Developing countries seek more aid

Washington: An important group of developing countries urged advanced nations on Friday to step up financial aid to help them deal with the severe impact of higher food and energy prices and the turmoil in global financial markets.

The Group of 24 developing countries also wants the United States and other major industrialised nations to take decisive action to deal with the present economic and financial crises, specifically by more closely monitoring and supervising the markets.

The G24 said Friday in a communique that coordinated international action is needed to prevent the emergence of a larger crisis and agreed the International Monetary Fund has an important role in responding to the current crisis. They also urged the IMF's sister institution, the World Bank, to increase advice and financial support.

The G24 met on the sidelines of the spring meetings this weekend of the two 185-nation Washington-based lending institutions founded after World War II to monitor the global economy and help poor nations reduce poverty. The G24 includes developing countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America. China participates as an observer.

Jean-Claude Masangu-Mulongo, chairman of the G24 and governor of Congo's central bank, said the world was facing "an unprecedented financial crisis that began ... in the heart of the system, the US, and is spreading."

The communique was unusual in the amount of advice it offered advanced countries. Usually the communiques speak of how the G24 will deal with recommendations it receives from the rich countries and the international financial institutions. Ministers in several developing countries have noted smugly in recent months that the current crisis did not originate in one of their countries, as happened in the late 1990s.

The G24 welcomed a proposal made last month by World Bank President Robert Zoellick for a "New Deal for a Global Food Policy" to combat hunger and malnutrition through a combination of emergency aid and efforts to boost agricultural productivity.

According to Rising Food Prices: Policy Options and World Bank Response, increases in global wheat prices reached 181 per cent over the 36 months leading up to February 2008, and overall global food prices increased by 83 per cent.

Food crop prices are expected to remain high in 2008 and 2009 and then begin to decline, but they are likely to remain well above the 2004 levels through 2015 for most food crops.

Humanitarian crisis: UN seeks Gulf participation

UN humanitarian chief John Holmes called upon Gulf countries to work with the United Nations and other international actors to address both individual humanitarian crises and complex global challenges of rising food prices and the effects of climate change.

"The deteriorating humanitarian situations in countries such as the occupied Palestinian territories, Iraq, Somalia, Kenya and Darfur, and the humanitarian consequences of rising food prices and climate change require a fully coordinated international response," said the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator during the last day of his mission to the Gulf region.

- WAM