International
Doha
Alarm bells for WTO’s proposed cotton deal
You may have heard the news that the leaders of the most powerful developed and developing countries called for a conclusion of the World Trade Organisation (WTO)’s Doha Development Round by the end of 2010 last week at the G8 L’Aquila Summit in Italy.
As trade diplomats negotiate towards a deal, they must make sure that poor countries, particularly in Africa, are integrated into the world trading system. By participating fully in the global economy, countries can earn sustainable resources through exports and ensure that their development concerns are prioritised. Prospects are not looking promising in this regard—a senior African agricultural economist, Mr. Abdoulaye Zonon, raised alarms that the current deal proposed at the WTO to cut cotton subsidies offers little hope to African countries as the proposed cuts apply to only a fraction of actual payments made to its farmers by the US government.
The Doha Deal: Outcomes for Africa
After heading back from the Financing for Development conference in Doha, ONE’s Berlin-based Policy Manager Andreas Huebers pulled together an analysis of what the final outcomes could mean for Africa and other developing countries. Some excerpts of his analysis are below and the full policy brief is available here.
Although the final outcome document from Doha was not as ambitious as ONE had hoped, the “Doha Deal” struck on the last day of the conference does contain some important language on ONE’s core issues and opens the way towards a strengthened follow-up-process for financing the Millennium Development Goals.
Some positive outcomes of the deal include the following:
- Aid promises: Pledges on aid quantity and quality were weakly reaffirmed. The historic commitments made in Gleneagles to increase ODA by $50 billion globally (with $25 billion of that increase dedicated to Africa) were repeated in a contorted way, by welcoming the Hokkaido-Summit declaration that the G8 are “firmly committed to working to fulfill these commitments”.
- Innovative finance: The outcome document mentions existing mechanisms such as Advanced Market Commitments (AMCs), IFFIM and the air ticket tax.
- Trade and investment: The final document recognizes that development assistance can play a catalytic role in mobilizing private flows. On trade, it reaffirms “special and differential treatment” of developing countries and urges countries to reach agreement by the end of the year on modalities for the Doha Development Round of trade negotiations. It also calls for timely and full implementation of aid for trade commitments as a complement (not a substitute) to the conclusion of the Doha Round.
- Tax evasion and capital flight: The outcome document requests that the UN’s Economic and Social Council make a proposal on this issue. The World Bank’s Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR) is mentioned in general language and the document calls for additional measures to prevent transfer of stolen assets from developing countries to accounts in the developed countries.
- External debt: The “Doha Deal” mentions a “debt restructuring mechanism based on existing frameworks and principles,” (which can be interpreted as the continuation of the debt negotiations in the creditor-driven Paris Club) and also speaks of “joint responsibility for debt sustainability.”
- Role of developing countries in shaping a global response to the financial crisis: Participants agreed to hold a high-level UN conference in 2009 on the financial crisis and its impact on development. Many other decisions (such as a strengthened follow-up mechanism) were pushed to spring 2009, and a follow-up conference in 2013 is being considered.
- Role of emerging donors: The document includes very general language on South-South cooperation and calls on “new donors” to adhere to principles of aid effectiveness.
The conference was also used to kick off a couple promising new initiatives- the UK launched its Aid-for Trade Strategy and announced that it will spend £400 million annually on aid for trade by 2010. The international task force on innovative financing for health met for the first time and decided to have the next meeting in the spring in London. Germany, Pakistan and the Global Fund also signed a debt2health agreement, through which Germany will cancel $40 million of Pakistan’s debt and Pakistan will contribute $20 million to the Global Fund. Subsequently, the Global Fund will increase their financing of health programs in Pakistan by that amount.
-Andreas Huebers
Doha Recap
We just wrapped up our Doha blogging series, but wanted to share this video we put together recapping the trip. Enjoy!
-Chris Scott
The Doha Conference Begins
The UN Doha Conference kicked off Saturday. As expected, there were many world leaders present, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Emir Sheikh Hamad of Qatar, President Sarkozy of France (also the president of EU), President of the EU Commission Manuel Barroso, and many African leaders, including President Kikwete of Tanzania (also the president of AU) and President Kibaki of Kenya. President Sarkozy called for the Bretton Woods Institutions (World Bank and the IMF) to be more inclusive and for better African representation within the UN Security Council.
In a very frank statement Emir Sheikh Hamad al-Thani said that oil-producing states, like Qatar, often “have the feeling that there are some attempts to put the whole burden of development” on them, and cautioned against excess of expectations, above and beyond their capabilities. Alongside the plenary sessions we often listen to a long line of leaders and heads of delegations who read out their speeches … a-always very, um, interesting..!
The contents of the Conference outcome document is negotiated in a different room at the working level. Most of these meetings are not open to the civil society, so we weren’t able to listen to the actual negotiations, but we hear that tough negotiations are going on between the member states, and we, the NGOs are working hard to make sure that the aid commitments that were reiterated in G8 Toyako Communique are not toned down. One thing really stirred the participants up: At noon there was the news that EU and the G7 already agreed on a final text for the outcome. The excitement was soon over as it turned out that Japan, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and particularly the US still had a number of reservations on the text. So negotiations will go on for a while. There are still some issues in the areas of reforming trading systems, timetables on ODA, debt, the consequences of climate change and of course about the consequences of the current financial crisis.
Rollercoaster in Doha
“It’s down to only the last three issues.”
“It is starting all anew.”
“We will have a final document within the next hours.”
“There won’t be a solution before Tuesday.”
Rumors are flying back and forth in the hallways of the Sheraton hotel at the 3rd day of the Doha conference. While the side events at the conference continue and stir useful discussions about new and innovative financing or Africa’s reaction to the financial crisis (check out Miki only steps away from Tanzania’s president Kikwete) the delegations are wrestling behind closed doors about the final outcome document.
And while we are busy finding out if the new agreement would be a good or not so good outcome we are struck by the news that the delegations are renegotiating large parts of the document again.
After several hours and a repeatedly postponed press briefing of the US delegation the heads of the US, German, Japanese and other industrialized countries took an unusual break: Obviously tired from endless negotiations in closed hotel lobbies they decided to meet for a quick chat among themselves at the terrace of the hotel – attracting quite some attention by the participants.
But obviously this airy meeting under the starry skies of Doha did not lead to the final breakthrough. Right now the negotiations are still ongoing, particularly about how to reflect the financial crisis. The poor countries want to have more influence on the global financial framework reforms.
-Sergius Seebohm
Walking through Doha
ONE’s Sergius Seebohm is reporting from the ground for the Nov 29 – Dec 2 Doha conference. Below, he talks about the city of Doha, Qatar, itself.
The capital of Qatar is a fascinating place. The vision of Sheikh Hamad bin Chalifa Al Thani, who is audaciously reinventing his country to be a leading player in the 21st century, is visible everywhere: skyscrapers are growing into the sky where only a few years ago there was nothing but sand. Together with his wife, Sheika Mozah Bint Nasser al Misned, the Emir is investing the wealth stemming from rich oil and gas resources to modernize Qatar. One of the best known expressions of the Emir’s ideas was the establishment of the broadcasting station Al Jazeera in 1996.
The Qataris were aware of the fact that they would not be able to bring about an economical upswing all on their own. So they invited guest workers from around the globe to help build the country. About 80 percent out of Qatar’s approximate 1.5m inhabitants are foreigners. College professors, engineers, but also maids, taxi drivers and construction workers: it is a vivid and multinational community – which is impossible to overlook in Doha’s streets – and which contributed to transforming Qatar into one of the most modern places in the world within just a few years.
ONE Heads to Doha
A team from ONE is going to Doha this week for the UN Financing for Development Conference. This is a follow-up conference to the 2002 conference, where the famous Monterrey Consensus (well, famous at least among development geeks like us) was adopted by the heads of states around the world. The “Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development to Review the Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus” (phew, long name!) aims to “assess the progress made, reaffirm goals and commitments, share best practices and lessons learned and identify obstacles and constraints encountered, actions and initiatives to overcome them and important measures for further implementation, as well as new challenges and emerging issues”.
The Doha Conference occurs at an economically challenging time, but we are going to try our best to make sure that the rich countries don’t backtrack on their development promises, and to try to explore new opportunities for funding development. In particular, we are going to focus our efforts on the following points:
- G8 countries to reiterate their existing commitment to increase ODA and reassure developing countries that these will be forthcoming
- International community to explore concrete steps that can be taken to advance innovative financing mechanisms, including carbon finance for development
- Encourage new donors, especially oil exporting countries, to follow the example of Scandinavian and other countries, to spend more on fighting poverty
Stay tuned to the ONE Blog for updates from our team on the ground in Doha!
-Mikiko Imai
UPDATE: ONE’s policy brief for Doha conference.
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The International ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, with guest contributions from ONE volunteers, members and allies.
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TAGS: Doha, Trade, Uncategorized