Port Moresby declaration on the global food and financial crises
Date: 2008-11-28
Institutions: ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly
Subjects: ACP-EU Joint Assembly, adoption of a law by vote, economic recession, food aid, hunger, parliamentary assembly, parliamentary vote, the EU's international role

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5. Urges all parties to the agreement to live up to their commitments and to engage constructively and
fully in the implementation of the agreement and show greater restraint and moderation in the negotia-
tions; stresses that all parties are equal and should refrain from taking any unilateral action in connec-
tion with the formation of a new government;

6.

Strongly appeals to the international community to ensure the rapid provision of substantial humani-
tarian aid to the people of Zimbabwe;

7. Notes the devastating impact that the political crisis is having on the people of Zimbabwe; notes that
the EU has just released EUR 10 million in aid and calls on the Zimbabwean authorities to lift all
restrictions on humanitarian aid agencies and to ensure that humanitarian aid can be delivered in
accordance with the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence;

8.

Expresses deep concern about the situation of Zimbabwean refugees in the region and deplores the acts
of violence against Zimbabwean refugees in surrounding countries; calls on the European Commission
to support the neighbouring countries with financial and material assistance programmes for the
refugees;

9.

Strongly appeals to all stakeholders and the international community to be prepared to ensure the rapid
provision of aid for the post-conflict reconstruction of Zimbabwe;

10. Deeply regrets that the Elders Humanitarian Delegation comprising former UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan, former US President Jimmy Carter and advocate for women's and children's rights Graça Machel
was denied an entry visa by Mugabe's regime, since they wished to use their influence to increase the
immediate and longer-term flow of assistance to the country to stop the terrible suffering of the people
of Zimbabwe; strongly supports the Elders' continuing efforts to ease Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis;

11. Calls on the future government of national unity to set up a neutral and independent peace and reconci-
liation commission with a view to promoting a national healing process that will review the crimes
against humanity, torture, rape and other crimes committed in internal conflicts;

12. Believes it essential that the newly-elected parliament receive funding and support in order to reinforce

its capacity;

13. Instructs its Co-Presidents to forward this resolution to the ACP-EU Council, the European Commission,
the Pan-African Parliament, the government and parliament of Zimbabwe, the African Union, the
SADC and the UN Secretary-General.

Port Moresby declaration

on the global food and financial crises

The ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, meeting in Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea)
25 to 28 November 2008:

from

Food price crisis

1. Calls on the EU institutions to speedily adopt and implement the recently-agreed EUR 1 billion Food
Facility proposal without corresponding cuts in bilateral aid budgets, in order to respond to urgent
needs in developing countries with substantial additional aid;

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2. Calls on ACP and EU governments to respond to the urgent needs of the most vulnerable — particu-
larly women and children — by enhancing nutrition interventions and safety nets and expanding social
protection systems;

3.

Stresses that high demand and speculation pushed up food and fuel prices; notes that volatile food
prices particularly affect the most vulnerable groups, such as children, women, the urban poor, the rural
landless, pastoralists, small-scale farmers, and a multitude of people affected by or recovering from
shocks and conflict such as internally displaced persons and refugees; notes that although world food
prices have fallen recently, cereals, rice and oilseeds prices are forecast to be 10 % to 35 % higher over
the next ten years than in the past decade; notes that soaring fuel prices hit developing world farmers
particularly hard by forcing up fertiliser and transportation costs, especially in landlocked countries;

4. Recalls that Millennium Development Goal 1 aims to cut the proportion of people who suffer from
hunger by half but nearly a billion people go hungry every day, despite the fact that the world produces
enough food to feed its entire population;

5.

Stresses that developing countries, many of them net food importers, are the biggest victims of volatile
food prices and that there is a need to push food production back up the international agenda;

6. Calls on ACP and EU governments jointly to ensure that sufficient aid and public spending is channelled
towards achieving food security, as stated in the Maputo Declaration by AU Heads of State and Govern-
ment in June 2004;

7. Calls on ACP and EU governments to increase investment to achieve 2 % growth per year in agriculture,
rebuild staple food stocks — which are at all-time lows — and strengthen global monitoring and infor-
mation systems;

8. Calls on wealthy nations, including EU Member States, as well as and the incoming US Administration,
to reduce agricultural subsidies and eliminate agricultural export subsidies, as most rich countries
promised to do at the outset of the Doha Development Round, although since then globally there has
not been much progress;

9. Calls on ACP governments to involve farmers and pastoralists, many of whom are women, when

elaborating their agriculture and land-use policies;

10. Calls on ACP governments to empower smallholders farmers, especially women, by ensuring their

access to the land, credit and new technologies that will increase production;

11. Calls on the European Commission and the EU Member States to improve coherence between agri-

cultural, trade and development policies;

Financial crisis and global financial system

12. Calls on the international community to regulate the global financial system to guarantee transparency
and discourage unethical speculation and reform it to ensure developing nations have a greater say;

13. Calls on EU Member States to reduce the effects of the global economic slowdown on developing coun-
tries' growth, trade and foreign direct investment flows by helping to strengthen further their trading
capacity and, improve their infrastructure and facilitating remittances;

14. Calls further on EU Member States to honour their commitments as regards Official Development
Assistance — i.e. 0.56 % of Gross National Income by 2010 and 0.7 % by 2015 — and not to use the
financial crisis to justify aid cutbacks, especially when billions of euros have been mobilised in an extre-
mely short space of time in response to the global financial crisis while the international community
appears to have far greater difficulty providing fresh funds to fight hunger and poverty;

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15. Calls on EU and ACP states to take action to eradicate tax havens, tax evasion and illicit capital flight
from developing countries which cost these countries some EUR 800 billion a year, in other words
eight times what they receive in aid;

16. Calls on ACP and EU Heads of State to use the UN ‘Financing for Development’ summit in Doha from
29 November to 2 December 2008 to secure real progress on defining new approaches to financing
more equitable global development;

17. Calls on the G20 to respect the commitments made at its Washington Summit on 15 November 2008;

18. Calls on all stakeholders to work together to secure a successful, sustainable and timely conclusion to

the Doha Development Round.