What We’re Reading 3/10/09

Mar 10th, 2009 1:35 PM UTC
By Steve Wilson

Reuters—IMF chief promises Africa changes as crisis bites
International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn told Africans on Monday that the Fund’s policy advice had not always been right, and promised more streamlined lending practices as economic crisis forces more countries to seek help. An IMF conference with Strauss-Kahn starting on today in the Tanzanian capital seeks to reassure policymakers that the Fund wants to help preserve the economic and social gains made in Africa during the last 10 years. “I want to have a kind of a partnership with African countries which is … different from what we had in the past,” Strauss-Kahn said.

Financial Times—IMF says Africa growth set to halve
The IMF also recently warned that economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa is set to halve from the average of the past decade to just over 3 percent in 2009 as the continent is hit by the “third wave” of the global economic crisis. Antoinette Sayeh, director of the IMF’s Africa department, said the crisis that began in developed economies and then hit emerging markets was now hurting the world’s poorest continent via low global commodity prices, tighter credit markets and depressed external demand.

Reuters—Sudan expulsions of NGOs leave aid gap: UN
The Sudanese government is unable to take on the work of aid groups it has ordered out of the country’s war-ravaged Darfur region, the top U.N. humanitarian affairs official said on Monday. The African nation shut down 13 foreign and three local non-governmental organizations, saying they helped the International Criminal Court issue an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. The U.N. predicted a daunting challenge if the government in Khartoum didn’t reverse its expulsion of the groups, which the U.N. said accounted for approximately half of the humanitarian aid capacity in Darfur.

AP—Bill Clinton, UN chief make high-profile push for progress in impoverished Haiti
Bill Clinton and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon sought to refocus international attention on Haiti with a visit yesterday that they hope will secure more aid to keep the impoverished country from sliding back into chaos. The two leaders toured Haiti’s capital and met with officials struggling with high food prices and the enduring effects of four devastating 2008 storms. The leaders called for more foreign aid and urged Haiti’s weak central government to take charge of its own development.

Washington Post—U.S. to Toughen Its Stance On Trade
The Washington Post reports that even as world trade takes its steepest drop in 80 years amid the global economic crisis, the Obama administration is preparing to take a harder line with America’s trading partners. It will seek new benchmarks before supporting already-written trade agreements with Colombia and South Korea and is suggesting that it will dig in its heels on global trade talks, demanding that other countries make broader concessions first.

-Steve Wilson

TAGS: Policy News, What We're Reading