Liberia

Liberia Ordered to Pay $20 Million to Vultures

In 1978, the poor West African country of Liberia borrowed $6 million from a New York bank. The Liberian government promised to use the money to buy and develop an oil refinery, and to pay the money back in seven years.

Today it's not clear if either of those things ever happened.

Two years after the loan, the Liberian government was overthrown in a coup, which later led to a 14-year civil war. Meanwhile, the loan was bought and sold several times, according to allAfrica.com.

But now two investment funds say they hold the note and are entitled to $20 million from the current government of Liberia — a claim upheld by a London court. Today Liberia is led by a democratic government whose president is working with the IMF and World Bank to settle old debts. The Guardian says Liberia struck deals with most of its private-sector creditors, but these two funds are refusing to settle, demanding full payment through the courts.

A representative for the Jubilee Debt Campaign, a coalition fighting for debt relief for the world's poorest countries, accuses funds like these of "profiting from poverty."

As Al-Jazeera's Barbara Serra reports:

So-called vulture funds have been condemned by several governments for preying on the world's poorest states. They buy up the debt of near-bankrupt nations at a cheap price from financial institutions. They then sue those nations in international courts for the full value of the debt, plus steep levels of interest and penalty charges. Every year, developed countries spend billions of dollars to help pay off the debts of poorer nations, but vulture funds siphon off that money for themselves.

Even the lawyer for Liberia says this is a moral issue as well as a legal one. Get the full scoop from this Al-Jazeera video:

Responding to the Global Food Crisis

By the summer of 2008, the price of rice had increased five times from the average price in 2005. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps
By the summer of 2008, the price of rice had increased five times from the average price in 2005. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps

The following post is from One Table, a Mercy Corps campaign to fight world hunger by investing in the world's women.

Today almost a billion people worldwide are unable to buy or grow enough food to avoid malnutrition. That's 120 million more than were hungry in 2006.

What happened? Basically, the world saw dramatic spikes in food prices. But there were many underlying causes of what's known as the global food crisis:

  • Drought and other climate-related problems that resulted in smaller harvests
  • Changing diets — rise of the middle class in India and China and an increased demand for food, especially meat, which requires large amounts of grain to raise
  • Diversion of crops from food production to the production of biofuels
  • High fuel prices during 2008 — if it costs more to transport food, prices go up
  • Declining investments in agricultural productivity — total agriculture development aid to poor countries plunged from $8 billion in 1984 to $3.4 billion in 2004. At the same time, the developing world's cities have been ballooning with people who do not grow any of their food
  • Export bans and restrictions last year in several major grain-producing countries like China as governments sought to lower food prices for their own citizens, with the result of reducing the global supply on hand.

While food prices have come down from their highs of 2008, they remain substantially above historic levels. Many economists feel this trend, which most severely affects those who can least afford it, is likely to continue for some time.

The economic, health and societal costs of the global food crisis have been severe. One of the first things Mercy Corps did to figure out how and where to direct our efforts was to survey the communities where we work. We discovered that within communities Mercy Corps serves, roughly 70 percent of income is spent on food, and 80 percent of the population had been affected by rising food prices over the past year. The survey also confirmed something we already suspected: that families were coping with higher prices by eating fewer meals, selling off household belongings, going into debt and removing children from school so that they can work.

In addition to being a record year for food prices, it's also been a record year for our food security team, allowing Mercy Corps to aggressively respond to this crisis. We now have 17 programs in 13 countries designed specifically to respond to this on-going problem. Through support from donors including USAID, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Gap Foundation, the Hunger Site, and private individuals, our Food Crisis Response employs a strategy designed to ensure that the groundwork for increased prosperity in the future is laid — even while addressing the immediate problem of accessing sufficient food.

Food distributions, much of which are specifically targeted to improve child nutrition, are taking place in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, in the Central African Republic, India, Indonesia, Liberia, Nepal, Niger, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Uganda and again Zimbabwe, Mercy Corps is helping hungry households to access food by providing employment opportunities, agricultural training and inputs (such as seeds and tools), and helping people establish and grow small businesses.

Combined, these programs are reaching almost 1.5 million individuals who have been directly impacted by higher food prices. Overall, Mercy Corps’ Crisis Response will lead to a sustainable increase in income for these people, leading in turn to greater food security over the long-term.

Is the era of cheap food over?

A new UN Food and Agriculture Organization report predicts that rising food prices will soon begin to slow. However the BBC decidedly reports that cheap food is a thing of the past:

[Food] prices will level off at a far higher average level than seen before the crisis erupted. The long era of cheap food is over.

The sharp rise in food prices over the past year have been felt all over the world but are particularly painful for the poor in developing countries. The World Bank recently estimated that higher food prices and food scarcity could force 100 million people to become impoverished. In response, The World Bank is allocating $1.2 billion for increased food aid. At least $200 million is designated for grants targeting "high risk" countries including Liberia, Haiti and Djibouti.

From the Archives

Too Many Cooks

Topics: Microfinance, Economic Development
Countries: Liberia
Previously filed under: Africa, Microfinance
Many women in Liberia have received job training, but without access to loans or job placement, training may not lead to economic success.

Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth

Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps
Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps

Liberia lacks doctors, teachers, lawyers, electricians ... but they may have too many cooks.

Why? To help provide jobs following the end of Liberia's long and costly civil war, many international humanitarian agencies began delivering skills trainings to women. The most commonly taught skill? Baking, of course.

But there just aren't enough jobs for all the newly trained pastry makers. So women who learned to make wedding cakes and fancy foreign pastries are now selling two-cent donuts on the street. And foreign-owned companies (mostly Lebanese) continue to dominate the pastry making business.

In the rush to help Liberia, it appears that well-intended job trainings did not reflect market demand. The problem goes beyond baking. Other aid organizations continue to train women in the art of tie-dying. But unless Liberia's demand for tie-dyed shirts and sarongs reflects 1960s America, they may be wasting their time.

From the Archives

The Children Are Smiling but There's So Much More to Do

Countries: Liberia
Previously filed under: Africa, Interviews
In 2006 Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was inaugurated as the first women president of Liberia. Her priority is to bring good governance back to this war-torn region.

From the Archives

Clean Water and a Fresh Start

Countries: Liberia
Previously filed under: Africa, Field Diaries
Tom Ewert, Mercy Corps' country director in Liberia describes how Mercy Corps is helping to provide clean water and national reconciliation in Sinoe County.

From the Archives

Government Takes Aim at Unemployment in Liberia

Topics: Governance
Countries: Liberia
Previously filed under: Africa, Global Economy
Following many years of civil war the Liberian national government has recently unveiled a poverty reduction plan principally focused on job creation.

From the Archives

Access to Clean Water in Liberia Difficult During Dry Season

Countries: Liberia
Previously filed under: Africa, Environment
Water and sanitation problems persist in Liberia more than three years after the end of the country's civil war.

From the Archives

Crude Poverty

Countries: Liberia
Previously filed under: Africa, General Globalization
Many African communities with oil riches under their soil still face poverty.

From the Archives

Spreading the Word

Countries: Liberia
Previously filed under: Africa, Opinions and Editorials
A Mercy Corps program gives HIV/AIDS efforts a different perspective.

Stories We're Watching

Time for Next Stage of Sustainable Business

Reuters - Fri, 03/12/2010 - 13:12
Corporate America needs to track its use of energy and resources as closely as it does its hiring and cash flow if it wants to keep pace with social concern about climate change and other sustainability issues, an investor group argues in a new report.

Rush for Patents May Hinder Transfer of New Climate-related Technologies

Policy Innovations - Fri, 03/12/2010 - 14:35
Mitigating overly rigorous intellectual property rights lies at the core of any meaningful international mechanism for facilitating sustainable technology transfer to developing countries.

Egypt to Secure $430 Million Loan for Wind Farm

Reuters - Fri, 03/12/2010 - 05:39
Egypt is set to secure a $430 million loan from Japan to fund a 220-megawatt wind farm as it tries to boost its renewable energy output.

Western U.S., Canada Go Own Way On Carbon Trading

Reuters - Thu, 03/11/2010 - 16:18
As U.S. prospects for a national climate change bill fade, five U.S. states and Canadian provinces are on track to start a cap-and-trade market for carbon dioxide in 2012, say officials who see fading federal momentum boosting regional efforts.

US Remittances Keep Haiti Afloat

IRIN News - Fri, 03/12/2010 - 07:44
Haiti's economy depends on the estimated $1.5 billion a year in remittances sent home by its million-strong diaspora. Dilip Ratha, lead economist at the World Bank said the figure could be even higher, accounting for perhaps half the national income.

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