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MEDIA REPORTS
TRADE, FINANCE AND
INVESTMENT IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
This page was updated
on: 01/26/10
200 8
Trade, Finance and Investment Media Reports Archives:
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2002
NOVEMBER 2008
WORLD BANK MOVES AHEAD
WITH ENERGY FOR THE POOR INITIATIVE
The World Bank is moving ahead with its
Energy for the Poor initiative, a program that seeks to provide rapid
support for countries' efforts to strengthen social safety nets to
protect the poor against the impact of high fuel bills. Within the
program, financing is expected to: expand access of the poor to
sustainable energy services; deploy alternative, renewable energy
systems where the increase in fuel prices suggests that a shift in
supply options is economically prudent; and develop energy efficiency
interventions that have become economically attractive under higher
energy prices. Examples of projects that could be financed include
hydropower, including off-grid and mini-grid applications, and
inter-modal shifts in transportation, promoting cross-border energy
trade, and complementing end-use improvements in energy efficiency.
Donor nations met in Paris on 19 November
to discuss their role in the initiative, which will be integrated by two
components: a multi-donor trust fund, called Energy Price Crisis
Response, that will finance social safety nets for the poorest people in
the most affected countries in the short-term; and a medium-term program
to scale up financing of energy projects to reduce a country's
longer-term vulnerability to high and volatile fuel prices. This scaling
up will be achieved through co- and parallel financing with donors to
leverage more effectively their limited resources.
Link to additional information
World Bank energy website
WORLD BANK CREATES
GREEN BOND TO FINANCE MITIGATION AND ADAPTATION
The World
Bank, in partnership with SEB and Scandinavian institutional investors,
will raise funds for projects seeking to mitigate climate change or
promote adaptation through the issue of a "World Bank green bond." A
result of its "Strategic Framework for Development and Climate Change,"
the green bond seeks to provide an innovative approach financing. The
bonds will be issued for a total amount of Swedish kronor (SEK) 2.325
billion (about US$300 million at current exchange rates), with an annual
interest rate of 0.25 percent above Swedish government bond rates. It
will have a maturity of six years. SEB will be the lead manager and
offer the bonds to investors through its distribution network.
Link to further information
World Bank press release, 6 November 2008
OCTOBER 2008
WTO TUNA-DOLPHIN CASE RENEWED
Seventeen
years after the original complaint by Mexico to the World Trade
Organization (WTO) on US restrictions to imports of tuna (which were
based on environmental standards related to fishing practices), Mexico
has filed a new request for WTO consultations. The request, filed on 24
October 2008, contests the US refusal to allow the dolphin-safe label to
be used on Mexican tuna products fished using encircling or
"purse-seine" nets. Mexico claims that the trade restrictions are
illegal and discriminatory, and have resulted in a loss of more than a
third of its tuna fleet due to its hampered ability to market Mexican
tuna effectively in the US.
Links to
further information
WTO Dispute Settlement News, 31 October 2008
ICTSD Bridges, 30 October 2008
WORLD BANK FOREST CARBON PARTNERSHIP FACILITY
EXPANDS TO 30 COUNTRIES
The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF)
announced its expansion from 20 to 30 developing countries to support
capacity building efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by reducing
deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). Developing countries are
working with 11 industrialized countries and one non-governmental
organization thought this innovative partnership and international
financing mechanism to combat tropical deforestation and climate
change. The FCPF is comprised of two components – a Readiness Fund and a
Carbon Fund. The World Bank, which acts as the secretariat for the FCPF,
announced that it would underwrite the US$2.3 million start-up expenses
for the Facility.
Link to
further information
World Bank Press Release, 24 October 2008
UN
SECRETARY-GENERAL CONVENES EMINENT ECONOMISTS TO DISCUSS IMPACT OF
FINANCIAL CRISIS ON POVERTY
On 23 October 2008, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and
the head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Kemal
Dervis, met with five eminent economists to discuss the impact of the
global financial crisis on UN efforts to achieve the anti-poverty
targets known as the Millennium Development Goals, financing for
development, the international reserve system, trade issues and the
regulatory role of multilateral institutions. The participating
economists were Joseph Stiglitz and Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia
University; Kenneth Rogoff and Dani Rodrik of Harvard University; and
Nancy Birdsall, President of the Centre for Global Development.
Link to further information
UN News Centre, 23 October 2008
UN Global Compact and UNEP Convene First Meeting of
'Caring for Climate' Initiative
Representatives of over 150 corporations, civil society
organizations, governments and UN agencies gathered in Geneva,
Switzerland, on 21 October 2008, for the first meeting of signatories to
'Caring for Climate,' a voluntary global action platform jointly
launched in 2007 by the UN Global Compact, the UN Environment Programme
(UNEP) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
The meeting aimed to produce business insights and develop a shared path
forward in support of an effective post-Kyoto policy framework on
climate change. A recent survey among Caring for Climate signatories
reveals that a majority of signatories are optimistic about their
ability to develop the internal capacity to set targets and reduce
climate impact, while expecting: similar leadership from governments;
long-term plans for emission reductions; and increased investments in
low-carbon technologies.
Link to further information
UN News Centre Story, 21 October 2008
COUNTRIES
SELECTED TO SERVE ON WORLD BANK CLIMATE INVESTMENT FUND BOARDS
Two sets of seven donor countries and seven potential recipient
countries have been selected to serve on the Clean Technology Fund (CTF)
Trust Fund Committee and the Strategic Climate Fund (SCF) Trust Fund
Committee, respectively, to oversee decisions concerning investments and
implementation of the recently created World Bank Climate Investment
Funds (CIF). The US$6 billion Funds were created in September to provide
interim, scaled-up funding to help developing countries in their efforts
to address climate change in their development strategies. According to
the CIF design, donor and potential recipient countries must hold an
equal number of seats, to be selected through a consultation process.
Both Trust Fund Committees will meet again in November to carry on their
work. The selection of projects is expected early in 2009.
Link
to further information
World Bank Press Release, 17 October 2008
GEF FUNDED PROJECT
IN HONDURAS WINS TOURISM INNOVATION AWARD
The La Ruta Moskitia (LARUMO) initiative, an ecotourism rainforest
project funded through the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small
Grants Programme, and implemented by five indigenous communities in La
Moskitia region -- an area crossed by the Rio Plátano Biosphere Reserve
in Honduras – has won a national award through the World Travel and
Tourism Council for a locally-designed program that encourages visits to
the rainforests off the country's northeast coast. Local fisherman and
farmers learned new skills by becoming tour guides and service providers
for tourists, and the project team in the first three months made
US$25,000 in revenue from the ecotours, with over 25% of the revenue
going back to the community.
Link
to further information
GEF Press Release, 6 October 2008
UN CALLS FOR
COORDINATED ACTION TO ADDRESS THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UN Under Secretary-General for
Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang issued appeals for coordinated
action from multilateral institutions and major economies to address the
global financial crisis. Both expressed their hope that international
commitments made to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by
2015 in the areas of aid predictability, trade, debt reduction, access
to technology and affordable medicine will continue to be honored as
pledged. Next month in Doha, Qatar, the Follow-up
International Conference on Financing for Development to Review the
Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus will take place, and
will provide a forum to discuss how additional financial resources
vis-à-vis the global financial crisis can be raised to support the MDGs.
Links to further information
UN News Centre, 13 October 2008
Doha Financing for Development Review Conference, 29 November-2
December 2008, Doha, Qatar
SAVE YOUR LOGO CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED
A new initiative seeks to leverage funds
from firms that have endangered species in their logos. The campaign,
sponsored by the World Bank, Global Environment Facility and IUCN, will
promote partnerships with the private sector to protect threatened
species habitats, and to secure healthy ecosystems vital for the
livelihoods of local populations.
Link to further information
GEF Press Release, 7 October 2008
TOOLS FOR HARMONIZATION AND EQUIVALENCY IN ORGANIC
AGRICULTURE LAUNCHED
The International Task Force on Harmonization and Equivalency in
Organic Agriculture (ITF) launched two practical tools intended to ease
trade in organic agricultural products. Supachai Pantichpakdi, Secretary
General of UNCTAD, Alexander Müller, Assistant Director General of the
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and Urs Niggli, Vice-President
of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM),
all urged that these measures and other task force recommendations be
employed worldwide. The tools comprise: a guide to help decision-makers
assess whether an organic production and processing standard applicable
in one region of the world is equivalent (equally valid) to another
organic standard (Equitool) and a minimum set of performance
requirements for organic certification bodies (IROCB).
Link
to further information
UNCTAD News
OPPORTUNITY TO
COMMENT ON ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK'S SAFEGUARDS POLICY
In 2005, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) initiated a Safeguard
Policy Update, to strengthen the effectiveness of ADB's policies on
environment, indigenous peoples and involuntary resettlement. Throughout
the update process, ADB has engaged with stakeholders and received
suggestions and feedback. Stakeholders may now provide input on the
revised policy documents that are available online, and participate in a
consultation to be held in Manila, the Philippines, on 19-20 November
2008.
Link to further information
ADB Safeguard Policy Update
SEPTEMBER 2008
WORLD BANK CLIMATE
INVESTMENT FUNDS RECEIVE PLEDGES FOR US$ 6.1 BILLION
Leading industrialized nations met at the
World Bank on 26 September 2008, and pledged more than US$6.1 billion to
the recently created World Bank Climate Investment Funds (CIF). David
McCormick, Undersecretary for International Affairs, US Treasury,
announced his country's contribution of US$2 billion over three years.
Andrew Steer, UK Director General of the Department for International
Development, announced a commitment of £800 million (approximately
US$1.5 billion at current exchange rates). And Daikichi Monma, Japan's
Deputy Director General of the International Bureau of the Ministry of
Finance, announced his Government's pledge of US$1.2 billion to the CIF.
The CIF were created this year to invest in projects and programs in
developing countries that contribute to the demonstration, deployment
and transfer of low-carbon technologies, and to test innovative
approaches to climate change, for example by increasing climate
resilience in developing countries.
Links to further information
World Bank Climate Investment Funds
World Bank Press Release
IDB LAUNCHES BIOFUELS SUSTAINABILITY SCORECARD,
INVITES COMMENTS
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
released a tool known as the Biofuels Sustainability Scorecard during
the 4th Annual Western Hemisphere Energy Security and Cooperation Forum,
held on 9 September 2008, at IDB's headquarters in Washington DC, US.
The scorecard is based on the sustainability criteria of the Roundtable
on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB) and addresses 23 key environmental and
social issues such as food security, greenhouse gas emissions, water
management, land use change, biodiversity or poverty reduction. The IDB
is inviting comments and suggestions regarding the Scorecard, during a
six month public consultation period that will end in March 2009.
Links to
further information
The
Biofuels Sustainability Scorecard
IDB Press Release, 5 September 2008
GEF APPROVED ENVIRONMENTAL FISCAL REFORM PROJECT
IN KYRGYZTAN
The Global Environment Facility (GEF)
approved a project on "Capacity Building for Improved National Financing
of Global Environmental Management in Kyrgyzstan," to be executed by the
UN Development Programme, aiming to assist Kyrgyzstan in protecting its
environmental resources and to prevent further degradation by initiating
a process of environmental fiscal reform. The project will support
fiscal instruments for collecting, managing and allocating revenues from
fines deriving from environmental degradation. It will approach
environmental fiscal reform through capacity development at multiple
levels of the decision-making chain for assessing, collecting and
managing revenues from environmental fines.
Link to
additional information
GEF Press Release, 18 August 2008
Project details
AUGUST 2008
UNEP LAUNCHES PLAN TO
PROTECT BEES AND BIRDS
In a bid to protect pollinators, which play
a role in crop production and biodiversity, the UN Environment Programme
(UNEP) has launched a 5-year programme to disperse best management
practices worldwide. Partially funded by the Global Environment Facility
(GEF), the US$27 million project,
"Conservation & Management of Pollinators for Sustainable Agriculture
through an Ecosystem Approach," aims to develop local and national
capacities to protect these economically and environmentally important
species.
Link to further information
UNEP Press Release, 8 August 2008
MONTERREY REVIEW
PROCESS DRAFT OUTCOME DOCUMENT RECOGNIZES CLIMATE CHANGE-DEVELOPMENT
LINKAGES
The President of the UN General Assembly
issued a draft outcome document for the Monterrey Consensus Review
Conference to be held in Doha, Qatar, from 29 November-2 December 2008.
The draft outcome document was based on input during the first semester
of 2008 from countries, businesses, NGOs and civil society on the
thematic areas of the Monterrey Consensus, as presented during several
informal review sessions. The draft document reaffirms the goals and
commitments of the Monterrey Consensus on issues such as mobilizing
financial resources for development and international trade as an engine
for development, and welcomes the targets announced by G8 countries in
Hokkaido, Japan, to increase their official development assistance (ODA)
to US$130 billion by 2010. The draft also presents proposals to improve
the coherence and consistency of the international monetary, financial
and trading systems in support of development. A section on "New
Challenges and Emerging Issues" recognizes "increased costs from damage
to the earth's environment and climate change" as key challenges the
world faces today, and reaffirms the need for concerted global action to
address these "while consistently furthering economic and human
development for all." In particular, the draft document recognizes
responses to the climate change problem have "major development
implications" and proposes that countries agree to "address such
implications in a timely and decisive way" by addressing the financing
needs for mitigation and adaptation to climate change in developing
countries in the context of sustainable development and within the
structure of the UNFCCC. Informal consultations and drafting sessions on
the outcome document will be held during the second semester of 2008,
leading to the Doha Review Conference in November.
Links to additional information
UN Financing for Development Office
Doha Outcome Document draft, 25 July 2008
EQUAL WEIGHT GIVEN
TO DEVELOPED AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES IN GOVERNANCE OF WORLD BANK
CLIMATE INVESTMENT FUNDS
The World Bank's launch of two new climate investment funds (CIF) on
1 July 2008 presents a novel institutional arrangement to channel an
expected US$5 billion for climate-change related investments. The new
World Bank Funds will provide equal representation to developing and
developed nations, through a Trust Fund Committee, which will work by
consensus and include eight representatives from donor countries and
recipient countries, respectively. The fund will manage additional
resources to those already committed to other World Bank managed funds,
namely the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Least Developed
Countries Fund (LDCF), the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF) and the
Adaptation Fund. A Partnership Forum is also envisaged to meet annually
as a broad-based meeting of stakeholders, including donor and eligible
recipient countries, multilateral development banks, UN agencies and
processes, the GEF, the Adaptation Fund, bilateral development agencies,
NGOs, private sector entities, and scientific and technical experts. The
meeting is expected to provide a forum for dialogue on the strategic
directions, results and impacts of the CIF. At the Partnership Forum,
donor and recipient countries will agree, within their respective
caucuses, on their representation on the Trust Fund Committees.
Link to additional information
Climate Investment Funds website
JULY 2008
ADB ESTABLISHES
US$100 MILLION CARBON FUND
The Asian Development Bank (ADB)
has established a new fund to finance clean energy projects in the
Asia-Pacific region that generate carbon credits beyond 2012. The new
Future Carbon Fund is designed to stimulate investments in clean energy
projects and maintain momentum until an agreement on a post-Kyoto
climate framework is reached. Participants in the fund may include both
public and private sector entities in ADB's 67 member countries.
Link to further information
Asian Development Bank press release, 8 July 2008
G8 FINANCE MINISTERS
SUPPORT, AND WORLD BANK BOARD APPROVES, CLIMATE INVESTMENT FUNDS
The G8 Finance Ministers meeting, which
convened in preparation for the Summit of the G8 Heads of State and
Government, met from 13-14 June 2008, in Osaka, Japan. During the
meeting, Ministers expressed their support for two Climate Investment
Funds (CIFs) designed by the World Bank to complement existing bilateral
and multilateral efforts, until a post-2012 framework under the UNFCCC
is implemented. The CIFs are comprised of a US$10 billion Clean
Technology Fund and another multi-billion dollar Strategic Climate Fund.
Together, these funds seek to scale up public and private finance for
the deployment of clean technologies, prevention of deforestation, and
development of climate resilient economies in developing countries. Some
NGOs have objected to the funds' support of "clean coal" power plants,
noting that "clean coal" has "nothing to do with renewable energy."
The World Bank Board of Executive Directors
approved the CIFs on 1 July 2008, following an extensive public
consultation process. The funds are designed to provide grants, highly
concessional loans, and/or risk mitigation instruments for the
implementation of country-led programs and investments. Developing
countries will have an equal voice in the governance structures of the
funds, and decisions on the use of funds will be made by consensus. An
annual Partnership Forum will be held to provide a venue for talks on
the strategic directions, results and impacts of the CIFs, the first
meeting of which will take place in September, 2008, with initial
project or programme approval expected by the end of 2008.
Links to further information
G8 summit information
G8 Finance Ministers meeting
Friends of the Earth press release, 4 June 2008
World Bank press release 2009/001/SDN
World Bank Climate Investment Funds
JUNE 2008
CONGO BASIN FUND
LAUNCHED
The Congo Basin Forest Fund, a
multi-donor facility established to take action to protect the forests
in the Congo Basin region, was launched on 17 June 2008. The Fund will
be used over a ten-year period, up to 2018, to finance the Central
African Forests Commission (COMIFAC) Action-Plan in ten different
strategic areas aimed at conserving the Congo Basin rainforest. The
partnership involves the ten member States of the COMIFAC (Burundi,
Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe, and Rwanda) as
well as the UK and Norway. The UK and Norway are providing US$214
million to the fund and will also supply satellite-imaging technology to
monitor the area.
Link to additional information
Congo Basin Forest Fund website
AfDB Press release, 16 June 2008
The Guardian, 17 June 2008
SUSTAINABLE BANKING AWARDS WINNERS ANNOUNCED
The International Finance Corporation and the Financial Times
awarded Brazil's Banco Real the Sustainable Bank of the Year award. The
Sustainable Banking awards are meant to recognize the increasing
consideration of sustainability issues by financial institutions. The
winner, selected from 129 financial institutions across 54 countries,
has pioneered sustainable banking in South America. Other awards include
the "sustainable deal" of the year for BlueOrchard Finance from
Switzerland, and Morgan Stanley from the US and the "banking at the
bottom of the pyramid" award to ASA from Bangladesh.
Link to further information
IFC press release, 13 June 2008
WORLD BANK, GEF AND OTHERS JOIN TO SAVE ENDANGERED
TIGERS
The World Bank, the Global Environment
Facility (GEF) and a worldwide alliance of tiger conservationists,
scientists and celebrities have joined forces to help save wild tigers.
Tiger numbers have declined from more than 100,000 a century ago to
around 4,000 today. The decline is driven by a loss of prey and habitat
due to uncontrolled development and poaching for the black-market trade
in tiger skins and bones. The new Tiger Conservation Initiative,
launched in Washington DC, brings together many of the global experts
who have been studying the decline of tiger populations and national and
international NGOs that have been fighting to save tigers. The Tiger
Conservation Initiative will start with a series of dialogues in tiger
range countries to find out what has worked locally to protect the
tigers. As part of this Initiative, the World Bank has proposed a
Five-Point Plan of Action that stresses community engagement over
earlier and failed punitive action. It will also assess the financing
needs of tiger conservation and work with governments and the private
sector to find innovative funding sources and mobilize new resources for
the species' protection.
Links to
further information
World Bank News , 9 June 2008
GEF News, 9 June 2008
World Bank Tiger Conservation Initiative
REGIONAL CONSULTATION CONVENES ON CLIMATE CHANGE
STRATEGIES FOR AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK AND WORLD BANK
The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Bank jointly
organized a regional consultation on their respective strategies on
climate change, on 4 June 2008, in Dakar, Senegal. Participants at the
event agreed that energy security and long-term climate risk management
and adaptation constitute strategic priorities that need to be
implemented in their respective countries, and called on both
institutions to harmonize their strategies in order to: make them
complementary; reflect national and sub-regional strategies in their
climate change strategies; and set up an innovative financial mechanism
for African countries.
Link to
further information
AfDB press release, 6 June 2008
MAY 2008
ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK
LAUNCHES NEW CLIMATE FUND
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is
establishing a new fund to mitigate climate change and help the
Asia-Pacific region adapt to the impacts of global warming. "The purpose
of the fund is to facilitate greater investments in developing countries
in Asia and the Pacific to address the causes and consequences of global
warming. Money from the fund will be used to provide grant financing for
technical assistance, investment projects, research and other
activities, and we welcome interested parties to participate in the
fund," said Werner Liepach, Principal Director of ADB's Office of
Cofinancing Operations, regarding the fund's launch. The ADB will
provide US$40 million to the Climate Change Fund, which will be open for
further contributions from other sources.
Link to
additional information
ADB press release, 5 May 2008
APRIL 2008
EUROPEAN BANKS SET UP A POST-2012 CARBON CREDIT
FUND
Five European public financing institutions have established a EUR 125
million Post-2012 Carbon Credit Fund. The European Investment Bank-EIB (EUR
50 million), Caisse des Dépôts (EUR 25 million), Instituto de Crédito
Oficial-ICO (EUR 10 million), KfW Bankengruppe (EUR 25 million) and the
Nordic Investment Bank-NIB (EUR 15 million), have created this Fund,
which will exclusively purchase and trade carbon credits generated in
the post Kyoto period, potentially up to 2022. By assuming the inherent
regulatory risk, the Fund seeks to give a positive signal regarding
development of a post-Kyoto regime, while directly supporting
environmental projects. The new fund will acquire post- 2012 carbon
credit streams of projects already approved, or to be approved, by the
UNFCCC's Clean Development (CDM) or Joint Implementation (JI)
Mechanisms.
Link to
further information
European Investment Bank press release, 28 April 2008
ISO TO DEVELOP AN ENERGY MANAGEMENT STANDARD
The International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) has launched a project to develop an international
standard for energy management, following the successful examples of the
ISO 9000 series on quality management and the ISO 14000 series on
environmental management. The creation of a project committee (referred
to as ISO/PC 242) signals the first step in the development of the
standard, which is expected to provide a practical and widely recognized
approach to increasing energy efficiency, reducing costs and improving
environmental performance by addressing both the technical and
management aspects of rational energy use. It will also offer
organizations with operations in more than one country a single,
harmonized standard for implementation across the organization, and
provide a logical and consistent methodology for identifying and
implementing improvements that may contribute to a continual increase in
energy efficiency across facilities. The standard is intended to be
broadly applicable to various sectors of national economies, including
utility, manufacturing, commercial building, general commerce and
transportation sectors, and therefore could have influence on as much as
60 percent of the world's energy demand. A working group meeting
co-organized by UNIDO and the China Standard Certification Service
convened in Beijing, China, on 9-11 April 2008, and the secretariat of
ISO/PC 242 will be held jointly by the ISO members for the United States
and Brazil: ANSI (American National Standardization Institute) and ABNT
(Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas).
Links to
further information
ISO press release, 27 March 2008
Working
Group Meeting: Towards an International Energy Management System
Standard, Beijing, China, on 9-11 April 2008
GEF-FUNDED BIOMASS GAS
PLANT INAUGURATED IN RURAL INDIA
On 24 March 2008, a biomass gasifier plant that converts wood or
agricultural residues into a combustible gas mixture was inaugurated in
Boregunte, a remote village in the Karnataka region of southern India.
The plant was funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and
supported by the Ministry of Environment and Forests of the Government
of India, the Government of Karnataka, and the UN Development Programme.
It is the second plant commissioned under the Biomass in Rural India (BERI)
project, which seeks to promote remote communities' access to
electricity in an environment friendly, carbon neutral way, and it has
the capacity of delivering 250 kilowatt-hours of electricity. Additional
plants are scheduled to be commissioned in the same region during 2008.
Links to further information
UNDP press release, 24 March 2008
BERI website
MARCH 2008
FIVE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS DEVELOP NEW
AGRICULTURAL WATER STRATEGY
Five international organizations (the World Bank, the African
Development Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the
International Fund for Agricultural Development and the International
Water Management Institute) have launched a new agricultural water
initiative. The "Initiative for Agricultural Water in Africa" was
prepared for the New Partnership for Africa (NEPAD), and launched during
the First African Water Week, held in Tunis, Tunisia, from 26-28 March
2008. The Initiative aims to provide a platform to support agricultural
water in the region and will bring together financing instruments
including loans, grants and other multilateral and bilateral funding in
order to aid governments in improving water management.
Link to further
information
World Bank press release, 28 March 2008
FEBRUARY 2008
WORLD BANK TO ANNOUNCE CLEAN TECHNOLOGY FUND
Poor countries will soon receive billions
of dollars from a new World Bank fund to help them cut pollution, save
energy and fight global warming. The fund will be established by the
World Bank using some of the resources pledged by the US (US$2 billion)
and the UK (US$1.56 billion) to combat climate change and support
publicly and privately financed projects deploying technologies that
can increase efficiency to achieve these goals. In addition, Japan last
month announced a US$10 billion package to support developing countries'
fight against climate change, although the finance minister's letter did
not detail how much of this would be channeled through the World Bank.
The World Bank has confirmed that the formal announcement of the
creation of the facility will be made shortly.
Link to
further information
Reuters, 8 February 2008
FINANCE FOR DEVELOPMENT PROCESS READY FOR A BUSY
SEASON
The President of the UN General Assembly,
Srgjan Kerim, has
presented a detailed outline for the preparatory process for the
Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development to
Review the Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus, which will convene
in Doha, Qatar, from 29 November-2 December 2008. The preparatory
process during the first semester of 2008 will start with a series of
review sessions to be convened at UN headquarters in New York, US,
focusing on: "Chapter I: Mobilizing domestic financial resources for
development," (14 February); "Chapter II: Mobilizing international
resources for development: foreign direct investment and other private
flows" (15 February); "Chapter V: External Debt," (10-11 March);
"Chapter VI: Addressing systemic issues: enhancing the coherence and
consistency of the international monetary, financial and trading systems
in support of development" (11-12 March); "Chapter IV, Increasing
international financial and technical cooperation for development,"
(15-16 April); and "Chapter III, International trade as an engine for
development," (19-20 May). In addition, hearings with civil society and
the business sector are scheduled for 18 June, and General Assembly
thematic debates will address the issue of Climate Change in the UN
(11-12 February), and the achievements and challenges to achieve the
Millennium Development Goals (1-2 April). During July 2008, the
Secretary-General will issue a report on the latest developments related
to the review process and a draft outcome document based on the
preparatory events.
Links to
additional information
"The Road to Doha" newsletter, January 2008
UN Finance for Development Office
JANUARY 2008
DONORS AND NGOs TEAM UP TO PROTECT UNIQUE AND
THREATENED AREAS
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has
announced that it will provide US$ 20 million to the Critical Ecosystem
Partnership Fund (CEPF), a fund managed by Conservation International
(CI) with the aim of protecting some of the world's most unique and
threatened areas (biodiversity hotspots), including island ecosystems
and temperate forests. Other partners are the French Development Agency,
the Government of Japan, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation, and the World Bank. In its seven-year history, CEPF has
provided support to more than 1,200 civil society groups in Africa, Asia
and Latin America, enabling the protection of more than 24 million acres
(10 million hectares) for conservation and influencing policies in
dozens of countries.
Link to
additional information
GEF Press Release, 11 January 2008
WORLD BANK INSPECTION PANEL HIGHLIGHTS NEED TO
CONSULT PYGMY COMMUNITIES IN FOREST-SECTOR PROJECTS
The World Bank independent Inspection
Panel found a series of significant policy compliance failures in
Bank-supported forest-sector reforms in the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC). However, given the complex post-conflict environment in this country,
the Panel encouraged the Bank to stay engaged in DRC forest work and strengthen
efforts to address problems and correct policy shortcomings. Pursuant to
a complaint by DRC Pygmies that ongoing forest sector reforms supported by
the Bank were taking place without consultation of local communities,
the World Bank's Board of Executive Directors met on 10 January 2008,
and approved a plan that aims to integrate forest-dependent communities,
including Pygmies, more widely into the Bank's activities in DRC, and to
support critical activities such as capacity building, participatory
zoning, customary rights, law enforcement and independent monitoring in
forthcoming forest-related operations.
Links to
additional information
World Bank Press Release, 15 January 2008
World Bank independent Inspection Panel Report
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