Good News, Bad News

December 14th, 2007 at 3:31 am

First the good:

Reuters: Donors pledge $8.9 billion for AfDB loan fund
Wed 12 Dec 2007, 8:23 GMT

LONDON (Reuters) – Donor countries pledged $8.9 billion to the African Development Bank to be made available in loans to the continent’s poorest countries, the bank said on Monday, a more than 50 percent increase.

Representatives at a donor meeting in London said the focus would be on infrastructure, governance and regional integration promoting agriculture, gender equality, environmental sustainability, climate change adaptation and private sector development, a statement said.

“If we are serious about giving Africa a chance, then we have to be serious about backing African institutions,” said British development minister Shirti Vadera. “If not now, when?

The bank said the new pledges increased resources available to its African Development Fund, which provides loans for development projects and is replenished every three years, by 52 percent over the previous 2005 to 2007 period.

The bank said 7.5 percent of the resources would be put into a fund for fragile states recovering from conflict, 17.5 per cent on multinational operations promoting greater integration on the continent and 75 percent distributed based on the performance of African countries themselves, with the aim of promoting good governance and accountability in each country.

Now the bad:

This week the Senate rejected two amendments to the farm bill that would put caps on subsidies to large US farming operations: the Lugar-Lautenburg FRESH Amendment and the Grassley-Dorgan Payment Limits Amendment.

Farm bill subsidies hurt small farmers in developing countries across the world by causing US farmers to flood international markets with corn and other crops. This makes it difficult for small farmers to get a decent price for their crops so that they may earn a livable wage.

The Grassley-Dorgan Amendment came very close to the 60 votes it needed to pass. The final count was 56-43. While the amendment didn’t pass, a lot of momentum was gained. In five more years, when the farm bill is up for renewal again, we might just have enough momentum to finally reform subsidy payments. Keep the pressure on!

Go here to see if your senators supported the Grassley-Dorgan Amendment.

Nick Stevens, OCC Regional Outreach Ambassador