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	Human Rights experts call for global financial tax to offset costs of economic crisis by UN Special Rapporteurs on Human Rights   May 2012   A group of United Nations independent experts today called on the European Union (EU) to take the lead in promoting the adoption of a global financial transaction tax that would offset the costs of the current economic crisis and protect basic human rights.   “Where the world financial crisis has brought about the loss of millions of jobs, socialized private debt burdens and now risks causing significant human rights regressions through wide-ranging austerity packages, a financial transaction tax (FTT) is a pragmatic tool for providing the means for governments to protect and fulfil the human rights of their people,” said the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Magdalena Sepúlveda.   According to a news release from the UN office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR), estimates suggest that at its lowest rate the FTT would yield about $48 billion across the Group of Twenty major economies, with higher rates offering up to $250 billion per year to offset the costs of the enduring economic, financial, fuel, climate and food crises.   The call from UN experts comes a day ahead of the Group of Eight Summit of industrialized countries, which will take place in Camp David in the United States.   “EU countries must take bold leadership now to pave the way towards what should eventually be a global FTT,” the UN experts urged, welcoming recent EU proposals to implement the financial transaction tax across the Eurozone.   Countries such as the Republic of Korea have implemented similar taxes in non-discriminatory ways to raise resources to achieve the right to development. The FTT, experts argue, would also help stabilize financial markets by discouraging speculation, and therefore mitigate the type of volatility which led to the 2008 financial and food crises.   “Food prices have twice spiked dangerously over the past five years, and could easily do so again,” stressed the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter. “The FTT will likely reduce hot capital flows that fuel speculation, drive price instability and wreak havoc on the right to food worldwide.”   “A global FTT is not a silver bullet, but it would help relieve sovereign debt load stemming from the financial crisis, shift the burden from ordinary citizens to the private sector which caused the crisis, and significantly enlarge government fiscal space for spending on desperately needed economic and social rights programmes.” said the Special Rapporteur on foreign debt and human rights, Cephas Lumina.   The FTT would provide governments with an opportunity to act on their commitments to sustainable development and to take a step to advance development and include marginalized populations, said the Special Rapporteur on human rights and international solidarity, Virginia Dandan.   “When the financial sector fails to pay its share, the rest of society must pick up the bill,” Ms. Sepúlveda emphasized. “It is high-time that governments re-examine the basic redistributive role of taxation to ensure that wealthier individuals and the financial sector contribute their fair share of the tax burden.” Visit the related web page
	Food Security slipping further Away by Inter Press Service & agencies   Apr 2012   Food Security slipping further Away, by Carey L. Biron.(IPS)   Continuing near-record high food prices around the world are highlighting international inattention to a looming threat, observers here warned.   According to speakers at the launch of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund (IMF) Global Monitoring Report 2012, on the sidelines of the Bank-IMF spring meetings, a lack of focus on agriculture and nutrition in development priorities could prove disastrous in the event of another spike in food prices.   The sudden rise in food prices in 2007-08 is thought to have brought the number of hungry people to more than one billion internationally. While food costs dropped in 2009 due to the international financial crisis, 2011 again saw record highs, brought about in part by variable weather conditions, mounting oil prices and the growing use of biofuels.   According to information released by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation in early April, food prices have continued to rise during the first three months of this year, and currently remain higher than during the crisis period of 2007-09. According to many observers, high food costs have become the "new norm".   The social implications of fluctuations in food costs have been clear. The high cost of staple foods was a major driver behind the Arab Spring protests, for instance. Today, continued high food prices are fuelling inflation worries across the globe, notably in India and China.   The Global Monitoring Report (GMR), which annually tracks development indicators, warns that critical macroeconomic policy buffers in low- income countries have yet to be rebuilt.   "If (low-income countries) have to confront another sharp global slowdown or another surge in food or fuel prices, these countries would start from a weaker position…," the report states. "A new global food price spike would present low-income countries with difficult trade-offs among price stability, external, and social objectives."   Although governments around the world did move to put food security atop the international agenda in 2011, those words have translated into little substantive action.   "The international community hasn"t followed through on any promises on making sure that prices are stabilised," says Danielle Nierenberg, director of the Nourishing the Planet Program of the Worldwatch Institute, an environmental think tank here. "As the G8 and G20 meet, there is an opportunity to make sure that prices stabilise and that farmers are given the resources they need to survive."   According to the GMR, international aid earmarked for agriculture, food and nutrition constituted just 10 percent of total pledges in 2010. In fact, Nierenberg says such low figures are relatively standard.   "For the past 30 years, there"s been a tendency to turn our backs on agriculture," she told IPS.   "One good thing to come out of the (food price) crisis has been new attention given to agriculture."   That attention has yet to lead to new development priorities, however. "surprisingly," the GMR notes, the amount of aid devoted to agriculture, food and nutrition "has not increased in response to the recent food price spikes."   "The international community is ill-equipped to deal with what is going on," Nierenberg says. "But it"s not just donor communities – it"s African countries, Asian countries, increasingly Latin American countries. Currently, only nine African governments invest more than 10 percent of their budgets in agriculture."   With just three years to go before the 2015 deadline set to reach the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), observers are worrying that the economic downturn and ongoing lack of attention paid to stabilising food prices could slow progress towards reaching these development indicators.   International aid, having likewise slowed in recent years, is expected to continue to fall off by around 0.2 percent per year.   While many agree that an era of increased austerity would require that aid monies be spent more efficiently, the data surrounding nutrition is not encouraging in this regard.   Nutrition can directly impact on several of the MDGs, including two on which the GMR warns that countries are furthest behind, child and maternal mortality.   Yet nutrition only accounts for around 0.3 percent of total international spending, a figure that has not risen since the MDGs were agreed upon in 2000.   While the needs are clear, how best to deal with high and unstable food prices is up for debate. One of the central priorities outlined by the GMR is liberalised trade regimes.   "Trade liberalization protects national food markets against domestic shocks…," the report states. "Encouraging more trade – not less – can thus promote food security, which requires a more open, rules-based multilateral trade regime best achieved by concluding the Doha Round of negotiations at the World Trade Organization."   According to some analysts, however, liberalised trade regimes are at the root of the current problems.   "First and foremost, the long-term neoliberal neglect of agriculture has caused an agrarian crisis that has muted the supply response capabilities of agriculture," Mritiunjoy Mohanty, an economist in Kolkata, told IPS.   "Financialisation of agricultural commodities and related financial speculation have also amplified the price effects of supply-demand imbalances, as has the control of transnational firms over the global agricultural supply chain."   Mohanty continued, "Which of these aspects does trade liberalisation help alleviate? Actually none. Indeed, if there are structural deficiencies or institutional issues of market power concentration, then trade liberalisation tends to reinforce these."   Instead, both Mohanty and Nierenberg suggest a renewed focus on localised agriculture, to safeguard both farmers and consumers.   "We need to refocus on local foods rather than imported foods," Nierenberg says. "By depending on regional or local food systems, we can build resilience that is not at the whim of global markets."   April 20, 2012   Developing World falling behind on Millenium Targets related to Food and Nutrition.   The developing world’s progress is seriously lagging on global targets related to food and nutrition, with rates of child and maternal mortality still unacceptably high, says the Global Monitoring Report (GMR) 2012, released by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).   Recent spikes in international food prices have stalled progress across several of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the report says.   The world is significantly off-track on the MDGs to reduce mortality rates of children under five and mothers. As a result, these goals will not be met in any developing region by 2015.   Progress is slowest on maternal mortality, with only one-third of the targeted reduction achieved thus far. Progress on reducing infant and child mortality is similarly dismal, with only 50 per cent of the targeted decline achieved.   “High and volatile food prices do not bode well for attainment of many MDGs, as they erode consumer purchasing power and prevent millions of people from escaping poverty and hunger, besides having long-term adverse impacts on health and education,” said Justin Yifu Lin, the World Bank’s Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Development Economics.   “Dealing with food price volatility must be a high priority, especially as nutrition has been one of the forgotten MDGs,” he added.   The report calls for countries and communities to work towards becoming more resilient in the face of food price spikes. Countries should deploy agricultural policies to assist farmers; use social safety nets to improve resilience; strengthen nutritional policies to improve early childhood development; and work to reduce food price volatility. However, the challenges countries face in responding to high food prices have been made more difficult as a result of the global recession.   “The fragile global economy could very well slow developing countries’ progress on human development goals, since the fiscal, debt, and current account positions, particularly of low income countries, have been weakened by the global financial crisis,” said Hugh Bredenkamp, of the IMF.   While food prices have declined from their 2011 peaks, commodity prices remain high and volatile. Jos Verbeek, Lead Economist at the World Bank and lead author of GMR 2012, cautioned that declining development assistance, ongoing population growth and high food prices will make the need to focus on nutrition programs for the poor even more important.   “According to our projections, at least an estimated 1.02 billion people will still be living in extreme poverty in 2015. Clearly, assistance must be leveraged in new ways to improve food security and nutrition, particularly for the poor and vulnerable,” said Verbeek.   A few Regional Highlights according to the Report.   In East Asia and Pacific, Child and maternal mortality are the targets lagging the most. In Europe and Central Asia, increased efforts must be undertaken with regards to improving maternal health and access to basic sanitation. In Latin America and the Caribbean progress on maternal mortality is lagging. In the Middle East and North Africa progress towards ensuring safe drinking water and reducing maternal mortality is lagging. In South Asia some progress has begun towards extreme poverty reduction. However, progress on reducing child and maternal mortality and improving access to sanitation facilities is off-track.   Sub-Saharan Africa is lagging on most MDGs. Although the region has achieved more than 60 per cent of the progress required on goals such as gender parity, primary school completion, access to safe water and extreme poverty, health-related MDGs, particularly maternal mortality, require urgent attention. Visit the related web page
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