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The massive global financial crisis affecting rich countries has dominated news headlines in recent weeks. Stock markets continue to tumble while banks seem to collapse on an almost daily basis. The latest attempt to tackle the crisis includes a controversial $700 billion bail-out plan from the US government. But where does this situation leave the world’s poorest nations?
The crisis has certainly made the world acutely aware of the need for appropriate financial regulation. In order to strengthen regulation in ACP countries and help to shield vulnerable economies from external shocks, it would seem that Aid for Trade packages and EPA related development support must be adequate and delivered in a timely fashion before liberalisation takes place.
Indeed, world leaders managed to raise substantial aid to tackle poverty, hunger and disease during a one-day UN development conference in New York on September 25. Despite the turmoil, pledges totalled $16 billion, which according to UN Secretary General Ban Kimoon were “a sign of global partnership in action” made “all the more remarkable because it comes against the backdrop of a global financial crisis.”
At the same meeting, organised to assess the progress on the Milennium Development Goals, a new UN initiave was launched to provide a market for Third World farmers and a source of aid for those struggling with soaring food prices by buying up stocks for food aid usage from poor small-scale farmers. Agriculture also seems to top the EU’s development agenda, with the recent creation of its ‘Food Facility’ for African farmers. The €1 billion funding for this has been earmarked from unspent EU farm funds – a move which not all Europeans agree with.
In this month’s issue of TNI, EU Commissioners Mariann Fischer Boel and Louis Michel present the new emergency food aid scheme, while Kato Lambrecht argues that more fundamental change is needed if Africa is to develop more resilient and sustainable agricultural systems. On the back of the two articles we ran on bananas in the September issue, we have also decided to run an article by Jorge Sauma Aguilar from Costa Rica to present the Latin American point of view on the current situation with the EU’s banana import regime.
It appears that the Caribbean is on the verge of becoming the first ACP region to sign its EPA with the EU, as the ceremony is now scheduled for October 15. Unsurprisingly, this move has elicited a wealth of political commentry on the pros and cons of the commitment. As such, TNI felt that it was necessary to dedicate space to highlighting the contentious issues and to encourage readers to add their own voice to the ongoing debate.
Last but not least, TNI continues its series of articles based on the studies commissioned by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), with a piece by Nkululeko Khumalo looking at the service sector in Southern Africa. As usual, all questions, comments and contributions to TNI can be sent to vhanson@icstd.ch
We hope you enjoy the October issue of TNI!
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