What We’re Reading 4/24/09

Apr 24th, 2009 1:40 PM UTC
By Steve Wilson

At a press conference yesterday held by ONE in Washington ahead of weekend meetings of the IMF and World Bank, activist Bob Geldof and African and U.S. officials urged the IMF to use profits from the sale of its gold to help Africa survive the global financial crisis.

Reuters—Geldof urges IMF to use gold profits to aid Africa

Top officials at the World Bank and the IMF pledged yesterday also to increase their lending to poor countries, warning that the global financial crisis was far from over. Yet ahead of this weekend’s Spring Meetings, the officials are also struggling to nail down enough commitments to meet the goal set at the G20 to provide $1.1 trillion in extra support to the international lending institutions.

NY Times—Global Finance Officials Promise More Help, but Seek It, Too

In advance of World Malaria Day, U.S. Congressmen Donald Payne (D-N.J) and John Boozman (R-Ark.), members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, write that we have the tools and know-how to end malaria deaths by 2015. “With the advancements in medicine and the low cost of treatment,” they write, “there is no reason for malaria to infect millions of people in 106 countries…. Programs like the president’s Malaria Initiative and Global Fund are actively working to get rid of malaria and we can support their efforts to rid the world of this devastating disease.”

The Hill—Malaria’s death toll shocking but can be cut to zero

The new U.S. ambassador for global women’s issues pledged Thursday the Obama administration’s “deep commitment” to a U.N. blueprint aimed at slowing the world’s population explosion and empowering women. At the heart of the action plan adopted at a U.N. population conference in Cairo 15 years ago is a demand for women’s equality through education, economic development, and access to modern birth control. The U.S. ambassador, Melanne Verveer, said President Obama’s decision to contribute $50 million to the U.N. Population Fund, an increase of more than 100 percent over the last U.S. contribution, in 2001, “will send an unambiguous signal to the world that the U.S. supports the Cairo Platform for Action.”

AP—US targets population growth, urges women’s power

Poor countries are still struggling with rising food prices, despite sharp falls in international markets and a plentiful global supply of cereals, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation has warned. World cereal production is expected to decline by 3 percent this year from its record in 2008, but would still be the second largest crop production level ever. Nonetheless, the FAO says cereal prices in developing countries remain very high – in some cases at record levels.

Reuters—Food prices still rising in many poor countries – UN

Recent headlines focusing on the rash of pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia should instead focus on the humanitarian crisis driving Somalis to commit crimes on the high seas, the international aid group Oxfam said yesterday. An estimated one-third of Somalia’s population desperately needs emergency aid, Oxfam said. “Without economic opportunities offering alternatives to criminality, and without law and order to curb these activities, then the massive economic returns of hijacking ships will continue to drive piracy,” an Oxfam official said.

CNN—Aid groups: Humanitarian crisis leads to piracy

-Steve Wilson

TAGS: ONE