Jun 27, 2010
By: Climate-L.org
G-20 Toronto Summit.
The first Summit of the G-20 in its capacity as the premier forum for international economic cooperation convened in Toronto, Canada, on 26-27 June 2010. The Summit concluded with the adoption of a final Declaration that, among other issues, addresses development and environmental issues, including climate change and energy.
In the Declaration, the G-20 leaders reiterate their commitment to their core development mandates and to taking up a greater role in the provision of global solutions to transnational problems, such as climate change and food security. They note that they have fulfilled the Pittsburgh Summit commitment on the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), which includes a US$350 billion in capital increases to strengthen their focus on lifting the lives of the poor, underwriting growth, and addressing climate change and food security.
The G-20 leaders further reiterate their commitment to a green recovery and to sustainable global growth. Those among the G-20 associated with the Copenhagen Accord reaffirm their support to it and to its implementation, and call on others to associate with it. The G-20 leaders also express committment to engage in negotiations under the UNFCCC on the basis of its objective provisions and principles, including common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, and determination to ensure a successful outcome through an inclusive process at the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 16) to the UNFCCC in Cancun, Mexico, from 29 November-20 December 2010. In addition, they express anticipation as to the outcome of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing and its work on exploring innovative financing.
The G-20 leaders also note with appreciation the report on energy subsidies from the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the World Bank. They welcome the work of Finance and Energy Ministers in delivering implementation strategies and timeframes, based on national circumstances, for the rationalization and phase out over the medium term of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption, taking into account vulnerable groups and their development needs. They encourage continued and full implementation of country-specific strategies and commit to continue to review progress towards this commitment at upcoming summits.
Finally, the Declaration mentions the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, recognizing the need to share best practices to protect the marine environment, prevent accidents related to offshore exploration and development, as well as transportation, and deal with their consequences. In addition, the G-20 leaders commit to exploring the potential of innovative, results-based mechanisms such as advance market commitments to harness the creativity and resources of the private sector in achieving breakthrough innovations in food security and agriculture development in poor countries, with a view to reporting on progress at the upcoming G-20 summit, to be held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, on 11-12 November 2010. They further establish a Working Group on Development to elaborate, consistent with the G-20’s focus on measures to promote economic growth and resilience, a development agenda and multi-year action plans to be adopted at the Seoul Summit. [The Declaration] [Summit website]
Jun 28, 2010
By: Louis Charbonneau
Leaders of the Group of 20 club of big developed and developing economies agreed over the weekend in Canada to take different paths for cutting budget deficits and making their banking systems safer, a reflection of the uneven and fragile economic recovery in many countries.
“We are all concerned about about rising deficits and public debt,” Ban told reporters in New York. “But we cannot balance budgets on the backs of the world’s poorest people. We cannot abandon our commitment to the most vulnerable.”
Global anti-poverty groups have joined Ban recently in criticizing the G20 and the Group of Eight rich nations club of not delivering on promises of aid for poor developing nations.
“We must keep a strong focus on the longer term,” he said.
The United Nations supports the G20 declaration over the weekend that “narrowing the development gap and reducing poverty are integral to our broader objective of achieving strong, sustainable and balanced growth,” Ban said.
Ban, who attended the summit, said he was advocating three types of investment that he said would yield “high and immediate returns” — investment in jobs, “green” environmentally friendly technology, and health and health care systems, especially for women and children.
Last week a U.N. report said efforts to cut hunger worldwide have been undermined by the global economic crisis, though the world remains on track to meet a goal of reducing poverty by 2015.
Jun 29, 2010
By: calgaryflames.com
Five Hole for Food. Photo: calgaryflames.com
The Calgary Flames and Calgary Hitmen are proud to announce their support of Five Hole For Food, a cross-Canada street hockey charity event that will see creator Richard Loat and his co-driver, Vic Lo, play nine games in nine cities over a whirlwind 10-day trip. Playing in support of local food banks around the country, Loat came up with a concept that would appeal both to Canada’s love for hockey and its giving nature. In each game, participants bring in donations to the food bank in their city before the ball is dropped and the fun begins.
Five Hole For Food will be making a stop in Calgary on Monday, July 5th, kicking off the first of two Alberta games on the tour. The ball will drop in Eau Claire Market and the game will have a spin on it: it will be Flames fans vs. Canucks fans, building on the already intense rivalry between the two Western Conference NHL clubs.
Kicking off at 4:00 PM, the game is open to anyone who brings down a stick and a donation, be it food items or cash. Anyone who donates to the Calgary Interfaith Food Bank will have their names entered to win several prizes, including some Flames autographed gear. The player who donates the most food will win a team-signed autographed jersey.
The Interfaith Food Bank will be on hand to take in donations. They will be offering tax receipts for monetary donations.
“I’m particularly excited to come to Calgary because not only is it a great hockey city but our Canucks and Flames rivalry themed games is going to be one of the most exciting of the trip,” Loat said. “We couldn’t ask for a better location as we’re right on the water and some of the best hockey fans I’ve met have been Calgarians.”
Wanting to reach the widest audience he could, Loat has used social media to expose the event all over the country. The event’s Facebook page and Twitter account (@FiveHoleForFood) have over 500 people involved in Five Hole For Food and that number continues to grow as the start date approaches.
For more information on participating or donating to Five Hole For Food in Calgary, contact Torie Peterson at (403) 809-6926 or torie@fiveholeforfood.com
Jun 26, 2010
A commentary by David King, secretary general of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) and spokesman for the Farming First coalition.
A man selling beans at Katine market. Photograph: Martin Godwin
This weekend, as G8 and G20 leaders gather in Canada to discuss the most pressing global issues, discussions surrounding food security must focus on the need for collaboration, coordination and coherence around food security initiatives. Most importantly, as the primary producer of our food, farmers should play a central role in developing the solutions needed to feed our rapidly expanding global population.
The G8’s L’Aquila commitment in 2009 and the subsequent launch earlier this year of the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme (GAFSP), which the World Bank is responsible for managing, are important illustrations of the commitment to action of countries around the world. However, while the renewed attention and investment in agriculture are welcomed and needed, the proliferation of food security initiatives runs the risk of efforts by the global agricultural institutions becoming disjointed or overlapping. For instance, the UN’s secretary-general appointed a high-level taskforce on the global food security crisis (HLTF) to coordinate global efforts, yet this initiative is not connected with the G8 or with its food security investments.
So far, US$880m has been pledged for the GAFSP. Billions more have been pledged by many countries to support food security initiatives, but only limited information is available about how this money is being delivered and how the programmes are being developed. Additionally, many only involve farmers indirectly in their planning and implementation.
Transparency around implementing these proposals is an absolute necessity if we are to overcome the hunger and extreme poverty that already affects more than one-sixth of the global population: a figure that threatens to rise.
While we farmers have excellent relationships with many of these decision makers, farmers’ organisations continue to struggle to be recognised as an integral part of shaping future food security agendas. As it stands, farmers are still waiting for the invitation to help shape how these programmes, such as the GAFSP, will be turned into actions.
There can be no food security without farmer security, and farming policies must not neglect the critical role that farmers play in making food security and sustainable development a reality. Excluding farmers perpetuates food insecurity and risks the mistakes of the past being repeated, such as the structural adjustment programmes of the 1980s, which reoriented the economies of developing countries toward agricultural exports that serviced World Bank debts, while facing the reality of a devalued currency and reduced farm incomes globally. Concomitantly, national budget allocations for agriculture were hugely reduced, and developing countries were forced to open up their economies to world market forces for which they were not well prepared.
In addition, farmers’ livelihoods are threatened by climate change. Investments and research are needed to create resilience to such shocks or they will send millions more into poverty. In southern Africa, farmers are already feeling the effects of climate change, as long-term outlooks show that precipitation may be reduced by as much as 40%. In 2006, maize, the main staple of the region, actually fell by 2.18 million metric tonnes due to droughts in Namibia, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Read more: G8 and G20: Where is the farmer in debates about food security?
Jun 27, 2010
By: Lesley Wroughton and Gernot Heller
Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks at a news conference at the G8 Summit at the Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, Ontario, June 25, 2010. Credit: Reuters/Jim Young
G8 wealthy countries said on Saturday the global economic crisis threatened to undermine 2015 global targets for halving extreme poverty around the world.
In a communique at the end of a two-day summit in a lake resort north of Toronto, the Group of Eight failed to acknowledge its unmet aid promises, which fell $18 billion short of a $50 billion target by 2010.
Instead, the G8 trumpeted a new $5 billion initiative to reduce deaths among mothers and their newborns, which has become a growing concern in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
The G8 meeting took place under a cloud of doubt about the strength of the economic recovery and the state of public finances, which has left leaders unable to offer bolder aid commitments.
“A decade of policy commitments and joint efforts with our partners has brought significant progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” the communique read.
“But both developed and developing countries must do more; meanwhile, the (economic) crisis has jeopardized advancement toward meeting some of the 2015 targets,” it added.
It said meeting the 2015 poverty goals — agreed on by the leaders of more than 150 nations in 2000 — was a “shared responsibility” and urged greater efforts to ensure the targets were met in Africa.
With just five years before the 2015 deadline, leaders of U.N. member states are scheduled to meet in September in New York to seek ways to achieve the targets.
The first day of the G8 summit included African nations Senegal, Malawi, South Africa, Nigeria, Malawi and Egypt, also Haiti and Jamaica. They left without making statements.
The G8 called on developing countries “to meet their primary responsibilities for social and economic development and good governance, in the interests of their citizens.
The G8 countries said they remained committed to providing aid to the world’s neediest countries, but provided no timelines.
While the world as a whole is on track to meet the 2015 deadline to cut extreme poverty by 50 percent, the goals are off-track in Africa and parts of Southeast and East Asia where tens of millions of people will remain immersed in poverty because of the economic crisis, the United Nations said last week.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said meeting the MDGs was a concern to all, adding the G8 mother-and-child initiative was an important step to achieving the goals. “The world cannot thrive on imbalances, be it macroeconomic or others,” he told reporters.
Read more: G8 says economic crisis threatens anti-poverty goal
Jun 25, 2010
By: Ethan Cole
Ahead of the G8 meeting in Canada this weekend, religious leaders from diverse faiths and countries issued a statement on Wednesday calling for the fulfillment of the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals.
Some 80 senior leaders representing nine different faiths – Christian, Aboriginal, Bahai, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Shinto, and Sikh – and hailing from more than 20 countries urged political leaders to fulfill the MDGs.
They pointed out that the MDGs will approach the two-thirds deadline this September.
The MDGs are eight social development and poverty alleviation goals that governments worldwide have committed to fulfill by 2015. They include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases, and reducing child mortality.
“Military power and economic dominance are the basis for inclusion in a G8 and G20 global leaders’ summit,” the statement by faith leaders reads. “The voices of the other 172 members of the United Nations are absent.”
“In our faith traditions, we strive to listen to the weak and the vulnerable,” it continues. “Their voices must be included in decisions that affect them and all of us.”
The religious leaders, which include the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners and the Rev. Dr. Andre Karamaga, general secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches, have called specifically for concrete actions to meet the immediate needs of the world’s most vulnerable, to prioritize long-term environmental sustainability, and to work for peace and remove factors that feed into violent conflict.
A record-high of one billion people, the faith leaders emphasized, are now chronically hungry every day, according to the U.N. World Food Program statistic. Faith leaders said despite differences in their religions, a common tenet is that people should treat others as they want to be treated.
“The suffering of anyone is of concern to us all,” they wrote. “Our prayers and wishes for wisdom and compassion are with our political leaders at this critical moment.”
The G8 summit will take place June 25-27 in Ontario, Canada. The larger G20 summit is also scheduled for June 26-27 in Ontario.
Jun 25, 2010
By: Steve Baragona
Five nations will receive the first grants from a new fund aimed at helping developing-world farms like this one in Haiti. Photo: Courtesy: Kiskeya Aqua Ferme
Five nations will receive the first grants from a new and unusual fund aimed at helping developing-world farmers.
Bangladesh, Haiti, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Togo will receive a total of $224 million from the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program, a new World Bank-administered fund set up following a pledge by leaders of the Group of 8 countries last year to commit more development aid to agriculture.
Advocates praise the new fund, but say not all of the G8 nations are living up to their pledges.
Food price crisis
When G8 leaders met in L’Aquila, Italy, last July, the 2008 food price crisis was fresh in their minds. High prices for staple foods had pushed more than 100 million people into poverty and hunger and triggered riots in several countries.
Led by the Obama administration, the G8 pledged $22 billion to boost food production in developing countries. Last September, in Pittsburgh, the G20 called for a fund to be set up at the World Bank to channel some of that pledge.
The five grants announced this week are the first to come from that fund.
‘Making good on promises’
“It is…the first real and strong signal that the international community is serious,” says Navtej Dhillon, senior advisor with the U.S. Treasury Department. “It’s about some of the donors making good on their promises.”
The donors are an unusual group. It includes G8 members the United States and Canada, but also Spain and South Korea, as well as the private foundation of software tycoon Bill Gates.
And it’s not just the donors that are unusual. The funds are administered by the World Bank, and program manager Christopher Delgado says there is an unusual amount of coordination among the donors and with the recipient countries.
Read more: Farmers in 5 Nations Receive Funds From G8
Jun 23, 2010
By: Abimbola Akosile
Leaders of the biggest industrialised and developing nations have been told to focus on development, green growth and the needs of the most vulnerable, in devising recovery strategies; against a background of the continued fragility of the global economic system.
The call was contained in a letter written by the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, to leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) nations, wherein he said, “I encourage support for initiatives that will sustain recovery efforts while enhancing global economic stability, environmental sustainability and achievement of the MDGs”, referring to the Millennium Development Goals.
Leaders of the G20 nations are meeting in Toronto, Canada, on 26 and 27 June, with a second summit planned for November in Seoul, Republic of Korea. The Toronto gathering will immediately follow the annual summit of the Group of Eight (G8) leading economic powers – Canada, France, United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, Japan, and Italy – hosted by Canada in Huntsville, Ontario, on 25 June.
In his letter, made public recently, the Secretary-General noted that high unemployment, rising food and commodity prices, and persistent inequalities have contributed to a substantial rise in hunger, poverty and associated social tensions.
“Now, more than ever, investments for the world’s poorest are necessary to recover lost ground in pursuit of development objectives, including the Millennium Development Goals,” he stated.
Mr. Ban is convening a summit in New York in September during which world leaders will commit to concrete actions to achieve the MDGs – which range from halving poverty and hunger to boosting primary education and maternal and child health – by the target date of 2015.
Read more: Focus On Devt, Green Growth, Govts Told
Jun 24, 2010
By: Voice of America
Shenggen Fan, IFPRI Director-General.
The G8 summit gets underway Friday in Muskoka, Canada. While leaders are expected to concentrate on global economic and security issues, they’re also expected to review the status of the Millennium Development Goals.
The 8 goals have a target date of 2015 for big improvements in such issues as poverty, health, gender equality, among others.
The Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute, or IFPRI, is calling on G8 leaders to fulfill their commitments to sharply reducing hunger. Shenggen Fan, IFPRI’s Director-General, is calling on leaders to take a “business as unusual approach.”
“I think the European debt crisis, the appreciation of the Chinese Yuan and the recovery of the global economy are important, but in the meantime do not ignore and neglect food security,” he says. Fan warns, “If we do, it will be too late to fix.”
High prices
High prices and shortages marked the food crisis several years ago. There have been improvements since then, but problems remain.
“The food prices have come down mainly due to increased supply from China, India, U.S. and Europe. But food prices remain very high in many parts of the world, particularly in Africa. For example, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda. They’re still facing very high food prices. So the global food crisis is not over yet,” he says.
There’s been much talk since the food crisis began to boost investment in agriculture.
Fan says, “Many donors, many international organizations have committed to increase their funding for global food security. That’s a good trend. But we have to convert this commitment of pledges to real action, real implementation. And we need to monitor which donors, which countries have really met their commitments.”
Implementation and commitments mean money. “That’s right,’ says Fan, “For example, about a year ago during the L’Aquila G8 summit (in Italy), G8 countries committed (US) $22 billion for global food security. It’s not enough, but it’s a good start.”
Read more: G8 Warned About Increasing World Hunger
Jun 23, 2010
By: Dustin Walker, Daily News
Nita Elliot is responsible for five children – six if you include the teenaged girl she took in — and her family is just scraping by.
“You get only so much for welfare and family allowance and you just have to make your ends meet one way or another, but it just doesn’t work,” said the Nanaimo resident, whose kids range in age from two months to 15 years old.
Two of the children live with their father part of the time, but otherwise the large family calls a cramped duplex in Harewood home.
“We just manage it between the both of us (parents),” she said. “We have to find a way.”
Hundreds of other families in Nanaimo face similar situations. The percentage of children under 19 who are living in families that collect income assistance in the Nanaimo Regional District was at 4.7% last March, up from 4.2% in 2009 and 3.2% in 2008, provincial statistics show.
The number is even higher for Nanaimo alone at 5.5% last March, compared to the provincial average of 2.9% for the same time period.
Nanaimo has historically struggled with higher-than-average welfare rates in general and, although progress has been made over the years, the Nanaimo-Ladysmith school district still ranks among the highest in the province in terms of poverty-stricken students.
According to a recent report by First Call, a child and youth-advocacy group in B.C., the provincial child-poverty rate has come down from 13% of all children in 2007 to 10.4% in 2008. However, B.C. still has the highest child poverty rate in Canada, according to the study, which was based on the Statistics Canada report Income of Canadians 2008.
Initiatives by the Nanaimo-Ladysmith Schools Foundation, an independent charity that raises money and awareness for vulnerable students, has helped countless local students from low-income families. However, when school is finished for the summer much of the support some students have come to rely on will go with it.
“We’ve got kids that leave our schools on Friday and they haven’t eaten until they come back on Monday. They don’t eat all weekend,” said foundation executive director Erin van Steen.
Meal programs and a “student support fund” are just a few of the resources that students from low-income families won’t have access to their summer breaks.
“It’s unfortunate, but when those schools close for two months of the year a lot of our kids are in trouble,” said Steen.
The support fund provides teachers, counsellors and principals at each school with an account that they can draw on to help meet the needs of a student. It could range from buying them a pair of socks to covering their graduation fees.
In addition to free lunch or breakfast programs for low-income students some schools have programs set up to get basic donated items to students.
Van Steen said that some other organizations, such as summer camps, try to make up for the loss of resources coming from the school system in the summer but still worries about what some students have to cope with.
“I know there’s social assistance, I know there are all these programs, but some of these kids are falling through the cracks,” she said.
Mike Counsell, the director of Loaves and Fishes food bank, said a greater proportion of the food they provide goes to children in the summer because the school system isn’t there for support.
He expects the already stretched-thin resources at the food bank to be taxed even further once school is out.
Read more: No quick fix for child poverty
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