Famine threatens to engulf over 12 million people in the Greater Horn of Africa in the May-July 2000 period unless nearly a million tonnes of food supplies are rapidly mobilized and sent to the region, according to UN and non-governmental agencies. Ethiopia alone needs about 800,000 tonnes of food for 7.8 million people. They said major rains had failed for the past three years, particularly in south-eastern Ethiopia and drought conditions were moving north. Other countries hit by drought - in some cases, compounded by armed conflict - are Kenya, where 2.7 million people are at risk, Djibouti, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. The World Food Programme (WFP) aims to distribute 371,000 tonnes of food to 6.1 million people, but puts total needs at around 940,000 tonnes.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed WFP Executive Director Catherine Bertini as his Special Envoy to spearhead efforts to avert a famine. She was scheduled to travel to the region in April with journalists and representatives of other UN agencies to raise public awareness of the famine threat and seek commitments from governments and other belligerent parties to provide safe access to affected populations for humanitarian agencies.
FINANCIAL FLOWSNet official development assistance (ODA) to sub-Saharan Africa fell in 1998, even as global ODA rose by almost 10 per cent, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). It said ODA to sub-Saharan Africa has fallen in each of the last five years, from $18.8 bn in 1994 to $13.5 bn in 1998.
Global ODA ended a five-year decline, rising from $48.3 bn in 1997 to $51.9 bn in 1998. ODA to South and Central Asia and to Far East Asia in 1998 increased by $651 mn and $1.4 bn respectively.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have failed to ensure financial stability and combat world poverty, a US Congressional commission declared in early March. It said the Bank should be renamed the World Development Agency, it should use grants more than loans and should stop lending to countries with annual per capita incomes above $4,000. The IMF should in turn stop lending to the poorest countries and become a lender of last resort at punitive interest rates to only a handful of countries. The Bank, Fund and major bilateral creditors should cancel all debts of the most heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs) that implement effective social and economic policies, the report added.
However, countered US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, the report's most radical recommendations would "straitjacket" the Bank and Fund such that they "would no longer be able to advance America's core values and [political and economic] interests around the world." He told the US House of Representatives' Banking Committee in mid-March that the Bank and Fund are helping countries towards democracy and economic "success." Mr. Summers says the IMF should concentrate on emergency loans but should retain long-term lending to the least developed countries.
Among other proposals, the report recommended the elimination of the World Bank's Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency and its International Finance Corporation, which makes loans to private sector firms in
developing countries. It said the IMF's short-term crisis management is "too costly, its responses too slow, its advice often incorrect and its efforts to influence policy and practice too intrusive." Four of 11 members of the Meltzer commission - named after its head, US political economy professor Allan Meltzer - refused to sign the report.
Appointments:
Ms. Yvette Stevens (Sierra Leone) is the new head of OSCAL (Office of the Special Coordinator for Africa and Least Developed Countries) in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Before taking up this responsibility, Ms. Stevens was Representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to Kenya and Somalia.
The Secretary-General has also appointed Nigeria's former Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Ibrahim Gambari, as his Special Adviser on Africa, focusing on Angola, Southern Africa and Central Africa, including the Great Lakes region. |
Mr.
Horst Köhler (Germany) has been selected by the Executive
Board of the International Monetary Fund as the IMF's new Managing
Director. A former Deputy Finance Minister, Mr. Köhler at
the time of his selection was President of the European Bank
for Reconstruction and Development.
Mr.
Berhanu Dinka (Ethiopia) has been appointed by Secretary-General
Kofi Annan as his Special Representative for the Great Lakes
Region. Mr. Dinka was formerly the Secretary-General's Representative
and Humanitarian Adviser for the Great Lakes Region, and earlier
his Special Envoy for Sierra Leone.