Commonwealth discusses solutions to rising food, fuel prices

It will bring together ministers and delegates from the 53 member countries to discuss the implications of rising food and fuel prices on their economies, according to a statement from the Commonwealth Communication Department in London, issued on September 3.

“The discussions should enable ministers to identify short- and long-term policy responses to the fuel and energy crisis, not least by sharing their comparative experience,” the secretary-general Kamalesh Sharma said.

Ministers will consider the implications of rising prices on economic and social development before turning to the policy implications for their portfolios.

“High food and energy prices present serious humanitarian, development and macro-economic challenges to all members of the Commonwealth, and particularly to finance ministers,” Sharma added.

He said, ministers will also discuss the ongoing Commonwealth call for the reform of international institutions, following the mandate given by its Heads of Government at their meetings in Kampala in 2007, and in June this year. “The focus of their discussions will be to continue Commonwealth efforts to promote deeper reforms in the World Bank and IMF.”

The meeting will also be held just before annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington, allowing Commonwealth ministers to take joint concerns and positions into those meetings.

High food and fuel prices in African countries like Uganda, Senegal, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Ghana in the past six months have resulted in death, starvation, malnutrition, riots, demonstrations and smuggling of food across borders.

While the high prices inflicted pain on the people across the world, Dr. Jurgen Zattler the deputy director general Multilateral and European Development Policy trade, at the Ministry for Economic Co-operation in Germany, recently called upon developing countries to utilise the chance, to increase their agriculture productivity to earn more money.

“The high prices are a big chance for developing countries to increase their productivity in the agricultural sector and increase their wealth,” Zattler told the Daily Monitor newspaper in June.