Economic Confidential, September 2008

MULTILATERAL

World Bank Grants $200 million to poor Countries

World Bank African Regional President, Oby Ezekwesili has disclosed that 18 vulnerable countries in Africa have been granted $200 million support, while the sum of $1.2 billion has also been made available for agricultural development. She was reacting to a question on what subsidies are there for the poor countries

Speaking during a video conference from Ghana on ‘The third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness,’ Ezekwesili pointed out that this was to ensure that there is greater yield, cheap fertilizer and new seed, adding that the bottom line is to make subsidy available to the poor. She further stated that any subsidy that does not tend to help the poor will not have the blessing of the Bank.

The World Bank Vice President also lamented the dearth of capacity in most African countries, adding that the Bank has a diaspora programme through which it works with the countries.

Africa, she stated, cannot compete with other continents of the world because it lacks the basic infrastructure to make things work. On whether China which has shown tremendious interest in Africa, she called for caution, noting that “no matter what, the partner must be aware of the failures of the past and must be ready to work towards success.”

Ezekwesili said that there was more recorded growth in job creation, education infrastructural development as well as poverty reduction even as she declared that unless African countries address infrastructural and other pressing challenges facing them, they may not attain much of the Millennium Development Goals targeted for 2015.

She said that:  “Believe me, I am saying that there is much more that can be done, there are certain structure we can look at to ascertain if there is some progress if you look at the countries like Burkina Faso where there is universalisation of access to Universal Basic Education, it shows that high level has been reached, we record a hundred percent in terms of basic education.  We’ve got the narrowing of the gender disparity, the number of boys and girls in schools have been merged, so that is the success story.

She continued that “You talk about a country like Ghana, where the millennium development goals pillar one talks about the strategy that poverty should be halved by 2015, you are going to make it going by your current status, I must say Ghana would make it, Ghana and Burkina Faso would make it, even Uganda would make it because there are elements of success. Our interest must be how do we build on this, how do we make it dramatically broad because the rate of poverty is still high and until this poverty is completely tackled, you cannot yet settle with any success story.”

She also tasked the media in Africa to hold their governments accountable for their actions as well as challenge the Bank to ensure that aid to such non-performing countries be scrutinized.

In another development developed and developing countries have agreed to take bold steps to reform the way aid is given and spent. After days of intense negotiations, they endorsed the Accra Agenda for Action. Developing countries are committing to take control of their own futures, donors to co-ordinating better amongst themselves, and both parties to the Agenda are pledging to account to each other and their citizens.

The Accra Agenda for Action is the product of an unprecedented alliance of development partners – developing and donor countries, emerging economies, UN and multilateral institutions, global funds and civil society organisations. They all participated in the discussions leading up to the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, hosted by the Government of Ghana and organised by OECD and the World Bank, in Accra. 

Forum participants used as a baseline the development goals set out in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness signed in 2005, Their discussions on the need to make aid more effective were based on consultations with more than 80 developing countries, all OECD donors and a large number of civil society organisations from around the world.

Evidence from a survey of 54 developing countries provided the factual basis for these discussions. Evaluations of how 8 recipient and 11 donor countries are implementing the Paris Declaration some three years after signing it also lent critical evidence of where action is needed.