Trade flows continue to grow in the first quarter of 2010 but at a slower pace

21/04/2010 - Merchandise trade volumes for the G7 countries as a whole continued to grow in the first quarter of 2010, but at a slower pace than in the fourth quarter of 2009.  Based on seasonally adjusted monthly data, merchandise trade values remain approximately 20% below pre-crisis levels in April and May. 

20 July 2010 – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today said it is boosting the delivery of aid to Niger, where up to eight million people are experiencing severe food shortages as a result of a prolonged drought that has caused crop failure and livestock deaths, leaving communities destitute.

The announcement comes as aid groups in Niger launched a revised emergency humanitarian action plan requesting over $371 million to respond to the worsening situation, almost doubling the earlier requirement of $190 million.

20 July 2010 – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are this week helping authorities in Zambia as they try to immunize more than 1.6 million children following a deadly outbreak of measles in the Southern African nation.

A national campaign began yesterday in Lusaka, the capital, and will continue until Friday, according to a press release issued by UNICEF, which said the vaccinators are targeting children aged between nine months and 47 months.

At least 78 people have been killed and nearly 3,000 cases recorded during the current outbreak of measles, with the area in and around the capital the worst affected.

16 July 2010 – The protection of 200,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) is an integral element of the peace-building process in the Central African Republic (CAR), a United Nations human rights expert said today following a week-long visit to the country.

“Efforts to build sustainable peace will be weakened as long as entire communities remain displaced and in despair,” said Walter Kaelin, the Secretary-General’s Representative on the human rights of IDPs, calling for the return and reintegration of the uprooted.

Also required in finding durable solutions for IDPs is the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of combatants, he stressed.

During his visit, Mr. Kaelin visited northern CAR, which has been heavily affected by displacement.

16 July 2010 – A combination of investment in agriculture, basic social services and job creation is the key to ensuring that Africa can meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – including slashing poverty, reducing illiteracy and boosting maternal and child health, all by 2015 – according to a senior United Nations official.

Helen Clark, Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), made the comments during her three-day visit to Ghana which wrapped up today.

Miss Clark, who met with Ghanaian officials, including President John Evans Atta Mills, and several Government ministers, praised the country’s advances towards the MDGs.

16 July 2010 – United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes today allocated some $41 million in emergency funding to boost humanitarian operations in nine countries where people are suffering the effects of hunger, malnutrition, disease, and conflict.

The money from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) will help cover funding gaps in key humanitarian projects in Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Yemen, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Central African Republic (CAR), Djibouti, Eritrea, Republic of Congo and Nepal.

Humanitarian actors in Chad and the DRC received the largest individual portions of some $8 million apiece.

Public Information Notice (PIN) No. 10/84

July 16, 2010 -- Public Information Notices (PINs) form part of the IMF's efforts to promote transparency of the IMF's views and analysis of economic developments and policies. With the consent of the country (or countries) concerned, PINs are issued after Executive Board discussions of Article IV consultations with member countries, of its surveillance of developments at the regional level, of post-program monitoring, and of ex post assessments of member countries with longer-term program engagements. PINs are also issued after Executive Board discussions of general policy matters, unless otherwise decided by the Executive Board in a particular case.

Money from U.S. and other donors helps to reinforce country strategies that raise agricultural productivity and incomes

Press Release No:2011/023/SDN

WASHINGTON, July 15, 2010 – Three months after international donors set up a new funding mechanism to support low-income countries as they scale-up support for agriculture and food security, almost $225 million for those countries has been approved for distribution and is on its way for implementation. The grants will benefit an estimated two million people in rural areas as each country works to increase food security, raise rural incomes, and reduce poverty.

15 July 2010 – Although swift food aid and agricultural supplies helped to ward off a post-earthquake food crisis in Haiti, funding shortfalls for farmers is hampering efforts to boost food production six months after the disaster, a United Nations agency cautioned today.

“Most of the response has been focusing on the urban aspect of the crisis, but the international community must not neglect rural areas if they want to overcome the massive effects of the earthquake in the country,” said Etienne Peterschmitt, Senior Emergency and Rehabilitation Coordinator for the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

Rome, 15 July 2010–Amid a growing food crisis in the Sahel region in West Africa, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) announced today that a large number of families in the Maradi region of Niger are managing to sustain themselves by utilizing cereal banks. To reduce vulnerability and food insecurity in the regions affected by the food crisis, IFAD has promptly combined the efforts of two ongoing projects in the area: the Project for the Promotion of Local Initiative for Development and the Agricultural and the Community-based Development Program.