The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) held their annual meetings in Washington, DC this week. Christian Aid is deeply disappointed by the outcome.
• The Bank made no comment on its continued use of damaging economic conditions.
• There was no change to the Bank and IMF’s position on climate change.
We are also alarmed at the prospect of further private sector involvement in the delivery of basic services to poor people.
No progress
Last year the Bank went some way to reassure the UK government that it was reforming its policy of attaching conditions to loans and debt relief when the UK government withheld £50 million of funding.
That there was no comment at all on conditionality at the meetings this week is worrying.
No change on climate change
The final communiqué made reference to the importance of meeting the day-to-day energy needs of poor people to help eliminate poverty.
Yet there was no commitment to revisit their funding for energy projects that directly contribute to climate change.
No comment on economic conditions
Meanwhile, there was no comment on the Bank’s use of harmful economic policy conditions.
There was, however, a clear reference to developing countries needing a strong focus on private sector-led growth in their national development plans. This was quite a contradiction to their stated ‘commitment’ to country-ownership of development policies which they make elsewhere in the communiqué.
Christian Aid recently published a new report, Power and poverty: World Bank energy reforms and poor people, on the impacts of private-sector involvement in electricity supply. Read more...
Funding: a different story…
The World Bank is currently passing the hat around.
It is looking to replenish its low-income lending arm, the International Development Association, and is asking its wealthy donors to fund it.
Negotiations will carry on until the end of the year. But alarmingly Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, indicated that the Bank was considering accepting contributions from multinational firms, as well as allocating some money from the private-sector part of the Bank, the International Finance Corp.
Christian Aid is concerned that this will strengthen the Bank’s bias towards private-sector participation in the delivery of key services for poor people, at the expense of country-led development.
World Bank on trial
Evidence of the damage that forcing poor countries to privatise services can do to poor communities was highlighted in The Hague on 15 October.
The World Bank Campaign Europe staged a mock trial, with testimonies from poor countries. The campaign, of which Christian Aid is part, is calling on all EU governments to link their contributions to the Bank phasing out economic policy conditions and ceasing funding for fossil-fuel-emitting projects.
Charles Abugre, Christian Aid’s head of policy, and a panel member at the event, said the testimonies from Peru, Nicaragua, Kazakhstan, Mali, Malawi and Nigeria were powerful.
The Nicaraguan testimony came from Christian Aid partner the National Consumer Defense Network, sharing stories about life in the country since blackouts and exorbitant bills became regular events. Read more...