Venezuela Exits World Bank, IMF

Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, announced yesterday that the nation is withdrawing from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Venezuela recently paid off its debt to the World Bank, five years ahead of schedule. Its IMF debt has been paid off since 1999, and that institution has already closed its offices in the country. The withdrawals are considered a symbolic measure on the part of Chavez, who has been vocal in his opposition to Latin American reliance on Washington.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/04/30/chavez.venezuela.money.ap/

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Wolfowitz Testifies to World Bank Directors

Paul Wolfowitz testified before the panel of World Bank directors today as part of the continuing investigation of his conduct in the Shaha Riza controversy and amid increasing pressure from the international community for his resignation.  Oxfam International, the first “top-tier non-governmental” organization to support the resignation campaign, joined the call for Wolfowitz’s ousting in a statement to the Financial Times on Sunday, asserting that the World Bank cannot fulfill its obligation to the poor when it has been “deeply compromised” by this ethical dispute.  Wolfowitz, who was “combative” and “defiant” during his testimony according to some reports, said today, “I will not resign in the face of a plainly bogus charge of conflict of interest” and referred to the call for his resignation as a “smear campaign.”

For more information, see here and here.

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UN Secretary-General Warns that Potential Doha Round Failure Will Seriously Harm Developing Countries

In a speech to the Seventh Forum on Democracy, Development and Free Trade, held in the Doha, Qatar, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that the world’s poorest countries will slip further behind if the current round of international trade talks fail. Mr. Ban expressed his frustration at the slow pace of progress of the trade talks, and cautioned that unless the trade talks succeed, “serious damage will be done to those who can least afford it, to the multilateral trading system, and to multilateralism itself.

For more information, see here.

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UN Food and Agriculture Organization Expresses Support for Biofuel Production in Rural Areas

At a meeting of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, international experts agreed that bioenergy can be a positive force for rural development as long as environmental and food security concerns are also considered. Biofuels hold the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but often are grown after large tracts of land are cleared for monocultures, risking environmental damage and loss of biodiversity. The head of FAO’s Natural Resource Management Natural Resources Management and Environment Department said, however, that despite these concerns, biofuels can be “an important tool for improving the well-being of rural people.”

For more information, see here.

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Civil Society Committees Created by UNDP in Bolivia, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania

In an effort to aid country development by strengthening the relationship between the UN and civil society, the United Nations Development Programme in Bolivia, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Tanzania have created national civil society committees to work with the United Nations Country Teams.
For more information, see here.

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UN Secretary-General Calls on Financial Institutions to Support Developing Countries

At a meeting of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in New York yesterday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to accommodate the needs of developing countries. Ban explained that the importance of developing countries is “poorly reflected in forums where crucial decisions about their economic and social future are taken, including some of the institutions created 60 years ago under vastly different circumstances.”

For more information, see here.

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UNDP to Protect Spiritual Sites Worldwide

The United Nations Development Programme plans to set up a new internationally-recognized designation, much like UNESCO’s World Heritage sites, in an effort to protect hundreds of thousands of sacred places around the globe. The spiritual sites, ranging from Jerusalem’s Garden Tomb to a “spiritual park” in the Peruvian Andes, are in particular danger as the power of religion decreases and economic pressures increase. The UNDP joined the world’s main religions and leading conservation organizations in its pledge to keep this development at bay.

For more information, see here.

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UNCDF’s Mozambique Efforts Highlighted as Best Practice

A study by the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex University published by the World Bank has named the United Nations Capital Development Fund’s (UNCDF) work in Mozambique a best practice in building sustainable systems to reduce poverty in fragile countries. The study, titled Aid that works: successful development in fragile states, is aimed at understanding how initiatives in five countries, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Timor Leste and Uganda, achieved success in the extremely difficult conditions characteristic of “low income countries under stress.”

For more information, see here.