Greetings from Ghana

Welcome to a hot and sticky Ghana. Its pushing 90 degrees here and we are about to go into 8 days of civil society and official UNCTAD talks, seminars and workshops. The TV news here is full of a new report from a local thinktank which is today reporting that Ghanaians will not be immune to the food price crisis that has hit countries such as Cameroon and Egypt as well as further afield in Thailand and Philipines. I queued up behind a man in a shop who was buying 2 large sacks of rice. Ghana used to produce a lot of its own rice but these 2 sacks had been imported from Thailand. After less than 24 hours in the country, it is clear that Ghanaians are already struggling with the question of whether self-sufficiency in food is attainable or whether reliance on imports is inevitable.

World Development Movement UNCTAD conference blog

UNCTAD or the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development meets every four years and will be taking place in Accra, Ghana 17-25 April 2008. Civil society will be holding its own forum and then trade ministers from around the world will gather for the official events. The World Development Movement will be there, to launch a new report on trade policy and to meet activists from around the world who are campaigning for a sustainable and pro-poor approach to trade. Hot topics are likely to include the food price crisis, the debate over biofuels and Europe’s aggressive new trade policy. Catch up with regular blogs from WDM’s director Benedict Southworth and policy officer Vicky Cann as they report from Accra.