her three-month-old son.

She picks it up and goes to the till, convinced she can afford this luxury for her child, but the cashier nonchalantly tells her the price has more than doubled, and the new price is more than the cash she has on her.

Moyo, a cleaner and one of the few people with a job in a country with an unemployment rate of more than 80 percent, storms out and joins a long queue at a nearby bank to see if she can withdraw more money.

After three hours, having withdrawn the maximum daily limit of Z$50,000 (US$) and added it to the $Z100,000 (US$) given to her by her husband, a driver for a commercial bank, she returns to the shop. She again picks up the feeding bottle, but is then told by the cashier that in her absence the price has gone up and she is now $Z30,000 short.

Moyo is no longer on maternity leave and had hoped to use the bottle for her son's formula because she cannot breastfeed him regularly.

"This price madness is frustrating, and it makes you hopeless because it seems it will never come to an end. I just don't understand why and how prices keep on increasing at such a rate," Moyo told IRIN. "I have given up and will have to use a cup instead of the bottle that is ideal for my son."

Navigating the official annual inflation rate of 231 million percent is as perplexing to the customers as it is to the vendors. "We spend more time changing price tags than serving customers. The branch manager visits the shop floor at least two times a day with a new list of prices for the commodities that are still in stock," the cashier at the shop, who declined to be identified, told IRIN.

"In fact, these days he spends more time in meetings with other managers than supervising us, and I suspect that it is at these meetings that changes to the prices are made." As inflation spirals, business has rapidly tapered off. Most customers walk into the shop, examine the price tags, shake their heads and walk out.

He said shoppers were sometimes annoyed, or made derisory remarks like: "You will have to buy these items yourselves before they rot, because we will never come back here!"

Three prices for one item


At another shop a few streets away, transactions in foreign currency have become accepted after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) recently allowed them.

A three-tier pricing system is used: some commodities are sold for foreign currency, others - mostly small and perishable goods - are sold for local currency, and another set of prices - marked up by more than a 1,000 percent - are for those paying by credit card.

"Never in my life have I seen one shop selling the same product using three different prices. It boggles the mind, and I cannot understand why the value of one item changes from one shelf to another," said Samuel Godzongi, an informal trader who left his job as an auto-electrician because the salary became meaningless.

Even the cost of commodities priced in foreign currency changed routinely. "It seems this is the only country in the world where goods bought in foreign currency are eaten up by inflation so fast," he said. "Besides, the prices are way ahead here as compared to neighbouring countries, and to me there is no justification for it."

He told IRIN that consumers had no option but to go without basic items, because "there just is no way in which you can buy them, unless you were to resort to robbery."

"What is even more painful is that no matter how much money you have in the bank, the daily withdrawal limits make it impossible for you to buy the items that you need. No matter how fast the central bank introduces higher denominations for the local currency, it cannot keep pace with the speed with which prices are galloping."

Innocent Makwiramiti, a Harare-based economist and former chief executive of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC), said licensing shops to sell in foreign currency was contributing to inflation.

Inflation and politics


"It should be remembered that black market [parallel market] rates of foreign currency are going up every day, if not several times a day. As a result, for goods sold in local currency, the prices go up as well in direct response, and retailers tend to use the foreign currency mark-ups to increase the prices of goods sold in cash," Makwiramiti told IRIN.

He said prices were also responding to the political climate, and the deadlock in talks since a power-sharing deal between President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change was signed on 15 September.

"After news that a political deal had been signed, parallel market rates fell and prices were beginning to respond. However, when it became clear that political parties had reached a deadlock, prices began to shoot up again, this time more steeply than ever before. It is mostly speculative," Makwiramiti said.

"With prices of basic commodities such as food now unaffordable to the majority, average workers have turned into beggars, going to restaurants during lunch time to ask for leftovers from the few who are still able to afford it."

October 15, 2008 | 1:13 PM Comments  0 comments
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Govt will do everything to resolve Niger Delta problems - President Yar'Adua
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President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has said that “we shall do anything as an Administration within available resources and the imperfect constitutional provisions within which we are constrained to operate” to solve the problems in the Niger Delta.

The President said this while receiving a delegation of South-south leaders in the State House on Tuesday October 14,. 2008.

Responding to the request for certain constitutional amendments in the bid to tackle the Niger Delta challenge, the President made it clear that while he “appreciated the issues raised and supported constitutional amendments, such must be undertaken as provided by the constitution” and should not become another excuse for allowing the problem to fester.

According to President Yar’Adua, with the creation of the Niger Delta Ministry, his administration was now poised to begin the implementation of its agenda for infrastructural development, cleaning the environment and youth empowerment in the Niger Delta.

While acknowledging that the 1999 Constitution may not be a perfect document and that its amendment was necessary, the president said it is not a preoccupation of his administration to engineer another elaborate effort at constitutional review. He added that “to tie our efforts in the Niger Delta to constitutional amendments would be a distraction at this point.”

Referring to the Niger Delta crisis as “a national problem,” the president urged those canvassing constitutional amendments to go through the National Assembly. “While I have no objections to your feelings about constitutional amendment I strongly believe we have to follow the procedures”. He added that “building a just, prosperous and equitable society is not an easy thing,” as it “requires patience, efforts and perseverance.”

President Yar’Adua who thanked the South-South Leaders for “frankly airing their views” and for their sacrifices to bringing peace not only to the Niger Delta but to the nation, assured them that his doors would “always be open to listen to advice and opinions that will help us find a lasting solution to national problems like that of Niger Delta.”

The leader of the 11-member delegation, Justice Adolphus Karibi Whyte, explained that they had come to present the resolutions of the Vanguard-organised South-South Legislative Retreat on Constitutional Review held in August 2008, to the Federal Government, commended the establishment of the Ministry of Niger Delta.

Part of the resolutions included amending the current Constitution to restore “true federalism.”

The delegation included Vanguard Publisher, Mr. Sam Amuka; Chief Edwin Clark, Mr. Ledum Mittee, Chief John Oyegun and Sen. Felix Ibru while Vice- President Goodluck Jonathan, the Ministers of Petroleum, Transportation and Science and Technology, and the NDDC Managing Director, Mr Timi Alaibe, also attended.

October 14, 2008 | 3:07 PM Comments  0 comments
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I fell like Fabrigas and Walcot
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Sometimes in ones life, he/she fells like oneself and sometimes like the other.

This part of my life must not sleep as it comes in contact with success.

I felt like Fabrigas against AC Milan today and felt like Theo Walcot against Coatia on Wednesday, when we completed a health programme.

I was meant to understand that in our world there is no us and them...and in this world, silence is death.

October 14, 2008 | 3:02 PM Comments  0 comments
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Multilateral System Needs Fundamental Overhaul, Zoellick Says
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The way the world tries to solve its economic problems needs to be rethought amid today's global crisis, including turning the Group of Seven into a Steering Group that empowers rising economic states, said World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick.

Referring to the upcoming U.S. election, Zoellick said the new president will have to move beyond "the firefight of financial stabilization" to address the "economic aftermath". Whoever wins the White House should work with others in modernizing the multilateral system as there needs to be a greater shared responsibility for the health and effective functioning of today's global economy.

"The G-7 is not working. We need a better group for a different time," Zoellick said in a speech to the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington D.C. "For financial and economic cooperation, we should consider a new Steering Group including Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the current G-7."

Speaking ahead of the Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group, Zoellick said the new Steering Group should be more than just replacing the G7 with a fixed-number G14, as this would be using old world methods to remake the new. The Steering Group should evolve to fit changing circumstances, including new emerging powers, while serving as a network for frequent interaction. "We need a Facebook for multilateral economic diplomacy," Zoellick said.

Warning about the effects of the financial crisis, Zoellick said: "The events of September could be a tipping point for many developing countries. A drop in exports, as well as capital inflow, will trigger a falloff in investments. Deceleration of growth and deteriorating financing conditions, combined with monetary tightening, will trigger business failures and possibly banking emergencies. Some countries will slip toward balance of payments crises. As is always the case, the most poor are the most defenseless."

The former U.S. diplomat, trade negotiator and financial executive, said economic multilateralism needed to be redefined beyond its traditional focus on finance and trade. Energy, climate change, and stabilizing fragile and post-conflict states were economic issues and not just part of the global dialogue on security and the environment.

Zoellick said the New Multilateralism must give an equal value to development as to international finance otherwise the world would remain an unstable place. But the aid system was not working well enough and it needed to move much more quickly and effectively to help those who were most vulnerable when crisis hits. The World Bank Group also needs reform. Zoellick announced the creation of a High Level Commission under the leadership of former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo to consider modernizing the governance of the World Bank Group.

Turning to multilateral trade talks, Zoellick said the Doha round "has hit the rocks" and countries should therefore consider trade facilitation as another way of cutting the costs of trade. "There are opportunities to cut costs of trade far in excess of those imposed by tariffs and other trade barriers," he said.

Describing world energy markets as "a mess", Zoellick called for a "global bargain" between energy producers and consumers. Both sides could share plans for expanding supplies, improving efficiency and lessening demand; assisting with energy for the poor; and considering how these policies related to carbon production and climate change policies.

"There could be a common interest in managing a price range that reconciles interests while transitioning toward lower carbon growth strategies, a broader portfolio of supplies, and greater international security," Zoellick said.

Zoellick said the World Bank Group is developing an Energy for the Poor initiative with a number of donors to help the poorest countries meet energy needs in efficient and sustainable ways.

October 14, 2008 | 2:16 PM Comments  1 comments
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