The Foreign Service Journal, June 2008

be found at www.crs.state.gov/ind ex.cfm?fuseaction=public.dis play&shortcut=4QC5 . Tackling the Food Crisis On April 29, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon an- nounced formation of a task force to tackle the global food crisis that has caused hunger and precipitated riots and hoarding around the world. In a related development, Japan- ese Prime Minister Fukuda added the hunger crisis to the agenda for the Group of Eight’s July summit in Tokyo. This followed a grassroots campaign in the U.S. and public warnings from Ban Ki-Moon, World Bank President Robert Zoellick and others that the global food shortages could prove a decisive setback to the battle against extreme poverty. According to the United Nations World Food Programme, rising food prices over the past six months are producing the greatest challenge the 45-year-old organization has ever faced: an estimated 100 million peo- ple on every continent are being pushed into the “urgent hunger” cate- gory ( wwwl.wfp.org ) . During the first months of 2008, food riots were reported in Egypt, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Madagascar, the Philippines and Hai- ti, according to the Food and Agri- cultural Organization ( www.fao. org ). In Pakistan and Thailand, army troops have been deployed to prevent the pilfering of food from fields and warehouses. FAO estimates that the sharp rise in cereal prices has left 37 poor coun- tries in an emergency situation. Further, Argentina, Brazil, Vietnam, India and Egypt have all imposed lim- itations on the export of certain pro- duce to ensure food security for their own populations. Secretary-General Ban announced formation of the task force following a meeting in Switzerland with World Bank President Zoellick, IMF Mana- ging Director Dominique Strauss- Kahn and the heads of some 30 U.N. aid agencies. Chaired by Mr. Ban, the task force’s first priority will be to feed the hungry by closing the WFP’s budget gap of $775 million. The task force will also offer $200 million in financial support to farmers in the worst affect- ed countries and set up a $1.7 billion program to help countries with a food deficit to buy seeds. For its part, the World Bank vowed to double lending for agriculture in Africa over the next year and consider improving financ- ing for poor countries. Longer-term solutions are also needed, Mr. Ban acknowledged, sug- gesting that trade-distorting subsidies in the developed sector and the chal- lenges caused by climate change be looked into. Experts also cite drought in Australia, higher fuel costs and speculation on global commodity markets as factors in the destabilizing food price hikes. The energy-food tradeoff will no doubt receive further scrutiny. A study by the International Food Policy Research Institute ( www.ifpri.org ) , a Washington think-tank, found that between a quarter and a third of the recent hike in commodity prices is attributable to biofuels. To follow this issue, go to the Reuters page devoted to “Agflation” at http://www.reuters.com/news/glob alcoverage/agflation . IFPRI also maintains a page devoted to news and analysis of food prices at www.fpri. org/themes/foodprices/foodprices. asp . House Armed Services Committee Focuses on Civilians in War Zones The Foreign Service Journal and AFSA both figure prominently as resources in a report by the House Armed Forces Committee’s Subcom- mittee on Oversight and Investiga- tions on compensation and medical care for federal civilians assigned to work in war zones. The report, “Deploying Federal Civilians to the Battlefield: Incentives, Benefits and Medical Care,” was re- leased on April 30 ( http://armedser vices.house.gov/pdfs/Reports/Civ iliansonBattlefieldReport.pdf ). It found that there are both real and perceived differences in compensa- tion and other incentives between federal employees deploying to war zones from different agencies and with different job classifications. Medical care — including mental J U N E 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 9 C Y B E R N O T E S I always tell Secretary Albright that it has been an honor to follow her in service here at the State Department. Our tenures, along with that of Secretary Colin Powell, show just how far the United States of America has come since the founding fathers conceived of a young country along the eastern seaboard in which all men would be created equal. If I serve my full term, it will have been 12 years since the United States had a white male Secretary of State. That a Czech immigrant and a daughter of an Alabama sharecropper, granddaughter of an Alabama sharecropper could one day occupy the same office truly illustrates the greatness of this country. — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Remarks at the Unveiling of Portrait of Madeleine K. Albright, April 14, www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2008/04/ 103554.htm