Financial Times: Funds Crunch Threatens World Food Aid
The United Nation’s World Food Programme is struggling as donor countries slash contributions to its funding. In recent weeks the WFP has quietly started reducing rations and closing down distribution operations in Africa and elsewhere. Donors, with spiraling fiscal deficits at home, have told the WFP to scale back its reach. Meanwhile the agency is facing extra calls from countries seeking food aid, as the economic crisis brings unemployment and a drop in remittances. The world’s leading hunger fighter had less than $1.5bn at the end of last week, out of a required budget of $6.4bn.

Wall Street Journal: Worse ’09, Better ’10 in Dueling Forecasts
The World Bank said Thursday it expects the global economy to contract by “close to 3%,” far bleaker than the bank’s March estimate. But a global recovery in 2010 may expand at a 2.4% clip, according to a briefing paper by the IMF, which credits the faster-than-expected rebound to stimulus spending by developed nations. The dueling forecasts indicate how difficult it is to predict the course of a downturn that has battered wealthy and poor countries alike. They come as ministers of the G7 prepare to meet in Italy to chart the next steps in addressing the economic downturn. World Bank President Robert Zoellick said that while there are signs the recession may be easing in wealthy countries, developing nations are seeing a drop in exports, remittances and foreign investment.

Wall Street Journal: Vaccine Plan Aims to Spur Drug Development for Poor Countries
A group of wealthy nations is launching a first-of-its-kind program designed to encourage the development of vaccines for diseases common to poor countries. Instead of buying existing drugs and giving them away, the donors will guarantee pharmaceutical companies a future market big enough to justify developing and manufacturing new vaccines needed in nations too impoverished to afford them on their own. The donors — Italy, the U.K., Canada, Russia, Norway and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — plan to announce the initiative Friday on the sidelines of the G8 meeting in Italy.

New York Times: Zimbabwe Divisions Pose a Quandary for West
As Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai makes a tour of the US and Europe, President Obama and other Western leaders face a quandary: How do they help Mr. Tsvangirai and Zimbabwe without bolstering Robert Mugabe? Mr. Tsvangirai has insisted that he is not coming with a begging bowl, but clearly he and his party hope that the United States and other Western democracies will provide more aid to help rebuild Zimbabwe’s devastated health and education systems. Most acutely, Mr. Tsvangirai needs to find a way to pay teachers and other civil servants more than the $100 monthly allowance that is all the government can now afford. For his part, Mr. Mugabe seems determined to belittle Mr. Tsvangirai and sabotage his international tour.

Financial Times Editorial: Climate Change, for Richer and Poorer
The FT’s Editorial board writes, “only months before December’s Copenhagen meeting, where 181 countries are supposed to slug out a post-Kyoto protocol, bluster inevitably outweighs real concessions.” The US and China, among others, are currently at an impasse on climate change policy agreements. In order for developing countries to improve their carbon emissions, the FT urges, “rich countries must lead. They must put money on the table so poor countries see financial gains from combating climate change. They should also offer genuine research and technology collaboration – cheap, but symbolically important for countries such as China. If rich countries move, they may find China and others are willing to respond.”

Reuters: Gaddafi Says Will Ask G8 for Africa Resolution
Chairman of the African Union and Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi said on Thursday that he will press industrialized nations at the G8 summit to make a commitment to compensate African countries for the violations of the colonial period. Italian diplomats have said Gaddafi could meet U.S. President Barack Obama at the summit, which would be the first meeting between the Libyan leader and a U.S. president.

-Grace Lamb-Atkinson