8 March 2010 - The OECD, World Trade Organization and the UN’s Conference on Trade and Development have called on the leaders of the G20 countries to resist protectionism or the prospects for economic recovery may be wiped out.

In their second combined report on G20 Trade and Investment Measures, the three organisations find that most G20 members are holding to their commitments to open trade and investment in the wake of the global economic crisis. However, they say protectionist pressures may continue to gather force in the face of job losses and high unemployment.

5 March 2010 – In an increasingly globalized food sector dominated by large transnational corporations, small landowners are getting a smaller portion of the food dollar, the independent United Nations expert on the right to food warned today.

“Agribusiness can play a key role in realizing the right to food. But States have to give more support to their small producers and push corporations to change their pricing and standards policies,” said Special Rapporteur Olivier De Schutter, presenting his second annual report to the UN Human Rights Council now underway in Geneva.

He noted that smallholders have a very limited number of buyers, and are in a deeply unequal bargaining position in respect of a fair price for their crops.

5 March 2010 – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has supplied 2 million people in Pakistan with food in February alone, it was reported today.

This latest round of distributions is set to wrap up this week, and will be the last free supplies for many people returning to the northern areas of Swat and Buner, the scene of heavy fighting last year between Government forces and militants, in North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

WFP will introduce several early recovery activities in return areas this month focusing on supporting education and health systems.

Food distribution for families identified as displaced from South Waziristan, which also witnessed heavy fighting, kicked off this week.

5 March 2010 – The United Nations, together with the Guatemalan Government and aid partners, today launched a $34 million appeal to counter food shortages affecting 2.7 million people living in the Central American country’s so-called ‘dry corridor,’ which even before last year’s drought had one of the highest rates of chronic malnutrition in the world.

Press Release No. 10/69
March 3, 2010

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission visited Lusaka February 17–March 2, 2010 to conduct discussions for the fourth review under the Extended Credit Facility (formerly the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility). The mission had fruitful discussions with Hon. Situmbeko Musokotwane, Minister of Finance and National Planning; Dr. Caleb Fundanga, Governor of the Bank of Zambia; and other senior officials, as well as with representatives of the business community, civil society, and Zambia’s cooperating partners.

At the conclusion of the mission in Lusaka, Mr. George Tsibouris, mission chief for Zambia, released the following statement: