by Silvia Marchetti
ROME, June 12 (Xinhua) -- The Group of Eight (G8) development ministers agreed Friday on a series of commitments to increase efficiency in financial aid allocation to developing countries, particularly Africa, in an attempt to tackle the impact of the current economic downturn.
Closing a two-day meeting, the ministers said in a final document they shared the view that "innovative financing is a critical element in contributing, along with traditional ODA (official development aid), to raising the resources needed to tackle the challenge of the economic crisis so as to mitigate its impact on development.
"In this difficult context, a change of scale and speed in the implementation of innovative financing mechanisms for development is most needed," said the statement.
However, no concrete financial commitment to developing countries was made. The ministers simply reiterated what had previously been decided at London's G20 meeting in April and at Gleneagles summit in 2005 to reverse the negative economic impact and increase sustainable development in emerging countries.
According to the final statement, the development ministers stressed the need for "a strong, coherent and coordinated response to the economic crisis."
"The global economic slowdown, adding on the negative effects of energy and food crises, has severely disrupted economic growth worldwide", especially in developing countries, said the ministers.
"We must therefore act in a coordinated manner to prevent the economic crisis from turning into a deeper social crisis with all its possible consequences in terms of political instability and conflicts," they added.
Thus, the ministers agreed to increase "social protection mechanisms and safety nets to address vulnerable population groups who are hardest hit by the crisis" through a more efficient development strategy.
Over the two-day meeting on Thursday and Friday, discussion was focused on the impact of the economic crisis on developing countries and on measures to support low income economies to meet their challenges.
As developing countries have been hard hit by the global economic crisis, industrialized nations' efforts will focus on promoting foreign investments and international loans to increase sustainable development.
Among the commitments taken at the meeting, the G8 ministers stressed the need to "optimize the allocation of resources and maximize the impact of development assistance, investment, trade, debt relief, microfinance, small and medium enterprise financing."
In addition, it is essential to free financial flows from bureaucratic nets, promote public-private partnerships, stimulate the implementation of green technologies to combat climate change and advance in reform programs able to boost market forces and increase well-being in developing countries.
The ministers decided as well on the necessity to give emerging countries better representation at institutional organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
"We have confirmed these commitments, they will be kept by the countries and the international organizations concerned," Italian Foreign Minister
Franco Frattini told reporters at the closing press conference.
"But that is not enough. We have to go beyond that and mobilize all available resources against the crisis in order to bring a response to the difficulties which developing countries are facing. A lot remains to be done, particularly for the weakest and most indebted countries," he added.
Discussion on Africa was at the center of the gathering. The ministers stressed the need to mobilize private capital to finance development of the continent's infrastructure and proposed to reduce by half the commission on remittances of immigrant workers.
Such a measure alone, proposed by current G8 presidency holder Italy, will free some 12 billion U.S. dollars to 15 billion U.S. dollars.
Frattini stressed the importance of Africa's role and the need of a "global partnership" with all developing countries.
Italy has put the issue of Africa on top of G8 agenda and Frattini promised that "Africa's voice will be heard" at L'Aquila summit in July.
The ministers also agreed that it was essential for donor countries to have greater effectiveness and more coordination.
Thus they decided to advance a cross-sector approach to sustainable development, based on the harmonization of cooperation initiatives in the various areas of development such as education, environment, health, food security and safety. The final goal is to optimize available resources and to increase potential economies' scale.
The meeting's final results will be presented to the G8 summit to be hosted by the Italian city of L'Aquila, which was partly destroyed by an earthquake on April 6.
The meeting was also attended by ministers from Brazil, China, India, Mexico, South Africa and Egypt, as well as deputies from the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa's Development.
Representatives from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Program, the World Health Organization and the World Bank also took part in the meeting.
The G8 development meeting opened amid strong protests. On Thursday, the anti-poverty group One led by Irish rock star "Bono" accused Italy and France of being so far behind on their aid pledges to Africa.
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