This summary is prepared by the External Affairs Department of the World Bank. All material is taken directly from published and copyright wire service stories and newspaper articles. The daily summary and other news can be found on the World Bank's external website at http://www.worldbank.org/news. For inquiries call (202) 473-7660 or send a written request to the News Bureau.
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Friday, March 26, 2010
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Today's Headlines:
• World Bank Oks $1.25 Bln For Mexico Health Insurance
• EU, US Aid Groups To Pledge About $2.7 Billion For Haiti
• UN: forests still disappearing
• EU foreign policy chief unveils new diplomatic service
• Op-Ed: No Safe Havens For Stolen Funds _______________________________________________________________________________
World Bank Oks $1.25 Bln For Mexico Health Insurance. "The World Bank approved a $1.25 billion loan on Thursday to help expand health insurance coverage to Mexico's poor. 'The loan will support Mexico's Social Health Protection System Project promise to achieve universal medical insurance by 2012,' the World Bank said in a statement. …" [Reuters/Factiva]
AFP notes that "…The loan denominated in USD with a maturity of 18 years, contributes around 5% to the effort of the Mexican government to expand coverage and improve the effectiveness of 'Seguro Popular' ('People's Insurance'), the multilateral institution indicated in a statement. The Mexican government is committed to providing health coverage to its entire population by 2012, said the World Bank. …" [Agence France Presse/Factiva]
Meanwhile in a separate piece, AFP reports that "The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a USD 48 billion successor credit line for Mexico, though it stressed it did not expect the line to be drawn on. The one-year arrangement falls under the IMF's Flexible Credit Line, a scheme established last year to throw a cash lifeline to countries hit by the global economic crisis. …
John Lipsky, acting chairman of the IMF's executive board, praised Mexico's 'sustained record of sound economic policies' and 'very strong economic fundamentals and frameworks.' 'On the back of these strong policy measures and improving global economic conditions, growth has resumed since mid-2009,' he said in a statement. …" Agence France Presse/Factiva]
EU, US Aid Groups To Pledge About $2.7 Billion For Haiti. "More than USD 2.7 billion in pledges of aid to help earthquake-wracked Haiti recover and rebuild will be made next week by the EU and a coalition of US-based humanitarian groups at a UN conference.
The EU is likely to commit EUR 1.3 billion (USD 1.73 billion) over three years at a planned March 31 donor meeting, said Kristalina Georgieva, EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response. But she told reporters at a meeting of aid groups on Thursday that the EU wanted results for its money. …" [Reuters/Factiva]
AP reports that "Former President Bill Clinton is urging the aid groups serving Haiti's devastated communities to help rebuild the country's government and ultimately put themselves out of business by fostering a self-sufficient nation.
'Every time we spend a dollar in Haiti from now on we have to ask ourselves, Does this have a long-term return? Are we helping them become more self-sufficient? ... Are we serious about working ourselves out of a job?' Clinton said. …
Clinton asked the groups Thursday to allocate 10 percent of their spending in Haiti for government salaries and employee training, to help the nation's agencies rebuild their decimated staffs. He urged the aid groups to hire local staffers, consult with local authorities and structure their efforts around the Haitian government's plan, which is currently being finalized. …" [The Associated Press/Factiva]
Bloomberg notes that "Haiti President Rene Preval will join US and UN leaders next week in seeking USD 3.9 billion to rebuild the nation's infrastructure following the January earthquake that caused more than 200,000 deaths.
The UN, World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank will present a 250-page reconstruction plan at a donors' conference in New York on March 31, according to Jordan Ryan, director of the UN Development Program's crisis prevention and recovery unit. Ryan said as many as 60 nations may pledge new funds.
Ryan said Preval also will submit a 50-page Haitian government "Vision and Plan" for his nation's long-term economic development. …The USD 3.9 billion will cover reconstruction for about two years, Ryan said. The longer term price tag has been estimated at USD 11.5 billion. …" [Bloomberg]
UN: forests still disappearing "Ambitious planting programs in Asia and the United States have helped slow the global rate of deforestation but farmers are still cutting trees to clear land at an alarmingly high rate, a U.N. survey released Thursday shows. [Associated Press]
Globally, around 13 million hectares of forests were converted to other uses or lost through natural causes each year between 2000 and 2010, as compared to around 16 million hectares per year during the 1990s. [Sify News]
The net loss of forest area slowed to 5.2 million a year between 2000 and 2010. That was still an area the size of Costa Rica, but down from 8.3 million a year in the 1990s thanks largely to ambitious tree planting programmes in Asia.
Efforts by major offenders such as Indonesia and Brazil to reduce deforestation also helped reverse the trend. [News Center(India)]
"For the first time, we are able to show that the rate of deforestation has decreased globally as a result of concerted efforts taken both at local and international level," said Eduardo Rojas, assistant director general of FAO's forestry department, in a statement.
"New forests are being created. Either through the expansion of forests or more rapidly through the planting of trees" said Mette Loyche Wilkie, the Coordinator of the Assessment, at a press conference,
Planted forests now account for about 7.0 percent of global forests, said Wilkie. [Agence France Presse]
The Global Forest Resources Assessment is principally based on data submitted by governments. Details also include how forests are regulated and how they are used; and here, there are also some encouraging trends, according to Eduardo Rojas, assistant director-general of FAO's forestry department.
"Not only have countries improved their forest policies and legislation, they have also allocated forests for use by local communities and indigenous peoples and for the conservation of biological diversity and other environmental functions.," he said.
"However, the rate of deforestation is still very high in many countries and the area of primary forest - forests undisturbed by human activity - continues to decrease, so countries must further strengthen their efforts to better conserve and manage them." [BBC]
EU foreign policy chief unveils new diplomatic service. "The European Union (EU) has started to answer Henry Kissinger's famous question, "who do I call if I want to speak to Europe?" The European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton Thursday presented proposal of establishing the bloc's new diplomatic service for the European Council decision. [Xinhua]
Ashton has been charged with developing a plan for how the newly created External Action Service (EAS) would work. The service would oversee the EU's development projects inside and outside of Europe and could grow to include up to 7,000 diplomats and civil servants once fully staffed. [Deutsche Welle]
Created by the EU's reforming Lisbon Treaty, Ashton's nascent diplomatic corps will have "responsibility" for preparing strategic decisions on cooperation, development and the EU's neighbourhood policy. But under the deal, while the proposals for aiding poorer nations will be prepared by the EAS and the commission, Ashton will then submit the plans "for decision by the commission."… A spokesman for EU Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said he was "very satisfied" with the compromise found. [Agence France Presse]
Her blueprint would give herself and the EAS the power to make strategic decisions about how much money developing countries should get from the EU. But the European Commission would still have significant influence, especially when it came to implementing policy… Member states had wanted EAS to bear responsibility for the development aid budget, which is currently under the control of the European Commission. The commission had wanted to retain their control. [Deutsche Welle]
But her proposal leaves many outstanding questions, in particular over how top officials in the EAS would be appointed, a source of concern for new member states who fear the old EU diplomatic networks will dominate the service.
The plan will still require approval from member states, as well as the European Parliament, which on Thursday gave it a frosty reception. [The Financial Times]
Op-Ed: No Safe Havens For Stolen Funds. An Op-Ed by World Bank Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network Vice President Otaviano Canuto and by World Bank Financial and Private Sector Development Network Vice President Janamitra Devanis published in the IHT writes: "…Every year an estimated $20-$40 billion are stolen from developing countries and stashed away in the developed world. In the past 15 years, only $5 billion have been successfully returned to their countries of origin.
The magnitude of the problem suggests that a better approach to combat looted funds starts with preventing assets from being stolen and laundered in the first place. That would place a significant requirement on financial centers and their financial institutions. Absent prevention and early detection, there will always be safe havens for the corrupt. …
Laws and regulations do matter, but they are not enough if implementation and enforcement don't follow. This requires active participation from private financial institutions as well as gatekeepers, since experience demonstrates that reputational and business risks are not enough to deter the private sector from associating with the corrupt. …
The Financial Action Task Force, the international body that combats money laundering and the financing of terrorism, has recently agreed to strengthen its efforts against corruption. The task force recognized the proceeds of corruption as a significant risk to the international financial system. It agreed to further cooperation between financial intelligence units and law enforcement. It also decided to strengthen its tools to prevent and detect the abuse of the financial system by cronies and their associates. We strongly welcome these developments, and the World Bank Group will continue to closely work with the FATF for more effective results.
But much more is needed. At the World Bank Group we are working together with UN Office on Drugs and Crime on the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative to underscore that stronger standards are not enough without adequate implementation. To be effective, the financial system needs to be vigilant, to periodically review politically exposed persons' accounts, to require the declaration of individual owners behind a company and other financial disclosures.
Success will depend on active cooperation between the public and the private sector, along with international organizations and civil society. Financial institutions must become a central part in efforts against theft to ensure there are no financial safe havens for stolen funds. They could begin by taking voluntary initiatives to show they are serious in ensuring that 'corrupt money stays out of my bank!'" [The International Herald Tribune/Factiva]
Also in this edition…Briefly Noted….US Treasury Secretary] Geithner cited efforts by the World Bank and regional development banks that have gone toward infrastructure spending in Afghanistan as a good example. …"It is now our turn to ensure the World Bank and regional development banks have adequate capital and funding to fulfill their missions of lifting the lives of the poor, promoting security, addressing climate change and other global challenges," Geithner said. [Dow Jones]
Developing countries could achieve sustainable growth by reviewing the economic growth models of China and India, Managing Director of the World Bank Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said Thursday. During the South-South Cooperation Meeting held in Bogota, Colombia, Okonjo-Iweala told Xinhua that the biggest challenge faced by the Latin American countries is to create programs of social assistance and make creative efforts to reduce unemployment. [Xinhua]
International Monetary Fund member countries have rejected an idea supported by IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn to create a green fund to help developing nations pay for the impact of climate change. The IMF made no public acknowledgment of the rejection by the board and instead published the proposal on Thursday as a staff paper, emphasizing it did not represent the views of IMF member countries. [Reuters]
The UN World Food Programme has denied a claim that up to half the food aid to Somalia was being diverted to Islamist militants and corrupt contractors. WFP officials said there was no evidence to back up the claim made in a report by a UN monitoring group. [BBC News]
Africa is the only continent not on track to meet the U.N. millennium development goal of halving poverty by 2015 because of the impact of the global economic downturn, a U.N. agency said on Thursday. Abdoulie Janneh, executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) said the fall in economic growth has resulted in rising poverty and unemployment in many African countries. [Reuters]
China Railway Group has won a $4.8bn contract to build and operate an Indonesian coal railway, the latest in a string of offshore contracts for China's state-controlled rail companies.They have been winning rail projects across the world, including in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa and Australia. [Financial Times]
France and Germany hammered out an agreement yesterday on the principles of a eurozone rescue mechanism for Greece, giving a big role to the International Monetary Fund while leaving the Europeans to lend most of the money. Under the terms of the accord reached between Nicolas Sarkozy, French president, and Angela Merkel, German chancellor, Athens would, in the event of "very serious difficulties", receive co-ordinated bilateral loans from its eurozone partners as well as IMF assistance. [Financial Times]
The World Bank approved a $1.25 billion loan on Thursday to help expand health insurance coverage to Mexico's poor. "The loan will support Mexico's Social Health Protection System Project promise to achieve universal medical insurance by 2012," the World Bank said in a statement. [Reuters]
A big push to develop agriculture in the poorest countries is needed if the world is to feed itself in future decades, a report warns. …"In Asia, the Green Revolution created a sense of complacency, that we had solved the problem - and that lasted until the [food price] crisis of 2007," said Uma Lele, the former senior World Bank official who co-ordinated the report. [BBC News]
…The 2009 Revision of World Urbanization Prospects report, launched on Thursday by the UN Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) at the UN Headquarters in New York, said that with 50.5 percent, or 3.5 billion people worldwide living in cities in 2010, the global population as a whole is becoming more urban and less rural. [Xinhua]
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