Asian Development Bank to boost lending

Another one of the big banks has made an announcement to boost lending to fight off the global recession. The Asian Development Bank says they will boost lending by $165 billion dollars, that triples their normal efforts.

From this Associated Press article that we found in Newsday, we find more details on the decision from the banks board of directors.

The Manila-based bank's board of governors said an overwhelming majority of the ADB's 67 member countries voted to endorse the 200 percent increase to ADB's current $55 billion of capital.

"This substantial increase is a resounding vote of confidence from our shareholders for what we can achieve as a premier development partner in the region," ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said. "We must do all we can to prevent the reversal of hard-won gains for our region in social and economic development, and in poverty reduction."

The decision comes just before the ADB's annual meeting in Bali, Indonesia, on May 2-5.

The capital boost allows the ADB to substantially increase its support to countries affected by the global downturn and to provide an additional $10 billion over the next few years for crisis-related assistance.

ADB estimates the financial crisis will add 60 million people this year in developing Asia to those already trapped in extreme poverty and another 100 million in 2010. Those are in addition to 903 million Asians already living on $1.25 or less a day.

US Treasury Secretary on increasing lending to the poor nations

The US Treasury Secretary was asked his opinions on what the World Bank and IMF must do during the global recession. Timothy Geithner's comments were recorded by Associated Press reporter Harry Dunphy.

The global economic crisis threatens to reverse gains in fighting poverty, so banks that provide aid to poor nations must embrace changes in their operations, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Sunday.

Those development banks are at the forefront of efforts to eradicate poverty and promote sustainable growth, he said the World Bank's policy-setting board.

"We cannot afford to lose time or lose ground," Geithner said.

At the same time, he said it was important for the banks to conduct their aid business in the open.

They must face reviews to ensure they have enough money and are promoting fundamental changes, Geithner said. He added that their resources must be used to "achieve the maximum impact on long-term development objectives, including addressing the needs of the poorest."

As the weekend meetings of the bank and the International Monetary Fund wrapped up, finance ministers said they are seeing signs the economy is stabilizing. But they said it will take until the middle of next year for the world to emerge from the worst recession in decades.

G7 finance ministers promise more loans to poor nations

The finance ministers of the 7 wealthiest nations promised more money available for loans from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The finance ministers meet with the leaders of the two banks twice a year to revise policies going forward. The representatives are vowing to keep the global recession from spreading further to the world's more vulnerable economies.

From Canada's Globe and Mail, reporter Kevin Carmichael files this summary of the meetings.

While hardly oblivious to the plight of the poor, economic leaders from the United States, Britain, Japan and other industrial nations have devoted most of their energy over the past year to cleaning up their financial messes at home.

But the risks facing emerging economies in Africa, Asia, South America and Eastern Europe have become so severe that they were impossible to ignore at meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

The economies of emerging and developing countries will expand a mere 1.6 per cent in 2009, compared with 6.1 per cent last year, according to the IMF. Already, 50 million people have been thrust into extreme poverty as a result of the crisis, according to the World Bank.

"The financial and economic turmoil that began in advanced economies is now truly a global crisis that is spilling over into developing countries, and with serious repercussions," Canada's Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in a written submission to a meeting yesterday of the officials who guide the World Bank.

These biannual gatherings of G7 finance chiefs have become slightly uncomfortable for Mr. Flaherty and his counterparts. For decades, they and their predecessors cajoled and coerced developing nations into following an economic path of free markets, light regulation and private ownership.

The crisis, rooted in the rampant trading of exotic financial assets by American and European banks, exposed the weaknesses of unfettered capitalism as a panacea for global poverty.

"The crisis didn't come from us," said Charles Koffi Diby, Ivory Coast's Finance Minister. "We are the victims here."

Robert Zoellick calls on rich nations to "accelerate aid"

To end the World Bank's spring meeting Robert Zoellick used his speech to demand more from the rich nations to help the poor during the global recession. The head of the World Bank warned of a "human catastrophe" unless the rich nations do more. Zoellick also admitted that the Millennium Development Goals are likely will not be met because of the recession.

From the BBC, are some quotes from the Zoellick's speech.

"There is a widespread recognition that the world faces an unprecedented economic crisis, poor people could suffer the most and that we must continue to act in real time to prevent a human catastrophe," said Mr Zoellick.

He added that no-one yet knew how long the global recession would last.

In a joint statement, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) said they had urged "all donors to accelerate delivery of commitments to increase aid, and for us all to consider going beyond existing commitments".

World Bank managing director, and former Nigerian Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said there was now a real crisis in Africa as a result of the worldwide recession.

She said that as a result of falling demand for commodities and other exports, government budgets were falling short across the continent.

"This means that [governments] cannot pay teachers or health workers, and we are hearing of people who can't eat three square meals a day," she said.

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World Bank issues latest World Monitoring Report

Reports on the state of the world's economy are being released ahead of a World Bank - International Monetary Fund meeting coming to Washington next week. The World Bank released its "Global Monitoring Report" for 2009, the title for it is sobering "A Development Emergency".

The report says that the recession had drastically hurt efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals. The bank calls on the world's governments to increase funding on programs for the poor, especially for health concerns.

From the Associated Press via Google, writer Deb Riechmann gives us more details from the new report. The World Bank has set up a full website with the Global Development Report available to download.

A report released in conjunction with this week's meeting of the bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington said the financial meltdown is impeding efforts to achieve most of the eight U.N. millennium development goals. Although it still may be possible to reach the first goal — halving extreme poverty by 2015 from its 1990 level — it will be an uphill battle, according to "The Global Monitoring Report 2009: A Development Emergency."

"With simultaneous recessions striking all major regions, the likelihood of painfully slow recoveries in many countries is very real, making the fight against poverty more challenging and more urgent," said John Lipsky, deputy managing director of the IMF.

New estimates show that more than half of all developing countries could experience a rise in the number of extremely poor people this year. The report said it's estimated that 55 million to 90 million more people will be trapped in extreme poverty this year due to the worldwide recession. The number of chronically hungry people is expected to climb to more than 1 billion this year, reversing gains made in fighting malnutrition and making it even more urgent to invest in agriculture.

"Worldwide, we have an enormous loss of wealth and financial stability," said Justin Yifu Lin, an economist at the World Bank. "Millions more people will lose their jobs in 2009, and urgent funding must be provided for social safety nets, infrastructure and small businesses in poor countries, for a sustainable recovery."

A commentary by the President of Liberia

The President of Liberia has released a commentary on global recession's effects on Africa. In her commentary, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf begins by stating the great progress that Africa has made in recent years. Johnson-Sirleaf says all that progress can be undone by the recession that was not caused by Africa.

Our snippet of the commentary comes from the Guelph Mercury. Johnson-Sirleaf proposes 5 things that can help Africa keep growing through the global recession.

The economic crisis threatens the progress in my country and elsewhere on our continent. An estimated $50 billion in income could be lost in Africa during the next two years. Declining remittances, trade flows and investment could undermine new businesses, throw millions out of work, and increase tensions and instability.

The crisis, which Africa did nothing to cause, demands a strong response. African nations must do their part by continuing to address corruption, eliminate red tape and reduce obstacles to private-sector growth. But just as industrialized countries need a stimulus, African economies need a boost to keep their progress on track. The Group of 20 meeting last week produced a helpful first step. Now, five additional steps are critical.

First, the G-20 pledge to provide the International Monetary Fund with new resources must be fulfilled, and the IMF needs to get those resources to countries quickly and without onerous conditions.

Second, the World Bank and the African Development Bank must better leverage their resources; aggressively front-load support; and better target growth, jobs and safety-net programs. The International Finance Corp., the World Bank's private-sector affiliate, must be especially creative in keeping private investment on track.

Third, bilateral partners must build on their promises to increase aid and make it more effective by reducing bureaucratic delays, speeding disbursements and better aligning programs with African priorities.

Fourth, export credit agencies must use their resources to attack risk and other barriers to trade finance, such as liquidity issues.

Fifth, all countries must resist protectionist pressures so that trade can be the critical engine for restoring global growth.

The citizens and leaders of donor nations should recognize how important their assistance has been to the new leadership in Africa and how appreciative most Africans are for this partnership. Critics say that African economies are shrinking, that poverty is rising and that failing aid is the culprit.

But this argument is at least a decade out of date. Africa's turnaround is real, the evidence indisputable. Africans themselves have been the key to this reversal, but more effective aid has played an important role. Reducing aid would slow private-sector growth, stall poverty reduction, and undermine peace and stability in countries that are struggling to become part of the global economy.

Even Passover meals are being slashed in this recession

In recent years, the government of Israel has moved welfare responsibility to the charitable sector, slashing assistance programs. Now with contributions drying up due to the global recession, food and aid to the poor of Israel is disappearing. Many aid workers says the poverty problem in the country could soon become unmanageable.

From the Jerusalem Post columnist Larry Derfner explains how charitable Passover Seder meals have even been drastically slashed.

Last Pessah, Meir Panim, the country's largest network of "soup kitchens," distributed boxes of Seder meals to 24,000 people. It also gave out NIS 250 grocery coupons to 6,700 people. This Pessah, only a few hundred people will get those coupons. And the number of those who will receive Seder meals-in-a-box? Zero.

"Our Pessah campaign has been all but canceled," says Dudi Zilberschlag, founder of Meir Panim and the leading fund-raiser and power-broker in Israel's haredi world, while multitasking with aides in his office at Jerusalem's Bikur Holim Hospital. In late 2007, his donors, who include the wealthiest Jews here and abroad, began reducing their contributions, but since Lehman Brothers went bankrupt last September and it became clear that the world was in the grip of something much worse than an ordinary, cyclical recession, these contributions have simply dried up.

"The big Israeli corporations are out of the game," says Zilberschlag, in his 50s, a gentle-spoken man who takes hard times philosophically. He mentions a couple of super-rich Israelis, saying that they used to give him about $100,000 each before Pessah. "This time - nothing," he says.

In the last year, Meir Panim has closed five of its 17 soup kitchens, while Koah Latet, its affiliated charity for clothing and household goods, has closed down two of 14 branches. The organization's NIS 50 million budget has been cut by 30 percent; 41 of its 134 employees have been let go.

"We used to give hot meals to 700 kids in our after-school programs, now we're feeding maybe 200. We used to deliver 900 meals to the homes of old, sick, handicapped people who couldn't come in - we've stopped those deliveries completely," says Zilbershlag. "We're basically down to the core of what we do - the restaurants [i.e. soup kitchens]. We're still feeding 6,000 people, we don't turn anyone away, but we can't give them meat every day anymore, so we give them more carbohydrates."

Meir Panim was founded eight years ago, shortly after the second intifada began, the economy nosedived and the government, strapped for cash, began slashing away at financial assistance to poor people. As the welfare state dwindled, private charity picked up the slack, until now there are more than 120 soup kitchens around the country.

Cambodia to see the worst increase in poverty: World Bank

A new study from the World Bank says that Cambodia will see the biggest increase in poverty in the Asia Pacific region.The study examines the effects of the global recession on that part of the world.

The World Bank blames a narrow economic base and over dependency on imports as the reasons for why Cambodia will be the hardest hit.

From the Phnom Penh Post, reporter Steve Finch breaks down the World Bank study.

Cambodia is set to be the country hardest hit this year by the global economic crisis in the Asia-Pacific region, the World Bank said today, placing the Kingdom among only four countries projected "to experience absolute increases in poverty".

In a report released today, the bank said that Cambodia - along with Malaysia, Thailand and East Timor - would see contractions in per capita income and therefore increased poverty, noting that the Kingdom's weaker GDP growth, which the bank again revised downwards to -1 percent for 2009, would slow poverty reduction across the region.

"Cambodia is the country with the largest projected increase in the number of poor people," the World Bank said.

It projected 200,000 additional people in the Kingdom this year would be pushed below the poverty line - defined by the bank as US$1.25 a day - compared to East Timor, where a further 25,000 were forecast to sink into poverty.

The World Bank in February said that Cambodia had reduced poverty from 45 percent to 50 percent in 1993-1994 - a figure that improved to around 30 percent by 2007.

The report also said that Cambodia would see the greatest GDP growth reversal in the region.

"An expansion of 10.2 percent in 2007 stands in stark contrast to a contraction of 1 percent projected for 2009," it said.

"The difference (11.7 percent) over two years is the largest in the region, and arises from a sudden drop in garment exports and tourist arrivals."

Bare shelves at US food pantries

In addition, another food pantry in Nebraska is having the same problem. These stories really show how many people are having trouble feeding themselves in this recession. Those who work for food banks and related aid groups say they have never seen it this bad.

From KPTM, we learn of the situation in Omaha from this Associated Press story.

Officials with the Grand Island Salvation Army say the shelves of their food pantry are nearly bare.

Salvation Army Social Worker Mark Merritt says her organization helped a record 450 families last month. Many of those people have been laid off or seen their income drop.

A local organization called Project Hunger recently helped buy cereal and other basics to restock the pantry's shelves. But Project Hunger is having problems of its own.

The group sponsors an annual Easter Basket Extravaganza, in which it auctions off baskets of donated food. The group had hoped to auction 400 this weekend, but have only received enough donations for 100 baskets.

An analysis of G-20

The IPS has a good analysis of the G-20 meetings beginning in London. The analysis largely deals with how the rich countries try to force what had worked for them on the poor countries. But this seems to go against the fact that poor countries simply have different economies, so they may require different solutions to develop their nations.

How this commentary gets around to addressing poverty if the latest statement from OXFAM. The world anti-poverty fighting group is calling on the G-20 to establish a bailout package for the poorest countries to prevent many more from slipping into poverty during this recession.

Writer Sanjay Suri says that meetings such as this are only measured by how many dollars they put into helping the rest of the world.

The G20 as a grouping of rich and emerging economies seems to represent wealth and new influence. It is expected now that countries like China and India must pay towards a reformed International Monetary Fund, in which they would then have greater say. The countries are spoken of as the new emerging entities, with little substantive thought for the hundreds of millions of the poor within them. The countries seem not to occupy the nowhere space of rich or at least now richer countries with poor people.

There is of course an acknowledgement of poverty around the world and that the G20 must do something about it – such a gathering could hardly be complete without statements of that kind. But the G20 meeting can expect to be measured by the number of dollars that are attached to those words, amid fears that the G20 meeting will be rich only in statements of the right sort.

Putting numbers to words, the international charity Oxfam has asked G20 leaders to produce a 580 billion dollars a year rescue package for poor countries made up of an immediate fiscal stimulus for the poorest countries of at least 24 billion dollars, debt relief, and fulfilment of existing pledges to increase development aid.

That sounds like a lot of money, but is a fraction of 8.42 trillion dollars promised by rich country governments to bail out banks, Oxfam says. This kind of bailout package, it says, would be enough to end global extreme poverty for 50 years and a massive step towards ending it forever.

"When you look at the amount of money that has been found for banks it seems inconceivable that G20 leaders will stand aside and allow the economic crisis to destroy poor peoples lives," Oxfam chief executive Barbara Stocking said in a statement. "Developing countries are reeling from dramatic declines in trade, remittances and foreign investment. Rich governments whose policies contributed to the crisis have a responsibility to help those who cannot afford their own bailouts."

Without urgent action, she said, "hundreds of millions of the world's poorest people will fall further into poverty. Losing your job is devastating wherever it happens but for millions people in poor countries, without benefits and health services to fall back on, unemployment will push them into destitution."

And yet, nobody is expecting anything like that kind of money coming from the G20, or even a small fraction of it. Or even much acknowledgement that different policies are needed for different countries.

Recession pushing millions into poverty says the World Bank

The World Bank released revised economic indicators ahead of the G-20 meetings in London. They say that in 2009 the world's economy will grow by 1.7 percent, but if you removed China and India from the world there would be no growth at all.

The stats and figures related to poverty are included in this snippet that comes from AFP via the Google News.

World Bank president Robert Zoellick said the recession was expected to trap 53 million more people in poverty this year, defined as subsistence living on less than 1.25 dollars a day.

"This comes after soaring food and fuel prices of recent years, which pushed 130 to 155 million people into extreme poverty, many of whom have still not recovered," Zoellick said in a speech in London.

Poor people in developing countries have little buffer to protect them against the effects of the crisis.

"In London, Washington, and Paris people talk of bonuses or no bonuses. In parts of Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, the struggle is for food or no food," he said.

Zoellick called on the Group of 20 industrialized and developing countries and the European Union, whose leaders are holding a crisis meeting in London Thursday, to support measures to help developing countries, such as the bank's appeal to developed countries to donate 0.7 percent of their stimulus spending to its Vulnerability Fund.

"Unlike economic crises in the past sixty years, this is a global crisis. It will require a global solution," the former US trade envoy said.

"These events could next become a social and human crisis, with political implications," he added.

The agenda for the G-20

The BBC has a really good breakdown of the issues that are ahead for the G-20 meeting. The one-day summit is taking place in London on April 2nd.

Of course, the big topic will be the world economic recession. The leaders of the world's wealthiest countries will talk about what they can do to get the economy growing again.

The BBC has the agenda divided into 5 categories, reviving the world economy, restoring lending, tougher rules for banks, a bigger role for International Monetary Fund, and more help for developing countries. It is that last heading that we will focus on in our snippet, but we encourage you to give the full article a look at.

The world's poorest countries are likely to be hard-hit by the downturn.

The World Bank estimates that an extra 50 million people will fall into poverty because of the global recession.

But there is concern that many countries are now likely to cut their development aid.

Gordon Brown would like world leaders to pledge to maintain that aid, and if possible to increase it in line with targets agreed at the Gleneagles summit in 2005.

However, development groups such as the Overseas Development Institute say that at least $50bn more is needed for sub-Saharan Africa to escape the worst effects of the crisis.

The slowing textile industry in Cambodia

Foreign investors invaded Cambodia with cash to establish a thriving textile industry in the 1990's. The jobs in the clothing factories helped to bring many Cambodians over the poverty level.

Now with the global recession slowing down demand for clothes, many jobs in Cambodia are being lost. Some factories are shutting down while owing their workers back pay.

From this exaustive Reuters story on textiles in Cambodia, writer Ek Madra shows us the impact on the nations poverty line.

The sector represents about 16 percent of Cambodia's GDP, so the factory closures will hurt, with a ripple effect in the countryside as the money sent home by garment workers dries up.

The International Monetary Fund says the economy could shrink 0.5 percent in 2009 and the garment trade slump is a big factor.

But Kang Chandararot, director of the Cambodian Institute of Development Study (CIDS), said even if the double-digit growth of recent years was out of reach, 4 or 5 percent may be possible thanks to a bountiful rice crop in 2008/09 and the record $950 million in aid pledged by international donors for 2009.

"Cambodia could use the aid of nearly $1 billon to invest in infrastructures to stimulate its economy," Chandararot said.

People surviving on less than $1 a day are deemed to be living in poverty. Garment workers earn on average $2.7 a day so the loss of these jobs will hurt.

"More people will be pushed into poverty," said Huot Chea of the World Bank in Cambodia.

Historical data is lacking in Cambodia, but the World Bank says 45 to 50 percent of the people lived in poverty in 1994. Prime Minister Hun Sen says that was cut to 30 percent by 2008 thanks to the garment sector, tourism and agriculture.

Stimulus in the Philippines

In our searches today, we found part of the plan the Philippines has to keep their economy thriving during the global recession.

A cash transfer program in the Philippines will give mothers and their children money if the parents promise to keep their kids in school.

From Business World Onlne, Maria Eloisa I. Calderon fills us in on the program, as well as gives us the latest poverty stats for the country.

The program involves handing out cash — P500 for healthcare and P300 per child for education (a maximum of P1,400 per family) — to mothers on condition that their children are sent to school.

"We have identified 320,00 households this year but the President [Gloria Macapagal Arroyo] gave an order for us to double it to P700,000," Ms. Pablo told BusinessWorld, adding the additional budget will be drawn from the President’s social fund.

The DSWD, which has drawn up a five-year plan to 2012 for the conditional cash transfer program, will need an estimated P10 billion every year for every 700,000 families, she said.

In its latest MDG progress report, the National Economic and Development Authority said the proportion of people living in extreme poverty had fallen to 13.5% in 2003 from 24.3% in 1991.

The UNDP is currently conducting a survey to get an estimate of how many people in the Asia-Pacific region have fallen back to poverty as a result of the crisis. Mr. Chhibber pointed out that a "significant part" of the roughly 400 million people who have risen out of poverty in recent years on the back of buoyant economic growth would be adversely affected.

"A global recovery from this crisis is going to take much longer ... and therefore, much more Asian solutions to this crisis must be found," he said.

Comment on the global recession reaching Africa

For the last few years, economic growth in Africa was really moving up fast. But, the credit crisis that began in America is now reaching the underdeveloped world.

A commentary in today's Toronto Star spells out what might be ahead for Africa. Craig and Marc Kielburger describes the fear that the global economic recession could undo all of Africa's recent gains.

The past decade has seen many changes to Africa's economic climate. Foreign aid has helped create jobs through development projects. Soaring commodity prices made raw materials enormously profitable. The region even began moving into stock markets. Companies gained capital investment. A middle class started to emerge as people followed the North American example and began investing their savings.

These markets were fast growing — the Nairobi Stock Exchange expanded from about $1 billion dollars in 2002 to $12 billion in 2008. And, despite the crippling poverty and AIDS pandemic still ravishing the continent, the World Bank estimated 6.5 per cent growth for the region in 2008.

Along came the financial crisis. As North American markets plunged, Africa followed suit. The Nairobi Stock Exchange has lost nearly half its value since October on declining oil, mining and commodity stocks. As well, tourism - East Africa's leading foreign exchange earner — is expected to fall by 20 per cent in 2009.

Then, there is aid. Expatriates working overseas and sending money home are being laid off. And aid from Western nations has been readjusted as these governments bail out their own industries.

The United States has just started distributing its $787 billion (U.S.) bailout to jumpstart its domestic economy. But, that kind of money simply isn't available in African economies. Unable to finance stimulus for the local economy, these nations need international aid to stay afloat.

"If the issues of Africa and the rest of the third world are not given the same or more development aid, a lot of the good work is likely to regress, plunging the continent back into poverty, high mortality rates, war and disease," says N'drangu.

IMF - Africa summit concludes

The summit between the International Monetary Fund and African political and economic leaders has just wrapped up. The summit concluded with a joint statement made by President Jakaya Kikwete, IMF Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.

The leaders plead with the international community to not give up on aid to the rest of the world. The fear is that governments will instead only bail out their own economies while cutting aid to the rest of the world.

For our snippet, we decided to hear from the second in command from the UN. Dr Asha-Rose Migiro was a little more direct in her comments

From the IPP Media story that wrapped up the summit, Perege Gumbo recorded the comments from Dr Migiro.

United Nations Deputy Secretary General Dr Asha-Rose Migiro had earlier underscored the importance of overseas development assistance to Africa, especially at this time when the world is facing an economic downturn.

She told the meeting that the continent urgently needs the assistance so as to attain the eight UN Millennium Develop Goals, where it is lagging behind, as well as address other pressing issues.

The UN`s second-in-command said it was of crucial importance for international organisations and development partners to protect Africa`s poorest and vulnerable countries from the impact of the financial crisis by honouring their financial commitments.

She noted that private external finance had been frozen and there was little room to raise more domestic revenue, adding that there was a need for a genuine desire to deliver on existing commitments to increase ODA or the MDGs would remain elusive.

Dr Migiro underscored the gravity of Africa`s plight, saying the economic downturn combined with high food prices, climate change and volatile energy prices in presenting daunting challenges to the continent`s policy makers.

She called on the donor community to deliver on promises made at different times and meetings, such as the one made at the 2005 Gleneagles G8 Summit to more than double annual ODA to Africa by next year worth US$ 62 billion in nominal terms.

``The amount sounds like a huge sum, but it appears more attainable when we consider the trillions of dollars that have been committed to stimulus packages in industrialised countries,`` she told the meeting, called to discuss how African economies could cope in the wake of the global crunch.

The IMF uses the words "Great Recession"

The head of the International Monetary Fund is visiting Africa this week. During his visit, Dominique Strauss-Kahn spoke to political and economic leaders about the "Great Recession" that is about to hit Africa's shores.

The global recession which began in the United States is moving to other parts of the world. The underdeveloped world will soon begin to feel the collapse of world trade that has been an effect of this crisis.

From Reuters, writer Lesley Wroughton and George Obulutsa detail Strauss-Kahn's comments on what lies ahead for Africa.

"The IMF expects global growth to slow below zero this year, the worst performance in most of our lifetimes," IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn told African political and financial leaders in the Tanzanian capital.

"Continued deleveraging by world financial institutions, combined with a collapse in consumer and business confidence is depressing domestic demand across the globe, while world trade is falling at an alarming rate and commodity prices have tumbled," Strauss-Kahn added.

As advanced countries focus on problems in their own economies, Strauss-Kahn called on the international community not to forget Africa, where regional growth is expected to slow sharply to 3 percent this year, half the rate of the past five years.

That forecast may "even be too optimistic", he said.

"Even though the crisis has been slow in reaching Africa's shores, we all know it is coming and its impact will be severe," he said. "We must ensure that the voices of the poor are heard. We must ensure that Africa is not left out," he added.

The IMF chief warned that millions of people in Africa will be thrown back into poverty by the crisis, while fragile political systems will be tested.

"This is not only about protecting economic growth and household incomes - it is also about containing the threat of civil unrest, perhaps even war. It is about people and their futures," he added.

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Geldof urges governments to stay strong

Sir Bob Geldof gave a speech in London today where he urges world governments to stay the course on aid. He asks the governments to continue to give aid to the under developed world despite the world recession.

From Africasia, this AFP story made record of the speech.

"All that is required is that governments hold their nerve in the face of fear, intolerance, short-termism and stupidity while planning together a way out of this mess," Geldof said.

"We will get there. This moment will pass. There will be great pain and there will be great depravation before it all ends -- but end it will.

"And we hasten that end by removing one of the causes in this moment's conception -- the unheeding of the poor."

Geldof joked he had not worn sunglasses to hide his "swollen" left eye -- the result of an insect bite suffered on a recent visit to Africa -- "because you would've confused me with (U2 frontman) Bono, which is easy to do."

World Bank uses the word "recession"

Some very scary figures being cited by the World Bank today. The bank released a report ahead of a major summit of finance leaders to inform them of the depth of the world economic crisis.

The World Bank is warning that the economic needs to bail the world out of the recession could exceed the resources of the international banks. The bank calls on world leaders to contribute 0.7 percent of their gross domestic product to a "vulnerability fund" The fund would be set up for countries without the resources to bail themselves out.

From this Associated Press story that we found in Oregon's Mail Tribune writer Anthony Faiola explains what is in the World Bank report.

The report said that 94 out of 116 developing countries have been hit by economic slowdowns. Net private capital flows to emerging markets are plunging, set to fall to $165 billion this year — or 17 percent of their 2007 levels. Falling demand in the West is sparking the sharpest drop in world trade in 80 years, sending sales of the products and commodities of poorer nations spiraling down, the report said.

That decline is touching off a wave of job losses. Cambodia has lost 30,000 jobs in the garment industry. In India, more than half a million jobs vanished in the last three months of 2008, including cuts in the gems, jewelry, auto and textile industries, according to the World Bank.

As a result, the report estimates that at least 98 countries may have problems financing at least $268 billion in public and private debt this year. It noted a worsening in market conditions could raise that figure as high as $700 billion.

Additionally, only one quarter of vulnerable developing countries, the World Bank said, have the ability to launch their own stimulus programs or to independently finance measures such as job-creation or safety-net programs.

To help them, multilateral lenders will need to dig deep. The World Bank remains well financed and is positioned to almost triple spending to $35 billion this year. But it warned the scope of the need in the developing world will exceed the combined ability of major multilateral lenders, and it called on governments in major nations and the private sector to pitch in more.

For instance, its sister organization, the International Monetary Fund, recently received $100 billion more from Japan, but is still asking more affluent nations to come up with an additional $150 billion to replenish its rapidly diminishing funds. While the World Bank aims to reduce global poverty largely through long-term projects in the developing world, the IMF is charged with offering bigger, more immediate bailouts to countries on the verge of economic collapse. The list of countries fitting that description has soared in recent months.

The impact of the global economic recession on women

A conference hosted by the United Nations on the status of women is underway. The UN commission is examining what impact the global credit crisis is having on women.

Amongst the factors that are impacting women, they may be at higher risk of being victims of violence during a recession. The conference is also talking about woman's jobs being more likely to be cut during the recession.

Writer Thalif Deen is covering the meeting for the IPS.

Addressing the CSW, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang said: "Historically, economic recessions have placed a disproportionate burden on women."

He pointed out that women are more likely than men to be in vulnerable jobs; to be under-employed or without a job; lack social protection; and to have limited access to and control over economic and financial resources.

The most widespread negative impact could be in the Asia-Pacific region which has one of the highest ratios of women of working age. And, among working women, about 65 percent are in vulnerable employment, largely in the region's informal sector.

Many of them have no benefits - such as maternity leave and pensions - or job security, and are at great risk of falling into poverty in economic downturns, according to the Bangkok-based U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

Women's unequal access to decent and productive employment opportunities costs the Asia-Pacific region about 42 to 47 billion dollars a year.

Thelma Kay, director of ESCAP's Social Development Division, told IPS that in many families, household expenditures, such as for food and child-rearing, are managed by women.

"Women dependents are having to care for their entire families on less income, and working women are having to support families with their wages alone, which, on average, are lower often considerably than men's," Kay said.

On top of that, she said, food prices have spiraled over the last two years, forcing women to make difficult financial choices.

"And where school costs become unbearable, it is the girl-children who are more likely to be taken out of the classroom," Kay said.