BuaNews (Tshwane)
11 April 2008
Addis Ababa — The impact of high food and energy prices, among others will be Africa's focus of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring meeting in Washington this weekend.
The meeting will also discuss the status of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and post-conflict states in Africa.
The two-day meeting, which starts on Saturday, will take stock of economic progress in the developing world and new challenges posed by recent global turbulence on poor and middle-income countries, according to a World Bank statement.
It said that World Bank President Robert Zoellick was expected to build support for a new plan to combat hunger through a combination of emergency aid and long-term efforts to boost agricultural productivity in developing countries.
The New Deal for a Global Food Policy is among a suite of initiatives President Zoellick outlined in his 2 April speech to advance development in the face of skyrocketing food and oil prices.
Finance ministers and delegations from the World Bank's and IMF's 185 member countries may take up issues ranging from Africa's development, trade, climate change adaptation, and global financial stability, it said.
President Zoellick has also proposed a plan to encourage sovereign wealth funds to invest one percent of their three trillion USD in assets in Africa's development and a new approach to help ensure that high energy and commodity prices translate into improvements in the lives of the poor.
The World Bank's Global Monitoring Report and World Development Indicators, which focus on progress toward poverty reduction, universal education, gender equity, reducing deaths from hunger, malnutrition, and HIV and AIDS, are expected to be released prior and during the weekend meeting of the 24-member Development Committee.
Several reports will also be released prior to and during the weekend meeting of the body that advises the World Bank and IMF on critical development issues and financial resources needed to promote economic development in developing countries. - BuaNews-NNN
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