Call for action on food prices

20/04/2008| IslamWeb

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, has called for concerted international action on rising food prices as a five-day conference on globalisation gets under way in the west African nation of Ghana.

More than 3,000 delegates from 193 nations are due to attend the 12th session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad).

The conference, which opened on Sunday in Accra, Ghana's capital, is being held against a backdrop of rising food prices and an economic slowdown.

"The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development could not have come at a more crucial time," Ban said upon his arrival late on Saturday.

The soaring price of basic foodstuffs in some of the world's poorest nations has already caused riots in Haiti and demonstrations across Africa.

"This is a worrisome situation as it poses a threat to the stability of many developing countries," he said.

Global action

Solving this crisis immediately is of particular importance as those hardest hit by it are those who have been left behind by globalisation, Ban said.

"Concerted international action is urgently needed to tackle this issue. Unctad's mandate is more important than ever in this context of deepening interdependence," he said.

The meeting was set to begin with a speech by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president, who is head of one of the so-called BRIC nations of rapidly expanding economies.

They include Brazil, Russia, India and China and are a key player in the stalled Doha round of world trade talks.

In his address to the Accra conference Ban was expected to warn that not everyone benefits from globalisation.

"We are going to study the economic impacts of globalisation, including poverty reduction, wealth, employment, and we will draw the lesson that some countries benefit from globalisation, and others do not," he was expected to say.

The conference is to explore the options to improve the international monetary and financial system, how to ensure the current boom in commodity prices translates into higher employment, and how countries can acquire the trade and productive capacities needed to compete on the world stage.

The rise in trade in services, and the related expansion in international labour migration, will be considered as well, along with the impact of Asia's mounting energy needs on energy security and climate change.

PHOTO CAPTION 

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, seen here on April 9, called for concerted international action on rising food prices ahead of the opening Sunday of five days of talks on globalistion.

Al-Jazeera