More than 3 000 delegates from 193 nations will descend on the Ghana capital, Accra, on Sunday for five days of United Nations talks on globalisation — against a backdrop of rising food prices and an economic slowdown.
The talks — the UN Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) — will be opened by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who will 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,” Ban is expected to say in his opening address.
Whilst growth in Africa has never been stronger, recent food price rises, the subprime credit crunch and energy security pose major obstacles to free trade and globalisation.
The Accra meeting will begin with a speech by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — head of one of the so-called BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) of rapidly expanding economies, and a key player in the stalled Doha round of World Trade Talks.
But the most immediately pressing issue will be the soaring price of essential foodstuffs such as rice, wheat and corn in some of the world’s poorest nations, which have already seen riots in Haiti and demonstrations across Africa.
This is on top of the explosion in the price of oil, now about $117 a barrel.
Whilst these factors risk weakening the North, they will severely shake the South, notably Africa.
As the Thai Secretary General of Unctad, Supachai Panitchpakdi, warned more than a month ago, this 12th summit comes at ”a time when the world is in a period of uncertainty and where fears of a recession are credible”.
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.
While globalisation has helped to reduce inequalities in African countries, ”more needs to be done to enable all segments of the population to take advantage of strong growth in the region”, the International Monetary Fund said in its most recent report.
A few days ago the World Bank warned that the current rate of growth in Africa, at 5,8%, could be put at risk by the explosion in food prices and energy costs.
African growth has not yet reached a level able to reduce poverty and ”any external shock is likely to break this economic trajectory”, warned Nigerian World Bank vice-president for Africa, Obiageli Ezekwesili.
The World Bank has already warned that the rise in food prices risks putting back by seven years the 2015 deadline for reaching the UN Millennium Development Goals.
The precipitous rise in energy prices, notably oil, is also on the Unctad agenda, where the ”growing energy needs of Asia” could, in the words of Ban, ”put the brakes on globalisation raising the quality of life, reducing poverty and ensuring a sustainable development”.
In Tokyo earlier this month the Group of Eight countries reaffirmed their commitment to increase aid to developing nations but the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has called it that into doubt: last year aid from the 22 richest nations fell by 8,4%. — AFP
