Americas Quarterly

H. E. Leonel Fernández is serving his second term as president of the Dominican Republic.

the $42 billion shortfall in our energy bills. While that may sound high, it still represents only 3 percent of the profits reported from recent oil price increases.

The mechanism for recovering these profits would be a “Global Petroleum Solidarity Fund.” This fund could be established in the World Bank or within regional development banks, or based in other international institutions that are already working on programs aimed at helping developing economies meet the challenges of the global energy and food crisis. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), for instance, was established within the UN following the first oil crisis of the 1970s precisely to face the food crisis that arose as a result. Whatever institution became the repository of these windfall funds, poorer nations would be allowed to withdraw a “refund” proportional to their expenditures in crude oil imports.

I believe that such a mechanism would enable the countries hardest hit by the energy crisis to invest in projects aimed at stimulating food production. In doing so, we would be close to resolving in a single step, and relatively quickly, the worst set of crises we have faced as a region.

MAURICIO DUENAS/AFP/GEtty IMAGES

By simultaneously mitigating the impact of increasing oil prices and investing in food production, our region could produce food at record levels and at lower prices. By taking the initiative, we might have a chance of meeting the ambitious goals of all of our nations to reduce extreme poverty and hunger. But there is little time to lose. Each day the crisis cont.inues, the situation _faced _by _the _poorest _{countries worsens.}

Endnotes 1 The $42 billion that we have estimated represents the difference between the $130 dollars per barrel in mid July 2008 and the $60 per barrel, which was the average price about a year ago.