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6 June 2008 Rome exceeded expectations; will the G8 do the same? The crisis summit on soaring food prices held this week in Rome concluded with a declaration of increased assistance to developing countries. The development sector is now focussing on the G8 for continued progress on tackling the food prices crisis. In a new blog, ODI Director, Simon Maxwell, explains why the Rome summit exceeded expectations, as well highlighting an overlooked feature of the well documented response to the crisis. Currently, new pledges are being made from existing aid budgets – so are we robbing Peter to pay Paul? Excerpts from the blog: "The Food Summit in Rome turned out better than expected. It was not derailed by Robert Mugabe. It survived the unedifying wrangling over a final communiqué. It gave the topic a good hearing. It confirmed some practical actions. And it passed the torch successfully to the G8 in Japan in July." " An unremarked feature of the current focus on the world food crisis is that large financial pledges are being made by donors, but there is, as yet, no clear evidence that current pledges are additional to existing aid budgets. This raises questions about who or what will lose out.”" “There is one exception to the lack of additionality, which is the funding promised by non-traditional donors. Saudi Arabia, for example, gave WFP (World Food Programme) $500m the other day, helping that agency to exceed its appeal target for emergency aid. That's a generous, one-off gift. But, of course, Saudi Arabia is reaping huge windfall profits from the rise in the price of oil. When the price of oil goes up by, say, $30 per barrel, then Saudi Arabia is gifted nearly $300m a day in extra revenue – so the gift to WFP represents the windfall profit from one weekend.” END Notes to Editor: 1. Rome exceeded expectations; will the G8 do the same? can be found at http://blogs.odi.org.uk/blogs/main/archive/2008/06/06/5587.aspx 2. ODI is Britain's leading independent think tank on international development and humanitarian issues. Our mission is to inspire and inform policy and practice which lead to the reduction of poverty, the alleviation of suffering and the achievement of sustainable livelihoods in developing countries. We do this by locking together high quality applied research, practical policy advice, and policy-focused dissemination and debate. We work with partners in the public and private sectors, in both developing and developed countries. In 2007, we were named Public Affairs Think-Tank of the Year. For further information, please contact: |
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