Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 4 • Number 8 • 30th April 2004
WB, IMF: Mixed Progress on Millennium Development Goals
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Participants at the annual World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meetings, held from 24-25 April in Washington, D.C., said the developing world needs more aid and more open markets in developed countries in order to be able to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Despite an IMF forecast that world growth would surge in 2004, the meeting concluded that “based on current trends, most Millennium Development Goals will not be met by most developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa”. A meeting communique noted the importance of the current Doha round of trade negotiations and stressed the need for a “constructive and determined effort to move the multilateral trade agenda forward,” including the elimination of trade-distorting subsidies in the areas of agriculture, textiles and clothing. “A weaker multilateral agenda risks further boosting regional and bilateral initiatives which, over time, can fragment the global trading system and reduce its transparency,” stressed Anne Krueger, IMF acting Managing Director. The report of the meeting furthermore points out that the most countries was unlikely to meet the environmental MDGs. In particular progress on access to safe drinking water, basic sanitation, biodiversity, fisheries and greenhouse gas emissions has been limited. The report highlights the need to provide increased aid to developing countries to improve environmental practices and the responsibility of developed countries for the preservation of global environmental commons, as they are the largest contributors to the degradation of the commons. The progress on achieving the environmental MDGs is also aggregated in the “Green Data Book 2004“, published by the WB. It provides an overview of environmental data for 200 countries, collected under 47 key indicators grouped under agriculture, forests, biodiversity, energy, emissions and pollution, water and sanitation and national accounting aggregates. The book aims to provide comparable information for policy-making monitoring progress on achieving the MDGs.
“Africans getting poorer - G7,” NEWS24.COM, 25 April 2004; “Protectionism would hamper growth, IMF,” REDIFF.COM, 26 April 2004; “IMF, World Bank, EBRD and ADB release report on CIS-7 initiative,” WB PRESS RELEASE, 26 April 2004; “African ministers call for debt relief, aid, no trade barriers,” UN WIRE, 26 April 2004; “IMF, World Bank concerned over failure of developing world to meet MDGs,” CHINAVIEW.CN, 25 April 2004.
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