Food and health crisis in developing countries: Jeffrey Sachs urges pragmatic measures

To halt rising food prices and improve health in the developing countries, pragmatic measures are needed. Among other things, agriculture in African countries must be developed, the emphasis on bio-fuels must be rethought and tropical diseases must be tackled. This was the message of Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, to the EP Development Committee on Monday.

Development aid that is "pragmatic with measurable effects" requires practical steps such as the delivery of fertiliser and better seed varieties to African farmers so that they can "increase farm output", said Mr Sachs.

The UN special adviser fired a passing shot at the EU's policy of paying part of development aid directly into national budgets of developing countries, as this means "we don't know where the money is really going".

World food crisis and bio-fuels

Turning to the food crisis affecting many developing countries, Mr Sachs argued that the current policy of promoting bio-fuels must be rethought. These programmes were "understandable at a time when food prices were lower but not any more", he said, adding that a third of the US maize crop in 2008 would be used to fill petrol tanks.

Josep Borrell (PES, ES) pointed out that "only 2% of European cereal production is currently earmarked for biofuels".

Mr Sachs also criticised the World Bank for encouraging developing countries to focus on export goods, thus neglecting agriculture and starting to import most of their food.

Maria Martens (EPP-ED, NL) believed the 2009 budget could be an opportunity for the European Union to formulate ideas for halting the world food crisis.

Speculation in primary food products

The current speculation in primary foodstuffs was mentioned by Frijthof Schmidt (Greens/EFA, DE), Alain Hutchinson (PES, BE) and Pierre Schapira (PES, FR). Mr Sachs believed this speculation was following "deeper" market trends and that interest rates were a contributing factor.

The European Parliament is due to adopt a resolution on rising food prices at its plenary session of 22 May.

Tackling diseases

Another practical move advocated by Mr Sachs was to tackle neglected tropical diseases (endemic diarrhoeal illnesses, dengue fever, dracunculosis or Guinea worm disease, lymphatic filariasis, Chagas disease etc.) for which drugs exist. This would require 500 million US dollars per year, he said.

Lastly, Mr Sachs called for the World Bank to be given more money to fund the fight against epidemics such as tuberculosis, malaria and Aids, saying "this would produce direct, strong and measurable results".

Thijs Berman (PES, BE) and Pierre Schapira spoke about the brain drain, pointing out that "there are more Beninese doctors in Paris than in Benin".

"We can say goodbye to the Millennium Goals if Europe does not abide by its commitments" to double public development aid by 2015, said Mr Sachs in reply to a question by Frijthof Schmidt. "Saying it would help us find alternative solutions", he added, although he was pessimistic about the chances of obtaining funding for developing countries.




05/05/2008
Committee on Development
In the Chair : Josep Borrell Fontelles (PES, ES)