March 29
By Sung Lee
Jim Yong Kim, the U.S. nominee for the presidency of the World Bank, outlined his vision in the Op-Ed, "My call for an open, inclusive World Bank." Dr. Kim said, “My own life and work have led me to believe that inclusive development – investing in human beings – is an economic and moral imperative.” He has embarked on a two-week trip to cities including Addis Ababa, New Delhi, Brasilia, Seoul, Tokyo, Beijing, and Mexico city to seek advice and to garner support for his candidacy. Other candidates are Jose Antonion Ocampo, a former Colombian finance minister and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a current Nigerian finance minister.
Today's top stories on global agricultural development and food security issues.
My call for an open, inclusive World Bank, Opinion, Jim Yong Kim, Financial Times, March 28
My message is simple: an era of extraordinary opportunity requires an extraordinary global institution. I want to hear from developing countries, as well as those that provide a big share of the resources to development, about how we can together build a more inclusive, responsive and open World Bank. A more inclusive World Bank will have the resources to advance its core mission of poverty reduction.
World Bank Candidate Hails Emerging Countries, Wall Street Journal, March 28
Mr. Ocampo, a former finance minister now working as a professor at New York's Columbia University, has engaged in a campaign for a job that will almost certainly go to the U.S. candidate, Jim Yong Kim, a South Korea-born American physician serving as Dartmouth College President. Mr. Ocampo criticized the seven-decade old tradition in which the top job at the bank has always been assigned to an American.
Ocampo hopes to open World Bank leadership to all, Reuters, March 29
Former Colombian finance minister Jose Antonion Ocampo knows he faces a tough battle to head the World Bank but he hopes his bid will pave the way for developing countries to one day lead the global development institution. Ocampo said the developing world was now better organized.
Leading scientists launch action plan on food security, SciDev, March 29
The Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change outlined seven recommendations designed to be carried out simultaneously by different parties such as consumers, governments, international institutions, investors and researchers. The commission called for changes to agriculture, development aid, diet choices, finance, food waste and policy, as well as revitalized investment in the knowledge systems to support these changes.
Millions at risk in Sahel, aid plans lack money, Reuters, March 29
This year millions in the Sahel face not only failed rains but the after-effects of the Libyan war, the shockwaves from Nigeria's battle with Islamist sect Boko Haram and most recently a coup by renegade low-ranking military officers in Mali. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimates local cereal output fell 25 percent in 2011, and Mauritania and Chad saw huge 50 percent drops.
Reports link heat waves, deluges to climate change, Washington Post, March 28
Scientists are increasingly confident that the uptick in heat waves and heavier rainfall is linked to human-caused greenhouse-gas emissions, posing a heightened risk to the world’s population, according to two reports issued in the past week. The report makes distinctions among weather phenomena.
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