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	Three Years after L’Aquila: Are the G-8 on Track to Fight Hunger? by ActionAid USA / Oxfam   19 May 2012   G8 to poor countries: It’s not you, it’s me. (Oxfam)   As the Camp David G8 Summit winds down, international agency Oxfam criticized G8 leaders for failing to renew measurable funding and policy commitments to help address global food security. Leaders were unwilling to continue current efforts to invest in developing country agriculture, even as they set a new goal of helping 50 million people lift themselves out of poverty through agriculture by 2015.   “As if they are using the classic break up line, ‘It’s not you, it’s me,’ the G8 is walking away from the agreement struck in Italy just three years ago,” said Oxfam’s Gregory Adams. “Breaking up is never easy, but the G8’s unwillingness to sustain their promises comes as the challenges facing poor people around the world are only getting harder.”   While members of the private sector featured prominently in G8 discussions, the concerns of smallholder farmers who are the key to food security were not at the table.   Concerned with the direction of the G8’s efforts on food security, a number of African civil society leaders have asked the G8 to stick to the plans drawn up in L’Aquila.   “The G8 made a commitment in 2009 to stand with developing countries for better or for worse,” said Oxfam’s Lamine Ndiaye. “Poor countries have presented the G8 country-led, sustainable, and coordinated plans for food security and agricultural development, but today the G8 gave them the cold shoulder.”   In one summit bright spot, a handful of countries made much-needed pledges to the tune of $1.2 billion to the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), the multi-donor fund that invests directly in country plans. Oxfam urged the rest of the G8 to follow suit, channeling all pledges through the public sector window.   “The GAFSP has been running on fumes and will certainly benefit from the announced injection of resources,” said Adams.   As the shutters close in Camp David, we look to the G20 in Los Cabos to take concrete action to fix the broken food system. Attention also shifts towards the UK, which will host the next G8 Summit.   “Along with the US, the UK deserves credit for sticking to its overall aid commitments and those made at L"Aquila to address global hunger,” said Adams. “And as chair of next year"s G8, it is the UK’s turn to raise the level of ambition and deliver a partnership with developing countries to tackle the scandal that sees one in seven people going hungry.”   May, 2012   There was more movement on food security than we expected and day one of the summit was focused almost solely on that issue, a rarity in recent G8 history. The increased focus was due in part to the stirring outcry from anti-hunger and poverty activists all over the world.   In his pre-G8 speech at the Chicago Council Symposium on Global Agriculture yesterday, President Obama said the G8 will set a new goal of helping 50 million men, women and children lift themselves out of poverty through country-led agriculture plans. Since 500 million small farms in developing countries support nearly 2 billion people, supporting those farmers means that their families can earn an income, get an education, and thrive. The goal is spot-on, but the way to achieve that goal doesn’t add up.   Though fulfilling their L’Aquila pledges (which were $7.3 billion per year through 2012), the G8 failed to renew their commitments. Instead they’ve invited the private sector to pledge $3 billion over 10 years in a New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition. This is a shrinking response to a growing problem and, if companies deliver, it still represents 96% decrease in investment than previous levels.   At a time when more than 18 million people across West Africa are facing a massive food crisis, we need to recognize that the scale of the problem requires a serious investment that matches the plans from people on the ground. After all, aren’t the world’s small-scale farmers who sell their goods in local markets part of the private sector, too?   On the bright side, G8 countries have made additional pledges of $1.2 billion to the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP). Read more about GAFSP here: http://www.gafspfund.org/gafsp We’re happy to see this important mechanism for country ownership get the funding it deserves.   While it’s reassuring that our leaders are making food security a global priority, we must make sure that we hold them accountable to match the scale of the need, and listen to what people in developing countries really need. http://www.oxfam.org/grow   May 19, 2012   ActionAid Reaction to G8 Summit Communique on Food Security.   ActionAid USA offered to the following reaction to the food security section of the communique of the 2012 G8 summit.   Katie Campbell, Senior Policy Analyst for ActionAid USA, said: “The G8 have offered warm words on food security but have failed to make a specific pledge to simply maintain L’Aquila level financial commitments going forward. In failing to deliver this, they have turned their backs on the women smallholder farmers who are so vital to food security in Africa.“   Henry Malumo, ActionAid International’s Africa Advocacy Coordinator, said: “The New Alliance launched by President Obama and the G8 must strengthen the role of the African Union and be accountable to the African people. A New Alliance with only governments and business will have no chance of success – farmers, cooperatives, and NGOs must be a vital part of this effort.”   Neil Watkins, Director of Policy and Campaigns for ActionAid USA said: “President Obama made an important commitment to increase US public support for the fight against hunger but we hear other G8 countries may not be prepared to make the same kind of commitment. Without a clear pledge to sustain L’Aquila public funding levels, this year’s G8 will be remembered as the summit that buried the L’Aquila pledge to fight hunger.   “We welcome news of the new US pledge to the innovative Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), which will deliver life-saving support to millions of farmers worldwide, enabling them to lift themselves out of poverty.”   Henry Malumo, ActionAid International’s Africa Advocacy Coordinator, said: “While the New Alliance touts the role of the private sector, as President Obama said, this must include even the smallest African cooperatives. The real innovators in African agriculture are women smallholder farmers. Any private sector partnership to improve food security must place them and African civil society at the center.” Visit the related web page
	Rise in natural resources prices hurting poor nations by United Nations News   A sustained rise in prices for raw natural resources and basic agricultural goods is defying long-standing patterns and appears to be hurting poor nations through rising food and fuel costs more than it is helping them through higher revenues for their commodities exports.   That was one of the findings of the Commodities and Development Report 2012, a study launched at the 13th session of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in Doha, Qatar.   The session, known as UNCTAD XIII, is the first ministerial conference on trade and development since the fallout from the 2007-2008 global economic crisis. The sessions are held every four years, and the theme of this year’s session is ‘Development-centred globalization: Towards inclusive and sustainable growth and development.’   According to the report, mounting financial speculation in commodities and the increasing diversion of agricultural land to biofuel crops has changed the forces underpinning commodity prices, pushing them through a sustained period of increase.   What should be a boon for poor nations, especially the globe’s 48 least developed countries – whose economies often depend heavily on commodity exports – is on balance a negative development because many of these countries are net importers of oil and staple foods.   Since the food crisis of 2008, prices for basic nourishment have been both volatile and high, the report notes – and poor families are acutely vulnerable, as they typically spend 50 per cent or more of their incomes on food.   The report’s recommendations include that steps be taken to invest in national and regional food reserves to help food-insecure countries; the recent shift to ‘finance-driven globalization,’ as it applies to commodities, should be reconsidered; fiscal and taxation policies should be adjusted so that they help developing countries reap stable, long-term economic benefits from commodities exports; and measures should be taken nationally and internationally to improve the situations of small farmers and other small commodity producers in poor countries.   Addressing the conference, the UN Deputy Secretary-General, Rose Asha-Migiro, said it was appropriate that the conference was taking place in the Arab world.   “The recent unrest in the Arab world has shown that a lack of economic opportunity and political voice, particularly among youth, is not sustainable,” she said. “Indeed, growing awareness of social injustice and inequality has also led to protests in several advanced countries.”   Established in 1964, UNCTAD promotes the development-friendly integration of developing countries into the world economy, and seeks to help shape current policy debates and thinking on development, with a particular focus on ensuring that domestic policies and international action are mutually supportive in bringing about sustainable development.   It has long maintained that the current global economic and financial system has allowed a lop-sided system to flourish, with some participants reaping the benefits while global income inequality and financial imbalances have also accumulated.   April 2012 (UNCTAD)   Shortcomings in economic policy in rich and poor nations alike, and the resulting public discontent over the continuing fallout from the 2008 financial crisis, will be the focus of debate at the UNCTAD XIII High-level Segment of Heads of State and Government.   Leaders will discuss the extent to which economic factors such as job shortages and income inequalities have contributed to the recent popular movements in the Arab region. They will also discuss the parallels with discontent elsewhere, such as the recent social protests in developed countries. And will consider what can be done to refashion economic policies so that their benefits are spread more equitably.   There is strong evidence, UNCTAD economists contend, that the recent popular discontent in the Arab region does not only reflect grievances about governance issues. Playing an equal role are larger trends across numerous countries in which economic progress has failed to lead to broad-based rises in living standards, leaving the poor and middle-income groups with stagnant or declining wages.   In both oil-producing (surplus) and more diversified (deficit) Arab economies, growth over the last 20 years has not been inclusive. Even high rates of growth have often been accompanied by wage stagnation.   While many Arab economies have experienced average annual real economic growth rates of above 5 per cent over the last 20 years, increased productivity has not been reflected in rising real wages and standards of living for the majority of the population. Despite wage restraint, unemployment has remained high in most Arab countries over the past decade, at more than 10 per cent even in the more diversified Arab economies.   The global downturn that began in 2008 and led to unemployment for many, and to especially high rates of joblessness among the young, has now thrown widening inequality into stark relief.   UNCTAD economists highlight the urgent need for new thinking that puts greater emphasis on inclusive and sustainable growth, with the UNCTAD secretariat urging reforms in order to prevent a “lost development decade”.   Since the financial crisis erupted in 2008, conventional ideas about the workings of the economy have been questioned and popular movements around the world have taken governments to task for failing to deliver on the development aspirations of their populations and for tolerating growing social and economic inequality.   There have been vocal calls for a fresh economic direction to alleviate poverty, generate more and better jobs, improve social protection, ensure access to basic services and commodities at affordable prices, and establish more equitable distributions of national income.   It is an opportune moment to renew the social contract between States and citizens, and to reconsider the results of “finance-led” globalization, UNCTAD experts contend.   “The movement that began in the region should be regarded as part of a broader policy debate about the impacts of financial and trade liberalization and the missing role of the State as guarantor of social equity and development for all.”   Alongside the overriding political and human rights dimensions, what role did socio-economic governance failures play in the build-up to the Arab protests? Moreover, UNCTAD asks whether the extent and handling of economic liberalization contributed to the inability of prevailing economic policy frameworks to deliver sustained growth and development. Visit the related web page
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