The UN Food and Agricultural Organization held a summit in Rome this week to focus global attention and action on the food price crisis that is currently hitting the world’s poorest people.

The World Development Movement highlighted the role of unfair trade rules and the rush to biofuels as key contributors to this emergency and called on the EU and US to stop their drive to open developing country markets to their agricultural produce, thereby undermining local farm production.

The Philippines still has a long way to go before it achieves all the agreements set in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, according to a baseline study made by the government. A report on the Baseline Study and Survey of the Government of the Philippines' Compliance with the Paris Declaration Commitments was recently made by the Harmonization Committee on Aid Effectiveness, which includes the National Economic and Development Authority.