G-20: Fact Sheet on Common Global Challenges

Today, at the Cannes Summit, G-20 Leaders reconfirmed their commitment to trade and development as important drivers for long-term global economic growth and stability as well as progress in energy, climate change, and anti-corruption efforts.

Doha Development Round: The G-20 Leaders made clear that they will not complete the Doha Development Agenda “if we continue to conduct negotiations as we have in the past” and committed “to pursue in 2012 fresh, credible approaches to furthering negotiations, including the issues of concern for Less Developed Countries.” The Leaders instructed Trade Ministers in Geneva to implement such approaches and to engage in discussions of challenges and opportunities to the multilateral trading system.

Infrastructure: The G-20’s infrastructure work has focused on ways to overcome obstacles to infrastructure investment in low-income countries (LICs), with a special emphasis on Sub-Saharan Africa. Leaders called for action to mobilize infrastructure investment in developing countries, particularly LICs, and received valuable input from the multilateral development banks (MDBs) and a High Level Panel on Infrastructure Investment, comprised of 17 private-sector infrastructure experts:

• Both the High Level Panel and the MDBs stressed that a key bottleneck to financing for infrastructure projects is a gap in the project preparation that is required to attract private capital. In G-20 discussions, the G-20 called on the MDBs to lead efforts to prioritize project preparation financing, and pursue innovative approaches to financing including the use of cost recovery through returns on successful projects.
• The High Level Panel’s other recommendations focused on the need for measures to improve procurement processes, better leverage multilateral development bank balance sheets, and build up human capital, most notably through a fellowship program proposed by James Harmon, which would engage LICs and private companies in public private partnerships.
• The MDBs’ other recommendations included greater harmonization of procurement processes and practices, establishment of platforms for disclosing information on infrastructure gaps and opportunities and enhancement of MDB staff incentives for engaging in public private partnerships and regional infrastructure projects.
• The High Level Panel and the MDBs also worked together to produce a set of criteria to help identify promising infrastructure investment projects. These include benefits to regional integration, political support, transformational impact (including sustainability), maturity, institutional capacity, and attractiveness to the private sector. The G-20 asked the MDBs, working with countries involved, to pursue the implementation of transformational regional infrastructure projects based on these criteria.

Food Security and Agriculture: Consistent with the MYAP, the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative and the U.S. global food security initiative, Feed the Future, the G-20 endorsed an ambitious agenda to promote food security and agricultural development that respects and leverages the expertise and comparative advantage of Ministries of Finance, Agriculture and Development to address the underlying causes of food insecurity:

• As part of the G-20 Agriculture Ministers’ Action Plan on Food Price Volatility and Agriculture, the G-20 created an Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) to provide more accurate, frequent and timely information on markets for agricultural commodities. The United States supports efforts to improve the reliability of data as a critical element of overall efforts to improve the functioning of markets for agricultural commodities. Through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the United States has a long history of making relevant data available at home and building the capacity of developing countries’ national agricultural statistics services.
• The Agriculture Ministers’ Action Plan has also has emphasized increasing agricultural productivity through a joint research initiative with interested G-20 countries, universities and the private sector, aimed at sustainably increasing wheat production through the development of new seed strains. The G-20 action is consistent with and amplifies the impact of U.S. efforts through Feed the Future that apply a renewed focus on research and development to improving food security and long-term development of the agriculture sector. For example, in a public-private partnership to develop stress tolerant rice varieties for sub-Saharan Africa, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is engaging research institutions from Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria and other countries and building the capacity of their staff to use biotechnology tools for improving crops.
• The Agriculture Ministers’ Action Plan is intended to ensure there are no bans or restrictions on exports of food and agricultural commodities, in line with the global consensus announced in the communiqué of the Rome World Food Summit in 2009. Export restrictions impede market function, distort price signals to farmers and are just bad policy. The G-20 has followed up on a request from agriculture ministers to bring this issue to the attention of the World Trade Organization with regard to food purchased for urgent humanitarian need, as export restrictions are particularly pernicious when they obstruct humanitarian assistance.
• The G-20 has also taken steps to implement leaders’ commitment at the Toronto G-20 Summit, later reconfirmed in the Food Security Pillar of the G-20’s Multi-Year Action Plan on Development to explore innovative, results-based mechanisms to harness the private sector for agricultural innovation. The United States and Canada, with the support of the World Bank and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, are co-chairing a process known as the Agricultural Pull Mechanism Initiative (AGPM) to determine whether pull mechanisms such as advance market commitments could be used to address market failures in the agriculture sector; other participants include the United Kingdom, France and Brazil. The AGPM has vetted 38 proposals in four technical categories – production increase, post-harvest loss, livestock, and nutrition – winnowing them down to four pilot projects for consideration by G-20 leaders and other donors.
• Leaders recognized the progress of the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) housed at the World Bank, in providing additional resources for agricultural development in LICs and invite the participation of other interested public and private partners. The United States is a founding donor to the GAFSP, along with the governments of the Republic of Korea, Spain and Canada and the Gates Foundation. To date, GAFSP has awarded $505 million to 12 low-income countries, eight of which are Feed the Future focus countries.

Other Actions in Energy, Anti-Corruption, and Development: Leaders also agreed to:

• Improve the functioning and transparency of energy markets through the JODI-oil database and through a continued dialogue annually between producers and consumers on short, medium, and long term outlook and forecasts for oil.
• Call for the implementation of the Cancun agreements and further progress in all areas of negotiation, including the operationalization of the Green Climate Fund as part of a balanced outcome in Durban.
• Continue to implement the Action Plan on Anti-Corruption by promoting national measures to combat corruption and bribery and other initiatives.
• Adopt the previously agreed G8 goal to bring down the global average cost of remittances to 5% by 2014, which translates into an additional $15 billion per year for recipient populations.
• Encourage members to explore ways of enhancing the disclosure of payments to governments by multinational entities (MNEs), particularly in the extractives sector.
• Press countries to join the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, a group which promotes the effective operations of international standards of transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes.
• Support implementation or expansion of national social protection floors, defined by the countries themselves according to their individual circumstances.
• Field test indicators developed by international organizations to measure the economic value added and job creation of private investment.

Statement from the President on Senate Republicans Blocking the Infrastructure Bill

For the third time in recent weeks, every single Republican in the United States Senate has chosen to obstruct a jobs bill that independent economists said would boost our economy and put Americans back to work.  At a time when more than a million construction workers are looking for a job, they voted “no” to putting them back to work doing the work America needs done – rebuilding  our roads, bridges, airports and transit systems.  That makes no sense.

It makes no sense when you consider that this bill was made up of the same kinds of common-sense proposals that many of these Senators have fought for in the past.  It was fully paid for.  And even though it was supported by more than 70 percent of the American people – Republicans, Democrats, and independents – 100 percent of Senate Republicans said no.  It’s more clear than ever that Republicans in Washington are out of touch with Americans from all ends of the political spectrum.

The American people deserve to know why their Republican representatives in Washington refuse to put some of the workers hit hardest by the economic downturn back on the job rebuilding America.   They deserve an explanation as to why Republicans refuse to step up to the plate and do what’s necessary to create jobs and grow the economy right now.  It’s time for Republicans in Congress to put country ahead of party and listen to the people they were elected to serve.  It’s time for them to do their job and focus on Americans’ jobs.  And until they do, I will continue to do everything in my power to move this country forward.

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to key Administration posts:

• Sondra Myers - Member, Commission on Presidential Scholars
• Jackie Norris - Member, Commission on Presidential Scholars

President Obama said, “I am pleased to announce that these experienced and committed individuals have agreed to join this Administration, and I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead.”

President Obama announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to key Administration posts:

Sondra Myers, Appointee for Member, Commission on Presidential Scholars
Sondra Myers is the Senior Fellow for International, Civic and Cultural Projects at the University of Scranton, and the Director of its Schemel Forum, a non-credit continuing education program.  She is the author of numerous books, including The New Rwanda:  Prosperity and the Public Good (2008). From 2001 to 2005 Ms. Myers was a senior associate at the University of Maryland’s Democracy Collaborative, and the Rapoport Democracy Fellow at the Walt Whitman Center at Rutgers University from 2000 to 2001. Ms. Myers served as Special Assistant to the Chairman for Partnerships at the National Endowment for the Humanities from 1993 to 1995 and was Cultural Advisor to Pennsylvania Governor Robert P. Casey from 1987 to 1993.  A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Ms. Myers is a past chair of the Federation of State Humanities Councils and was appointed by President Carter to the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts in 1980. Ms. Myers received her B.A. in Philosophy from Connecticut College.

Jackie Norris, Appointee for Member, Commission on Presidential Scholars
Jackie Norris is currently the Executive Director of the Points of Light Corporate Institute, where she has led its corporate strategy and employee engagement programs since September 2011.  Ms. Norris is also an Adjunct Professor at American University’s School of Public Affairs.  Prior to this, Ms. Norris served from 2009 to 2010 as the Senior Advisor to the CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service and in 2009 as Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the First Lady.  In these roles, Ms. Norris helped to develop the Administration’s plans to address issues such as healthy eating, national service, supporting military families, and women in the workplace.  During the 2008 Presidential Campaign, Ms. Norris served as the Iowa State Director during the general election.  From 2002 to 2007, Ms. Norris served as a high school government teacher in Iowa. She is a recipient of the James Madison Fellowship which supports aspiring and experienced secondary school teachers in graduate study of American history, American government, and social studies.  Ms. Norris holds a B.A. from SUNY College at Geneseo and an M.A. in Political Science from Iowa State University.

President Obama Nominates Justice Andrew David Hurwitz to Serve on the United States Court of Appeals

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, President Obama nominated Justice Andrew David Hurwitz to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

President Obamasaid, “Justice Hurwitz has proven himself to be not only a first-rate legal mind but a faithful public servant.  It is with full confidence in his ability, integrity, and independence that I nominate him to the bench of the United States Court of Appeals.”

Justice Andrew David Hurwitz:  Nominee for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Justice Andrew David Hurwitz has served as Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court since 2003 and as Vice Chief Justice since 2009.  He also serves as an adjunct professor of law at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, where he has taught regularly over the past three decades.  Justice Hurwitz was born in New York City.  He attended Princeton University, where he received his A.B. cum laude in 1968.  After graduating from Princeton, Justice Hurwitz attended Yale Law School and obtained his J.D. in 1972.  In 1969, Justice Hurwitz began his four-year service with the Connecticut Army National Guard, after which he served in the United States Army Reserve from 1973 to 1975.  Upon graduation from law school, Justice Hurwitz began the first of three federal clerkships for Judge Jon O. Newman of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut.  Later that same year, he clerked for Judge J. Joseph Smith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.  He then clerked for Justice Potter Stewart of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1973 to 1974.  In 1974, Justice Hurwitz joined the Arizona law firm of Martori Meyer Hendricks & Victor (now known as Osborn Maledon), becoming a shareholder in the firm in 1977.  He left the firm in 1980 to spend three years serving as chief of staff to Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt.  In 1983, Justice Hurwitz returned to his prior law firm and spent the next twenty years there, specializing in appellate work and complex civil litigation.  During that time, he argued two matters before the Supreme Court of the United States.  For a brief period in 1988, Justice Hurwitz served as chief of staff to Arizona Governor Rose Mofford.  In 2003, Justice Hurwitz was appointed to the Arizona Supreme Court.  He has recently chaired both the Arizona Judicial Council’s Commission on Technology and the Arizona Courts Ad Hoc Committee on the Rules of Evidence and was a member of the Federal Rules of Evidence Advisory Committee from 2004 to 2010.