Energy

The Implications of High Food and Energy Prices for Economic Management: Perspectives from civil society in the Commonwealth

The Commonwealth Foundation

The Commonwealth Foundation is an intergovernmental organisation resourced by and reporting to Commonwealth governments. It works to enhance the role of civil society organisations in governance, democracy, sustainable development, and culture and diversity by strengthening their institutional and human capacity, and creating opportunities and space for partnership, participation, advice and leadership. The Foundation was established by Commonwealth governments in 1965 and is guided by the principles, values and priorities of the Commonwealth.

One element of the Commonwealth’s work stems from mandates that are received from biennial Commonwealth Summits and also a series of Ministerial Meetings including the Finance Ministers’ Meetings which
precedes the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington DC.

Commonwealth Ministerial
Meetings are a key focal point for civil society – government collaboration. They are strategic in the manner in which they communicate Commonwealth
priorities and facilitate the development of programmes for implementation.

Participation by civil society in official Commonwealth processes is therefore
fundamental to achieving meaningful collaboration between civil society and Commonwealth governments.

The Commonwealth Foundation has a particular interest in facilitating civil society input to Commonwealth processes with a view to promoting government - civil society dialogue and increasing the opportunities for
Commonwealth citizens to speak to their governments about issues that affect their lives. In 2002, the Commonwealth Foundation facilitated a process for civil society input to the Commonwealth Finance Ministers’ Meeting at the invitation of the host of the meeting, HM Treasury, and the Commonwealth Secretariat. This was the first time the deliberations of the Finance Ministers
were directly informed by civil society perspectives. In the Communiqué of their meeting the Ministers decided to “establish the process of civil society engagement as a routine event of preparations for future meetings of
Finance Ministers….” The Foundation has facilitated processes for civil society input to other Commonwealth Ministerial meetings, including those of health, education and women’s affairs ministers.

In 2008, Finance Ministers met to discuss a very topical issue: the Implications of high food and energy prices for economic management.

As in previous years the Commonwealth Foundation facilitated a consultative process to build consensus and raise awareness amongst Finance Ministers of civil society’s views on the global food and energy crisis. The process
was three fold, namely:

1. Commissioning of a discussion paper and relevant technical documents – on the special theme; 
2. The second phase involved convening a pan-Commonwealth civil society consultation in Castries, Saint Lucia in July 2008 which aimed to build consensus. Key issues that were identified have been included in the civil society statement and background paper included in this publication; 
3. The final phase focuses on advocacy where views/ perspectives of civil society organisations will be presented to the Finance Ministers at their
   meeting in Saint Lucia in October 2008.

The Implications of High Food and Energy Prices for Economic Management: Perspectives from Civil Society in the Commonwealth is in two sections. In the first part, the civil society statement highlights a number of key issues and concerns and makes recommendations to Commonwealth Finance Ministers for addressing the current food and energy crisis. The second part is a
background paper ccommissioned by the Commonwealth Foundation as part of a package of interventions by the Commonwealth civil society on the 2008 Commonwealth Finance Ministers’ Meeting (CFMM), from 6 to 8 October,
Saint Lucia. The background paper aims to provide an indepth discussion of civil society perspectives on the global food and energy crisis. The paper also discusses some ideas for short and long term strategies to increase the ability
of developing countries to grow and reduce poverty while meeting national development goals.

The conventional wisdom that markets produce efficient outcomes may be right in normal times, but wrong when those times are abnormal. The high fuel and food prices pose different challenges in all Commonwealth countries.

There is a need for all member countries to develop policy responses to meet those challenges. It is hoped that this publication would help to contribute to these policy debates.

(see PDF for the complete article)