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A Weekend to Start Fixing the World
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But the IMF could face big limitations on its ability to play that role.
For one thing, the fund is in the middle of dealing with financial problems of its own. In the strong global economy of the past decade, few nations turned to the IMF to borrow money. The organization funds itself with interest payments on those loans, and as a result has had far less revenue.
So, much of its agenda this weekend will dwell on internal matters of balancing the IMF budget and selling off gold to raise cash.
Moreover, many developing nations, especially in Asia, are distrustful of an organization that is controlled almost entirely by the United States and Europe.
"The IMF can at best make suggestions as to what people should do," said Desmond Lachman, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. "They've got no leverage over any of the major shareholders. The most they can do is provide a technical case as to what kind of action should be taken."
On a different front, the World Bank will be dealing with the impact of rapidly rising food prices on poor nations, which already has spawned unrest in 33 countries, including Haiti, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Cameroon and Mozambique.
The rising prices -- up 83 percent in the three years preceding February, according to the World Bank -- are projected to continue for the next several years, threatening to undermine progress that has been made in battling extreme poverty and malnutrition.
"While many worry about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs," World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick told reporters yesterday. "And it's getting more and more difficult every day."
In meetings this weekend, Zoellick said, he hopes to rally the world's developed nations around what he calls "a new deal" for global food policy. To deal with the immediate food crisis, he has called on the world community to make up the $500 million shortfall in the United Nations World Food Program, while expanding other food aid for the poor around the world.
Longer term, he said, agricultural development should be made a greater priority, particularly in places such as Africa, which have vastly underutilized potential for food production.
The bank has already said it would nearly double its agricultural lending to sub-Saharan Africa to $800 million next year.
Zoellick said that the bank's food goals are about more than charity. They also present an opportunity for future economic growth -- a point he is pressing with the managers of sovereign wealth funds around the world. A 1 percent investment from those funds, he said, would amount to $30 billion in new investment in African development.
"Meetings such as this one are usually about talk. Words can focus attention. They can build momentum. But we can't be satisfied with studies, papers and talk," Zoellick said.
