Aid

Earlier today, Secretary Clinton signed a landmark agreement with Angola aimed at combating HIV/AIDS. This new “partnership framework” emphasizes a ground-up approach and lays out a five-year plan in which the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) will support health priorities laid out in Angola’s HIV National Strategic Plan.

Here are a few key excerpts from Secretary Clinton’s remarks on the agreement:

On Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced it would increase lending to low-income countries to help contend with the global economic crisis. The IMF is expected to provide up to $17 billion to these countries through 2014, including up to $8 billion over the next two years. Additionally, the IMF said that these countries would not be required to pay interest on any IMF loans, including outstanding through 2011.

Sri Lanka has agreed a $2.5bn (£1.5bn) loan accord from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the help it weather the global economic crisis.

The agreement will now go the IMF board for final approval.

Reports suggest that an initial $313m will be made available immediately once the loan is approved.

The Sri Lankan government has said that the money will also be used to pay for post-war reconstruction work in the north and east of the island.

'Rebuilding reserves'

This week I attended the launch of ‘One World Conservatism’, a ‘Green Paper’ (i.e. discussion document) in which the Conservative Party (who if you believe the opinion polls, are highly likely to take over from Gordon Brown’s Labour at the next election, due before next June) set out its thinking on international development.

Source: Flickr

We’re watching Secretary Clinton’s remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations, and wanted to share with you some remarks on global development delivered just moments ago. We’ll work on bringing you additional info as it comes in (you can stream the webcast in the below post):

President Obama has enlisted the world’s leading powers to contribute $15 billion to help millions of the world’s poorest farmers grow enough food to feed themselves, American officials said Wednesday.

If the assistance is delivered and is in fact mostly new money, it will constitute the largest international effort in decades to combat hunger by investing in the fundamentals of an agricultural economy, including seed, fertilizer, grain storage and research into new plant varieties.

As expected, some of the more aid sceptic governments will be seeking ways to wriggle out of their commitments at the G8 summit, which opens in Italy today. But rather than just say ‘we’re breaking our promises – tough’, they are floating various kinds of creative accounting to allow them to meet their commitments without actually spending more money.

On Wednesday, 8 July, world leaders will gather in the earthquake-devastated town of L'Aquila in Italy for the G8 summit hosted by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

He will be joined by US President Barack Obama, who is also visiting Moscow and will be flying on to Ghana.

The development of Africa is a key part of the G8 summit agenda, following pledges by world leaders at Gleneagles in Scotland in 2005 to increase aid, which were reaffirmed at the G20 London summit in April.