Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/files/documents/g20/Pittsburgh_Fact_Sheet_Recovery.pdf
THE PITTSBURGH SUMMIT: BOLD AND COORDINATED ACTIONS
FROM CRISIS TO RECOVERY
At the time of the last G-20 Summit in April, the world appeared potentially on the brink of
depression. To prevent that from happening, the G-20 Leaders came together in London and
pledged to do whatever it took to restore confidence, growth and jobs.
The forceful response of the G-20 has worked. Their bold, coordinated action to jumpstart
recovery and repair the financial system have started to yield concrete results for families,
businesses and the most vulnerable individuals and governments. Based on International Labor
Organization (ILO) estimates, the actions G-20 nations have taken since the London Summit will
have saved or created over 7 – 11 million jobs by the end of 2009. The President’s Council of
Economic Advisors has reported that implementation of the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has already saved or created over 1 million jobs in the United States.
While there is much more that needs to be done to restore jobs, confidence and growth, the G-
20’s actions have clearly halted a sharp fall in economic activity and laid the basis for a recovery.
GDP: At the time of the last G-20 meeting, real GDP had fallen 7.4% (at an annual rate) in the
first quarter of 2009 in G-20 economies. Leading up to the Pittsburgh Summit, real GDP rose
1.8% in the second quarter. In the U.S., the first quarter real GDP decline of 6.4% (at an annual
rate) slowed to a 1.0% decline in the second quarter. The Blue Chip Economic Indicators
September survey forecasts a 3% GDP growth rate in the third quarter.
Jobs: In the three months leading up to the London Summit, the unemployment rate across the
G-20 had increased 0.9 percentage points. It had increased 1.3 percentage points in the United
States. In the United States, as in many other countries, unemployment is still unacceptably
high. But it is not rising as fast as it was prior to the April summit. The most recent data shows
that the unemployment rate increased by a much slower 0.3 percentage points over the past three
months in both the G-20 at large and the United States.
Financial Markets: A key indicator of the risk of long-term lending to emerging markets,
EMBI, has fallen by close to half, with the premium emerging markets pay to borrow dropping
from 6.44% on the eve of the London summit to around 3.3%. The cost of insuring against the
default on banks’ long-term debt has fallen by more than half, and the interest rate banks have to
pay to borrow short-term funds (Libor) is down even more. The Case-Shiller home price index
in the United States increased 1.3% following the London Summit, compared to a 7% decline
prior to the Summit.
Consumer Confidence: In the United States, a leading consumer confidence index rose to over
54 in August from the 26.9 reported in March by the Conference Board. A survey of G-20 nation
consumer confidence surveys has found that consumer confidence has risen since the lowest
point reported during the crisis in all thirteen countries with comparable data.
Exports: In March of 2009, G-20 goods exports were 10.7% lower than in December of 2008 –
a pace of decline that if sustained, implied a 36% annual fall. In the most recent data (July), G-
20 goods exports were 9.6% higher than in April. That strong turnaround is mirrored in the
United States. In March, goods and services exports were 7.5% lower than in December 2008.
In July, goods and services exports were 5.8% higher than 3 months earlier.
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/files/documents/g20/Pittsburgh_Fact_Sheet_Food_Security.pdf
THE PITTSBURGH SUMMIT: PARTNERING ON FOOD SECURITY
At the Summit in L’Aquila, Italy in July, Leaders from thirty-six countries and international
organizations committed to five principles for a food security initiative:
1) Stronger coordination among donors
2) Support of comprehensive strategies
3) Investment through country-owned plans
4) Leveraging effective multilateral institutions
5) Sustained commitments.
As part of that sustained commitment, fourteen countries and the European Commission
committed at least $20 billion over three years to agriculture development, in addition to their
assistance for emergency food aid and nutrition programs. These countries included: Australia,
Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Russia,
Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Progress Since the July L’Aquila Summit
Since the L’Aquila Summit, we have seen further progress to launch this important partnership:
New Partners: Additional countries, such as Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Norway, and
Switzerland have pledged their support for the initiative and its approach, helping to bring total
pledges towards agriculture development to $22 billion over the next three years. In addition,
other countries have pledged to provide technical assistance as part of this initiative. Some of
these countries include Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, and Mexico.
G-20 Call for World Bank Food Security Trust Fund: In addition, the United States has been
working with donor partners and the World Bank since L’Aquila to develop a multi-donor trust
fund that supports the initiative, building on the success of the World Bank’s Food Crisis
Response Fund (GFRP) to finance medium- and long-term investments that boost agricultural
productivity and market access in low-income countries.
Development of Implementation Plan: On September 14th and 15th, senior technical experts
from over forty developing and developed countries, regional and international organizations
came together to begin implementing the L’Aquila commitments. This event generated
agreement on actions that we collectively need to take to help developing countries put together,
resource, and implement country-led food security strategies. Secretary Clinton and U.N.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will take the implementation of our commitments a step further
on September 26th when they host a forum for the leaders of countries and international, public,
and private organizations to affirm our shared approach to achieving food security and outline
the key steps that we will take to realize our commitments.
Engaging the Private Sector and Philanthropy
One of the key elements of the U.S. approach to this initiative is to use development assistance to
explore synergies with private philanthropy and private sector actors. As an example, we have
been working with several foundations and businesses deeply involved in food security to see
how best to coordinate our efforts:
Gates Foundation: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has to date committed $1.4
billion as part of a new effort to boost agricultural development focused on smallholder farmers
in the developing world and another half billion dollars for nutrition-related investments largely
for children and their mothers around the globe, has strongly endorsed the new food security
initiative, and agreed to work closely with the G-20 and its partners to better align their activities
and explore areas of collaboration and partnership to maximize impact on the ground.
Rockefeller Foundation: The Rockefeller Foundation will bring over sixty years of experience
in food security and agricultural development to bear, working with us to explore how we can
take to scale successful programs on agricultural inputs and market development, and will share
with us its research and field testing on critical issues including, for example, building climate
change resilience into agricultural development programs and facilitating greater private sector
investments in agricultural development.
Hewlett Foundation: We are collaborating with The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to
develop the most effective ways to integrate small holder farmers into commercial agricultural
value chains, especially along Africa’s regional infrastructure corridors. We will work with the
Hewlett Foundation and others to increase market efficiencies and reduce barriers along these
regional development corridors, through improved infrastructure and policies along these
corridors.
Rabobank Foundation: Rabobank Foundation from the Netherlands, which supports
cooperative microfinance institutions, producers organizations and local savings- and credit
cooperatives in twenty-five countries, has endorsed the new food security initiative, and agreed
to work closely with the G-20 and its partners to help us find ways to use small scale donations,
technical assistance, fair trade-financing, microfinance lending, guarantees, and other tools to
improve access to capital for small scale farmers and cooperatives.
World Economic Forum: The World Economic Forum is collaborating with partners in the
L’Aquila initiative as part of a broader effort to facilitate public-private collaboration to improve
food security and sustainable agriculture. Forum partners develop and catalyze scalable business
models that contribute to sustainable food production. We will work with the Forum to harness
business expertise, in partnership with other sectors, to generate sustainable, market-based
solutions to hunger and poverty.
Initiative for Global Development: We are working with the Initiative for Global
Development (IGD), whose members comprise business leaders from the United States and
Africa, to help build market linkages that serve small producers by identifying both barriers to
agricultural development and new opportunities for investment. IGD provides a forum for
regular consultation with its members, which can facilitate private-sector participation in this
global food security initiative.
Over the next several months, we expect to work with donor and target countries, foundations
and private sector actors to further development the implementation plan for this initiative.