Focus aid on food crisis, says Berlin
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
Bertrand Benoit, FT Syndication Service
BERLIN: Germany has urged the world's richest economies to refocus their aid policies on the global food crisis and provide both immediate relief and long-term structural assistance to the most affected countries.
Angela Merkel, chancellor, hopes to have a series of recommendations endorsed by fellow members of the Group of Eight (G8) leading industrialised nations at its summit in Hokkaido. Spiralling food prices are high on the meeting's agenda.
"Our response to the world food crisis requires a global, long-term response co-ordinated between governments and international agencies," according to an internal 32-page report by the German chancellery, a summary of which was sent to all G8 members.
The report expresses Berlin's concern that the food crisis could blow off-course the multilateral "Millennium" agreement, whereby signatories have pledged to halve the number of people suffering from poverty by 2015.
An expected 20-30 per cent increase in food prices over the next 10 years, says the report, "could endanger democratisation processes, destabilise states and threaten international security".
Berlin's concrete recommendations include a reform of government aid policies that would re-channel already committed aid budgets to specific food- and farming-related projects.
"In the short term, it is about providing cash and giving poorer countries access to food stocks elsewhere," a chancellery official said.
On top of an immediate euro23m Berlin has pledged to spend on urgent relief for the world's most affected countries, the government is freeing euro500m (
BERLIN: Germany has urged the world's richest economies to refocus their aid policies on the global food crisis and provide both immediate relief and long-term structural assistance to the most affected countries.
Angela Merkel, chancellor, hopes to have a series of recommendations endorsed by fellow members of the Group of Eight (G8) leading industrialised nations at its summit in Hokkaido. Spiralling food prices are high on the meeting's agenda.
"Our response to the world food crisis requires a global, long-term response co-ordinated between governments and international agencies," according to an internal 32-page report by the German chancellery, a summary of which was sent to all G8 members.
The report expresses Berlin's concern that the food crisis could blow off-course the multilateral "Millennium" agreement, whereby signatories have pledged to halve the number of people suffering from poverty by 2015.
An expected 20-30 per cent increase in food prices over the next 10 years, says the report, "could endanger democratisation processes, destabilise states and threaten international security".
Berlin's concrete recommendations include a reform of government aid policies that would re-channel already committed aid budgets to specific food- and farming-related projects.
"In the short term, it is about providing cash and giving poorer countries access to food stocks elsewhere," a chancellery official said.
On top of an immediate euro23m Berlin has pledged to spend on urgent relief for the world's most affected countries, the government is freeing euro500m (