Zoellick Calls For Fight Against Hunger To Be Global Priority.

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"Robert Zoellick will call on world leaders in Davos this week to make the fight against hunger and malnutrition a global priority following sustained increases in food prices worldwide. ...

In an interview with the FT, Zoellick said it was essential that at a time when attention is focused on the world's biggest economies, global leaders keep 'an eye on the needs of the poor countries'. He said there were many poor countries 'including in sub-Saharan Africa that have started to build good fundamentals for growth, but that growth could be threatened by these events'. ...

He said many of the poor people hard-pressed by higher food prices were in 'very poor countries that have very small margins for maneuver' making it essential that there was a 'better international response' to the problem. Zoellick said the Bank believed that, rather than regulate food prices, poor countries should consider making targeted cash transfers to the poorest sections of the population, allowing them to buy basic foodstuffs.

But he said hunger and malnutrition were problems that required a broader set of development initiatives, including efforts to boost agricultural productivity and efforts to speed the transfer of energy-saving technologies to the developing world." [The Financial Times (UK)]

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World Bank To Beef Up Anti-Corruption Unit.

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"The World Bank said on Wednesday it would adopt recommendations by a panel led by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker to beef up its main corruption fighting unit. ...

The Bank said on Wednesday after an internal review that it agreed broadly with Volcker's recommendations, including the creation of a small independent advisory board to ensure the independence and accountability of the Department of Institutional Integrity, or INT. The Bank also said the department would work more closely with World Bank's main operations... It also said that the department needed to be more transparent about its policies and practices. ..." [Reuters/Factiva]

FT adds that "...The decision to implement the recommendations of the report was made by an internal Bank working group. It was supported by Robert Zoellick, the World Bank president. ...The World Bank management presented its decision to the board on Tuesday. It was expected to be the subject of 'additional discussions' with the panel with regard to implementation.

Overall, the Bank said, the measures would 'enhance transparency and prevention, clarify responsibilities, and strengthen follow-up actions when fraud and corruption are discovered. 'They will integrate the investigative work of the INT more closely into bank operations and provide for ongoing monitoring and evaluation.' ..." [The Financial Times (UK)]

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Global Unemployment Rate To Climb In 2008 - ILO.

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"More people will be out of work in 2008 as a result of global economic cooling, and any major slowdown could cause disruption and further hike unemployment, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said on Thursday.

The ILO estimated that 3 billion people aged 15 and older had jobs in 2007, up nearly 2 percent from the year before and more than 17 percent higher than in 1997. There were 190 million unemployed in 2007. Among those employed, about 487 million people did not earn enough to lift themselves and their families above the $1-a-day poverty line, and 1.3 billion earned less than $2 a day. 'Despite working, more than 4 out of 10 workers are poor,' the report concluded. ..." [Reuters/Factiva]

Xinhua notes that "...According to the [Global Employment Trends] report ... the world unemployment rate would climb to 6.1 percent this year from 6.0 percent in 2007.

However, the projection could be proven much too low if the world economy grows at an even slower rate than the 4.8 percent estimated by the International Monetary Fund, Jose Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, head of the ILO's employment sector, told a news briefing. ..." [Xinhua/Factiva]

AFP adds that ILO "... Economist Dorothea Schmidt told journalists that five million fewer jobs are expected to be created in the year ahead. ...South Asia was at the vanguard of job creation in 2007, accounting for 28 percent of all new jobs. But the ILO cautioned that many of these new jobs remain vulnerable, with more than seven out of ten people in work classified as 'own-account' workers who lack social security and workplace protection. ...

The ILO urged governments to place labor market policies at the heart of macroeconomic strategy to ensure that growth translates into new jobs. ..." [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

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Davos Provides Special Opportunity To Discuss Mideast, Climate Change: Blair.

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"Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in Davos Wednesday that the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting has provided a special opportunity to discuss the political status of the Mideast peace process, as well as ways to attract business chances and investment in the Palestinian territories. ...

The Davos meeting will discuss what role business can play in climate change, and the question of the right balance between how 'we make sure the developed countries fulfill their obligations' and how the developing nations realize their promises, he said. ...

Both Blair and former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, also co-chair of the Davos event, called for a relaunching of the Doha round talks of the World Trade Organization. ..."

[Xinhua/Factiva]

In a separate piece, Xinhua notes that "The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Chairman Rajendra Pachauri urged the business circle on Wednesday to increase investment in research and technology, by which the world can 'minimize' greenhouse gas emissions. ...

The business groups should focus on efforts needed not only on how to adapt to climate change, but also on taking immediate actions to mitigate the effects of climate change, said Pachauri. ...He pointed out that the developing countries have attached more importance to emissions reduction and the developed countries should move to develop new technologies which will benefit the control of gas emissions. ..." [Xinhua/Factiva]

AP reports that "The UN climate chief predicted Wednesday that the world will reach the goal of cutting greenhouse gases 50 percent by 2050 and said the US economic slowdown should spur governments to take bolder action in confronting global warming. ...

....Meanwhile FT reports that "The US Treasury is stepping up efforts to persuade powerful sovereign wealth funds to be more transparent and accountable, to counter unease about their investments in the country's banks and other businesses.

Treasury officials are using this week's meeting of the WEF in Davos to hold intensive talks with representatives from state-controlled funds from Asia and the Gulf and press them to play a more active, public role in addressing market concerns. ..." [The Financial Times (UK)]

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African Bank Chief Warns On Internal Strife.

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"Donald Kaberuka believes internal strife poses more of a threat to African economies than external shocks. However, in an interview with the FT, the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) still forecast average growth on the continent would rise in 2008 to 6.5 percent.

Speaking at the AfDB in Tunis, Kaberuka said African economies had enjoyed their longest period of growth for decades - reaching almost 6 percent on average last year - as a result of better management and debt relief as well as surging commodity prices. He expected Asian demand for African commodities to remain strong in 2008 unless there was a 'massive correction' in the global economy.

If the crisis in Kenya were prolonged, it would have an impact across east Africa, and risked plunging 2 million people into poverty, he said. ...He cited the Nigerian economy as 'modernizing' and drawing in 'serious investors into areas outside the oil sector'. However, as elsewhere, the benefits of higher growth needed to be spread more evenly. ..." [The Financial Times (UK)]

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Also in this edition; Briefly Noted...

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Guinea reached an agreement with the Paris Club of sovereign creditors on Wednesday leading to the cancellation of $180 million in debt and the rescheduling of around $120 million. [Reuters/Factiva]

The Brazilian government has announced a huge rise in the rate of Amazon deforestation, months after celebrating its success in achieving a reduction. In the last five months of 2007, 3,235 sq km were lost. [BBC News (UK)]

There is little cause for optimism in China's fight to turn back the spreading deserts, with efforts so far failing to live up to expectations, a senior government official said on Thursday. Deserts, which cover a fifth of China, are spreading on the upper reaches of the Yellow River, on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau and parts of Inner Mongolia and Gansu, driven by decades of overgrazing and deforestation. [Reuters/Factiva]

Faced with persistent air pollution despite promises to stage a green Olympics, Beijing is planning to reduce its motor traffic by half during the Games to improve air quality and ease traffic flow, according to a newspaper report on Wednesday. [The New York Times]

The UN and Afghanistan's government asked donor nations Thursday to provide $81 million to help feed over 2.5 million impoverished Afghans hit by the higher cost of wheat flour. The UN said a sharp rise in global wheat prices had pushed the price of the grain up 58 percent in Afghanistan over the past year, making hundreds of thousands of families unable to afford the food they need. [The Associated Press/Factiva]

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday urged Montenegro to consider a combination of policy measures to avoid economic overheating. In its annual economic review of Montenegro's economy, the IMF said the challenge was to ensure that the current economic boom unwinds smoothly. [Reuters/Factiva]

Iran's government is predicting it will need about $3.2 billion for gasoline and petroleum imports in the budget for the Iranian year that starts in March, according to an Iranian media report published by IRNA news agency on Thursday. [Reuters/Factiva]

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called Wednesday on aid donors to fund all emergency appeals equally, and not leave some countries to languish at the expense of others. The UN is seeking $3.8 billion to aid 25 million people in over 20 countries in 2008, he said. [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

The EU proclaimed a new era in the fight against climate change yesterday as it announced sweeping measures to cut greenhouse gases and boost renewable energy use, and called on the world to join forces in the great project of our generation. European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso said the EU was supporting its words with actions that laid foundations for an international deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions. [The Financial Times (UK)]

Singapore, along with Norway and Abu Dhabi, has been asked by the International Monetary Fund to help set disclosure benchmarks for sovereign wealth funds, a local newspaper reported on Thursday, quoting Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew. [Reuters/Factiva]

The World Health Organization has created a public database of information to track strains of avian-flu virus collected from around the world, bowing to criticism that its secrecy and process for sharing samples was unfair. [The Wall Street Journal/Factiva]