World Bank Chief Says Africa Is First Priority

HELSINKI, -- "I think the situation of sub-Saharan Africa is not acceptable. It has to be the first priority of the World Bank," he told members of the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank (PNoWB) meeting here at the Finnish Parliament over the weekend.

However, Wolfowitz added that the efforts of the World Bank and the development community must be supplemented by African leaders in order to achieve rapid results.

"The situation in Africa is not something that the World Bank and the development community can do unless there is leadership in Africa ready to take on the challenge of reducing poverty in Africa," said Wolfowitz, former U.S. deputy secretary of defence during the first term of the George W. Bush administration.

Taking direct questions from some of the parliamentarians representing the more than 110 countries of the network, Wolfowitz said the World Bank's focus will be on providing development infrastructure in Africa that would integrate the region's economies.

He mentioned a World Bank-sponsored power plant project in southern Africa that will provide energy to the Republic of Congo, Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The Bank also plans to fund the construction of a Trans-African highway that will run from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic.

Another project the World Bank is sponsoring with a consortium of major oil companies -- amidst protests from environmental groups -- is the West African gas pipeline, which when completed will transport natural gas from Nigeria to Benin, Togo and Ghana.

However, Wolfowitz said that the Bank's focus on infrastructure does not mean it will abandon ongoing work to improve health and education in Africa.

"The World Bank will not behave as in the game of football where all players chase after a single ball in every direction around the field," he said.

Wolfowitz also called on developed countries to live up to their promises to increase aid and provide debt relief for the poorest countries. He stressed that they must also do a better work of coordinating their work on the ground.

"But more importantly," said Wolfowitz, "they now need to help bring the Doha Round of trade talks to a successful conclusion." Adding, "These negotiations hold the key to a better life for the 1.2 billion around the world who live on less than one dollar a day."

Named after the Qatari capital, where it was launched in 2001, the aim of the "Doha Development Round", under the auspices of the World Trade Organisation, is to boost the world economy and lift millions out of poverty,

"It may be uncomfortable for almost every government to step forward and give up subsidies and other barriers to free trade," said Wolfowitz, in apparent reference to developed countries with enormous farm subsidies -- including the United States -- which poor countries complain undercut the prices of their farmers products, "but that temporary discomfort is nothing compared to the daily discomfort and depravation of the poorest people of the world."

Addressing this large gathering of parliamentarians from different countries, the first such appearance by a World Bank president, gave Wolfowitz an opportunity to try to dispel the widespread fears at the time of his appointment that he had no experience in development issues.

"It was feared that he would turn the World Bank into an instrument of U.S. foreign policy," said Norbert Mao, a Ugandan member of parliament, "but there is evidence he will continue the good works of predecessor James Wolfensohn."

During his visit to Helsinki in 2001, Wolfensohn received a cream pie in the face from a protester. That did no happen to Wolfowitz this weekend, perhaps thanks to stepped-up security precautions.

But as the World Bank chief was addressing the parliamentarians, a small but tenacious group of demonstrators from across Finland defied the pouring rain and staged a protest outside the Finnish Parliament.

Numbering about 300, the protesters targeted Wolfowitz as well as the World Bank, according to participant Eetu Komsi. "Wanted: Paul Wolfowitz for mass murder," read one poster, in apparent reference to Wolfowitz's role in the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Back inside, cautiously optimistic Swedish lawmaker Kaj Nordquist said, "If he (Wolfowitz) is going to act as he has spoken then there is hope he will do good work."

In a conversation with IPS, Mao said Wolfowitz has shown maturity in recognising the failure of previous Bank policies in Africa.

But another Ugandan member of parliament and chairwoman of the parliamentary budget committee, Beatrice Kiraso, said she hopes this time the World Bank would move away from too much focus on "macro" policies, and instead address the impact of the Bank's policies at the "micro" level.

The PNoWB is an independent association of about 800 lawmakers from 110 countries that has mobilised legislative bodies to fight global poverty and promote transparency and accountability in international development.

Established in 2000, it is the main parliamentary interlocutor of the World Bank, and serves as a platform for policy dialogue between the Bank and parliamentarians. The theme of the Oct. 21-23 conference was "Beyond the Year of Development: What now?"

This year has been the year of promises, said Bert Koenders, Dutch MP and outgoing chairman of PNoBW, but they are promises that run the risk of remaining unfulfilled unless parliamentarians become aware of the issues and bring extra pressure to bear on their governments.

"Parliamentarians are the missing link in the development debate, yet we have to vote on the decisions," Koenders told IPS.

The G8 (Group of Eight leading industrialised countries) agreed in July in Gleneagles, Scotland, to cancel what 18 impoverished countries owed to multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Fourteen of those countries are in Africa.

But Ugandan MP Mao said debt cancellation has now become a "game of ping-pong", because the G8 are backtracking on the promises they made in Gleneagles.

Activists campaigning for debt relief -- such as Africa Action and the European Network on Debt and Development -- say a group of rich countries and World Bank and IMF staff are now bent on derailing the proposal by quarrelling over who pays, failing to agree on eligibility, and imposing extra conditions on countries slated for debt cancellation.

Similarly there are fears that the Doha Round of trade talks may yet fail if disagreement between the EU and the United States derail targets for reducing farm subsidies.

Addressing the PNoWB conference via video link from Geneva, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy informed the lawmakers that U.S. and EU negotiating positions on market access to agricultural products are still deeply divided.

"If the round is not successful we shall be left with trade obstacles negotiated ten years ago," said Lamy.

To give extra momentum towards a successful conclusion of the Doha Round, Koenders told IPS that PNoWB will initiate a debate on trade in the parliaments of 68 of the network's members, ahead of the WTO ministerial conference in Hong Kong in mid-December.

"It will not be a 'development round' unless the ministerial meeting in Hong Kong produces an agreement that takes into consideration the special and differentiated status provision (for developing countries) in the WTO agreements," Koenders said.