World Bank Out of India!

The World Bank and the Language of Development : India's National Agricultural Innovation Project

2008-09-03T17:30:00.003+05:30

A few examples from the Bank’s latest reports in India show how the language of development ignores the ground reality and make suffering sound like progress. The latest World Bank project in Indian Agriculture (of 203 projects going back to 1949) is called the National Agricultural Innovation Project. Its objectives are to

"contribute to the sustainable transformation of Indian agricultural sector from food self-sufficiency to one in which a market orientation is equally important for poverty alleviation and income generation. The specific objective is to accelerate the collaborative development and application of agricultural innovations between public research organizations, farmers, private sector and other stakeholders….The proposed project contributes to the Bank’s objectives, as expressed in the Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) 2004, to increase its lending in support of rural livelihoods and accelerating rural growth."

In a country where 49% of children are malnourished, a context where privatisation has been occurring in the sector for the past 40 years, and most tragically where farmers are committing suicide, what is the meaning of these objectives? Is a market orientation as equally important as food self-sufficiency? How exactly is the market important for poverty alleviation and income generation? The Bank’s key indicators of the success of this project will be

"the increased availability of knowledge products and public awareness messages of the National Agricultural Research System (NARS), increased collaboration with farmer, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and private sector organizations, increased availability and use of technologies that have been jointly developed between consortia partners in support of strengthened production to consumption systems and enhanced rural livelihoods, and a strengthened capacity for basic and strategic research"

This project is about increasing the existing privatization of agriculture by creating a knowledge network between the private sector, agriculture research institutes and a small number of NGOs to promote the use of corporate technologies such as genetically modified food. This project is neither about farmer livelihoods nor about food security.

World Bank's Food Security Plan Temporarily Blocked at Doha Talks

2008-07-31T07:51:00.002+05:30

The World Bank of course stands with the US on the the battle between the US and India/China over protection for small farmers, and positions it as usual by suggesting that this will solve the crisis of poverty.

Zoellicks Plan for the Food Crisis which he announced at the Food Security Summit in Rome laid out the World Bank view that "to help those in danger today and ensure that the poor do not suffer this tragedy again" the World Bank proposed a 10-point plan. The ninth point was "we should conclude a Doha World Trade Organisation deal in order to remove the distortions of agricultural subsidies and tariffs and create a more adaptable, efficient and fair global food trade. The need for rules that are agreed multilaterally has never been stronger".

See below for the latest on the WTO where the World Bank's vision of food security has been temporarily blocked.

Michele Kelley

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WTO talks fail as India and China stand up to US to 'protect' farmers

Wed, Jul 30 03:03 AM
Yahoo News

The ministerial level talks here that attempted to clinch a global trade deal failed to achieve a breakthrough after nine long and tense days of discussions mainly due to differences between the US and India on measures to protect the livelihood concerns of poor farmers in the developing world.

The talks, that form part of the seven-year-old Doha Development Round negotiations of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), also saw differences between the developed and the developing world in several market-opening commitments regarding agriculture and industrial goods.

Though a formal announcement is expected only later in the night, official sources said WTO director general Pascal Lamy clearly indicated that there was no progress in the meeting of the group of seven countries that included representatives from India, Brazil, China, the European Union, US, Japan and Australia. They said, therefore, it was highly unlikely to have any resolution of outstanding issues in a larger group of countries.

India had earlier refused to give in to attempts to weaken a measure called the Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) meant to protect poor farmers, despite enormous pressure from developed countries, especially the US. The SSM enables developing countries like India to hike agricultural tariff by imposing additional duties to protect the livelihood of its poor farmers from import surges and price declines of sensitive agricultural products like wheat and rice. But it is a contingency measure and, therefore, used only when imports are substantive.

Meanwhile, developing countries on Tuesday blamed the US for what they called its stubborn attitude in maintaining the prosperity of its subsidized farmers and said this was the main stumbling block in clinching a global trade deal.

Despite efforts between Monday and Tuesday to resolve the SSM issue using different formulations - including a proposal by Lamy and another one by the European Union - the US rejected these saying SSM would disrupt normal trade rather than protect poor farmers. Some agricultural exporting countries like Uruguay and Paraguay, too, said SSM would hurt their interests.

Meanwhile, India was backed by China and around 100 other countries at a crucial juncture in the talks when India suffered a setback as Brazil broke ranks with other developing country allies in this aspect due to its interests in the farm-export business.

China had said it would not offer any concessions on special products (SPs farm products that are subjected to minimum or no duty cuts) and SSMs as these directly affect the livelihood of its poor farmers. It wanted to demarcate rice, cotton and sugar as SPs. On SSM, India turned down a WTO proposal under which developing countries could impose additional safeguard duties only if the import surge is 40% more than the average of previous three years.

India had told the WTO that if developing countries were forced to wait till a 40% rise in imports, it would wreak havoc on the livelihood of the most vulnerable farmers due to cheap farm imports from the rich world. India also demanded that the additional safeguard duties that it should be allowed to impose on such imports should be above the Uruguay Round-bound levels (tariffs that were committed to at the Uruguay Round) as the present proposal of 15% additional duty would not be enough to curb such import surges and price declines.

However, the SSM proposal available to developing countries continued to be weaker than a similar mechanism available to rich countries to protect the interests of their mostly rich farmers from such cheap imports.

The other main unresolved issues included reduction of huge trade-distorting farm subsidies of the US, especially their cotton subsidies and Washington's insistence that developing countries should eliminate duties in certain infant and vulnerable industries. Earlier, in a bid to speed up the Doha Round talks, Lamy had last week disbanded the original group of 30-odd ministers and started holding discussions of just seven major countries including India.

But apart from adding to the bitterness that it caused to the members excluded from the core group, this attempt at expeditiously resolving the persisting differences between the developed and the developing world did not bear fruit with Lamy himself admitting that there was no convergence on key issues. Several of the developing, least developed and even developed countries excluded from the chosen group of seven nations expressed apprehensions about being left in the dark.

World Bank Slammed by MSP

2008-02-26T12:44:00.001+05:30

25 February 2008

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Use

World Bank Slammed by MSP

Dr Bill Wilson, MSP for the West of Scotland, last week lodged a Parliamentary motion supporting the Independent People’s Tribunal on the World Bank Group in India. The tribunal, at which the views of leading figures from legal, literary, religious and scientific spheres were represented, condemned the World Bank Group for approving loans that “have caused extensive social and environmental harm”.

Speaking after lodging his motion, Dr Wilson said that he was aware that Nobel Prize-winning economist and former World Bank Chief Economist, Joseph Stiglitz, had also found fault with the institution and with the International Monetary Fund. Dr Wilson said that in the past too much pressure had been applied for developing countries to open up their economies too quickly: “This is not how today’s leading economic powers developed. It’s hypocritical and destructive to allow multinationals untrammelled access. Local businesses in developing countries often cannot compete with multinationals and jobs and local expertise are lost.

“In the case of India it is fair to say that the World Bank’s policy contributed to the deaths of many poor people. According to the Tribunal’s jury, World Bank-sponsored policies put tremendous pressure on the poorest people in India and the suicides of 137,000 poor farmers between 2001 and 2007 were at least partly attributable to this.”

Dr Wilson continued, “To make the point about the effects of World Bank pressure clearly I can do no better than quote from the jury’s statement:

‘India's farmers must now compete with imports from the heavily subsidized farms of the European Union and North America, at the same time when even the most meager state assistance for the poorest farmers is reduced. India was once self-sufficient in food production; its food security is now dependent on imports. It is clear to us that major World Bank Economic Restructuring, Structural Adjustment, and Sector Loans have directly promoted and helped to finance these economic policy changes which are a disaster for much of India's more than 700 million rural inhabitants, and most disastrous of all for poor farmers.’”

Dr Wilson concluded, “The tale of woe goes on and on. The rich should not get richer at the expense of the poorest in society. I welcome the Tribunal’s report, and sincerely hope that the World Bank will change its approach. If it does not do so, then I call upon the new Indian Government to put the interests of the poorest in Indian society first and to resist the blandishments of those who appear to act only for the benefit of multinational companies.”

Notes to Editors

1. Text of Bill Wilson’s motion

Date of Lodging: 22 February 2008
Short Title: Independent People’s Tribunal on the World Bank Group in India

S3M-01400 Bill Wilson (West of Scotland) (SNP): That the Parliament

notes the Independent People’s Tribunal on the World Bank Group in India, which involves retired justices of the supreme and high courts, leading writers, religious leaders, activists and academics; agrees with its condemnation of the World Bank for approving loans that “have caused extensive social and environmental harm”, unduly influenced the Indian policy-making process and promoted the establishment of common effluent treatment plants that failed to meet environmental norms, and further notes that Indian Government and World Bank officials failed to represent themselves at the tribunal despite two weeks’ notification.

2. Website of World Bank Group in India Tribunal

http://www.worldbanktribunal.org/

Bruce Rich - The Initial Findings of the Jury

2008-01-25T18:18:00.000+05:30

Bruce Rich's initial findings of the Independent People's Tribunal on the World Bank Group in India that took place in Delhi at the end of September 2007

2008-01-25T15:10:00.000+05:30

Sulak Sivaraska's initial findings of the Independent People's Tribunal on the World Bank Group in India that took place in Delhi at the end of September 2007.

Rawaswamy Iyer - The Initial Findings of the Jury

2008-01-25T12:18:00.000+05:30

Rawaswamy Iyer's initial findings of the Independent People's Tribunal on the World Bank Group in India that took place in Delhi at the end of September 2007.

Alejandro Nadal - The Initial Findings of the Jury

2008-01-24T14:10:00.000+05:30

Alejandro Nadal's initial findings of the Independent People's Tribunal on the World Bank Group in India that took place in Delhi at the end of September 2007.

Aruna Roy - The Initial Findings of the Jury

2008-01-23T15:22:00.002+05:30

Aruna Roy's initial findings of the Independent People's Tribunal on the World Bank Group in India that took place in Delhi at the end of September 2007. (In progress)

Arundhati Roy - The Initial Findings of the Jury

2008-01-23T15:09:00.001+05:30

Arundhati Roy's initial findings of the Independent People's Tribunal on the World Bank Group in India that took place in Delhi at the end of September 2007. (in progress)

Fraud In Five of World Bank Sponsored Health Projects In India

2008-01-16T10:49:00.000+05:30

Serious incidents of Fraud and Corruption found in five health projects funded by the Bank worth $570 million
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A detailed internal review, launched in 2006 by the bank's Department of Institutional Integrity, with support from the Indian government, found illegal activity in projects, including those focused on curbing malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, which dates as far back as 1997 (Wall Street Journal [1], 1/14). The projects under investigation were the Second National HIV/AIDS Control Project, the Malaria Control Project, the Tuberculosis Control Project, Food and Drug Capacity Building Project and the Orissa Health Systems Development Project, according to the bank.
According to the Journal, the review found that some of the HIV test kits for the $194 million HIV/AIDS Control Project "often performed poorly by producing erroneous or invalid results, potentially resulting in the further spread of disease." The report also found "numerous indicators of poor product quality in the bed nets supplied by the firms" in the $114 million Malaria Control Project. In the $125 million Tuberculosis Control Project, the review found "bidders sharing the same address and telephone numbers, unit prices showing a common formula and indicators of intent to split contract awards among several bidders."

The report also found inadequate facilities and evidence that the bank repeatedly ignored that the corruption was occurring, according to the Journal. In the AIDS Control Project, "the bank appeared to pay scant attention to the performance and quality of the goods supplied to the blood banks and testing centers, instead focusing on the number of such facilities being erected," the review said.

Read more : click here

Amit Bhaduri responds to the World Bank

2008-01-14T16:19:00.000+05:30

Choosing not to accept the Secretariat's invitation to attend the Tribunal, the World Bank instead posted a response to the Tribunal proceedings as well as a "Question and Answer" document on India's World Bank homepage.

Amit Bhaduri, a member of the jury, responds to what the World Bank published on its website on the final day of the Tribunal (24 September, 2007).

An economist and social activist, Professor Bhaduri is the author of many books, a small sample of which includes Development with Dignity: A Case for Full Employment, (2005), On the Border of Economic Theory and History (1999), The Intelligent Person’s Guide to Liberalization (1996) and The Economic Structure of Backward Agriculture (1983). He has been Professor Emeritus at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, has been appointed Professor of Political Economy at the University of Pavia and has been a visiting Professor at various academic institutions (Colegio de Mexico, Universities of Stanford, Vienna, Linz, Bologna, Bremen, and Trondheim).

Book Review: Seeds of Destruction

2008-01-08T07:27:00.000+05:30

The Independent People's Tribunal on the World Bank in India provided a great deal of testimony on the links between the World Bank and the large GE firms. That information will soon be posted on the Tribunal's web site (www.worldbanktribunal.com). The following review of William Engdahl's "Seeds of Destruction" by Stephen Lendman will be interesting to anyone following this industry. I also recommend the newsletter at Global Research for insights into many different aspects of the power of global capital.

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Today, we're all lab rats in an uncontrolled, unregulated mass human experiment the results of which are unknown. Once GM seeds are introduced to an area, the genie is out of the bottle for keeps.

Reviewing F. William Engdahl's "Seeds of Destruction" - by Stephen Lendman (Part I)

Bill Engdahl is a leading researcher, economist and analyst of the New World Order who's written on issues of energy, politics and economics for over 30 years. He contributes regularly to publications like Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Foresight magazine, Grant's Investor.com, European Banker and Business Banker International. He's also a frequent speaker at geopolitical, economic and energy related international conferences and is a distinguished Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization where he's a regular contributor.

Engdahl also wrote two important books - "A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order" in 2004. It's an essential history of geopolitics and the importance of oil. Engdahl explains that America's post-WW II dominance rests on two pillars and one commodity - unchallengeable military power and the dollar as the world's reserve currency combined with the quest to control global oil and other energy resources.

Engdahl's newest book is just out from Global Research: "Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation" and subject of this review. It's the diabolical story of how Washington and four Anglo-American agribusiness giants plan world domination by patenting life forms to gain worldwide control of our food supply and why that prospect is chilling. The book's compelling contents are reviewed below in-depth so readers will know the type future Henry Kissinger had in mind in 1970 when he said: "Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people."

Remember also, this cabal is one of many interconnected ones with fearsome power and ruthless intent to use it - Big Banks controlling the Federal Reserve and our money, Big Oil our world energy resources, Big Media our information, Big Pharma our health, Big Technology our state-of-the-art everything and watching us, Big Defense our wars, Big Pentagon waging them, and other corporate predators exploiting our lives for profit. Engdahl's book focuses brilliantly on one of them. To fully cover its vital contents, this review will be in three parts for more detail and to make it easily digestible.

URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7716

Global Research, January 2, 2008

Delhi Water Privatisation Plan

2008-01-01T15:41:00.000+05:30

When the Delhi government decided to privatize the water infrastructure in the Indian capital in 2000, a strong resistance movement emerged. These activists, which include Arvind Kejriwal, have played a critical role of maintaining access to water for Delhiites and have shown the power of collective action.

Due to the successful campaign which exposed the corruption of this potential World Bank project, the project was halted. This process of privatizing the management of municipal water has happened across many cities and its important for people to understand how this happens, why and under what conditions. Arvind Kejriwal explains the influence of the World Bank Group in the bidding procedure to predetermine which corporation (Price Waterhouse Coopers) would profit from the management of such an important public resource in the city of Delhi.

"Do we need the World Bank in India?", asks Kejriwal.

Activist and resident of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal is an activist for governmental transparency. He has received awards for his involvement with grassroots organisations in India, prominent one being the "Indian of the Year in Public Service" in 2006. He also founded the grassroots organisation Parivartan, devoted to the cause of ensuring a just and accountable governance in India.

World Bank want its repayments in Rupees

2007-12-28T18:06:00.000+05:30

Loan will be sanctioned in dollars but would be repaid in Rupees
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The World Bank is considering whether to make a huge loan to India in rupees rather than dollars.
The Maharashtra state government is seeking a loan worth some $3.5bn but is concerned about the fluctuations in the value of the dollar.
If approved, it would be the first time the World Bank has agreed to a such a loan in rupees. The bank says the money would be invested in health, water, energy and irrigation projects.

World Bank approval

The loan represents some 60% of total costs for the development project which come to nearly $6bn. The idea is that the loan would be sanctioned in dollars, but would be handed over in rupees. All repayments would be in rupees too. This would prevent any changes in the amount to be repaid caused by fluctuating exchange rates.
The loan still has to get the approval of the World Bank, India's central government and the Maharashtra state government. The loan arrangement was discussed at a meeting between World Bank Country Director for India, Isabel Guerrero, and Maharashtra state government officials on Thursday.

In the last few months, the rupee has appreciated sharply against the dollar from 45 rupees to a dollar to 40 rupees to a dollar. One of the projects Maharashtra wants help with is the Mumbai Metro project, projected to cost $2.5bn. It is hoping to receive loans of $1.5bn. The project would connect south Mumbai (Bombay) to the suburbs. Other projects include rural and urban water supplies, power transmission, technical support for a "vision Mumbai" plan and a possible Public Private Partnership (PPP) in irrigation.

World Bank and Knowledge Production

2007-12-27T07:38:00.001+05:30

I have been continuing to wonder how the World Bank manages to strangle developing countries through relatively small amounts of money. We all talk of its role of "knowledge provider" and the power that assumes. In keeping my eyes open for examples I couldn't help but notice that in the recently reported changes to its GDP estimates, China and India have fallen by 40%. This has been widely reported in the media.

Now how can the World Bank change its rankings so drastically without its credibility being called into question? So far not a whisper....

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Perspectives/India_shrinking/articleshow/2649557.cms

http://go.worldbank.org/B5PYF93QF0

World Bank grants $ 225 mn loan to Bihar

2007-12-21T15:06:00.000+05:30

First Bihar Development Policy Loan to aim for economic growth through reforms in agriculture, investment climate, roads, public service delivery in education and social protection
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The World Bank has approved a $225 million loan to Bihar aimed to support the state in implementing reforms in fiscal policy, public financial management, and governance, in order to boost economic growth.
“While India has emerged as one of the fastest growing countries in the world, it faces the challenge of addressing widening economic disparities. Bihar is the poorest state in India with about 39% of population living in poverty,” The Bank said in a statement.
The First Bihar Development Policy Loan is designed to improve fiscal policy, public financial management and governance.
“It aims to boost economic growth through reforms in agriculture, investment climate, and basic infrastructure, with an emphasis on roads. It will also support improving public service delivery in education and social protection,” it said.
“Bihar is a crucial state for poverty reduction and inclusive growth in India,” said Isabel Guerrero, World Bank Country Director for India.
Bihar registered economic growth of 4% in recent years which is much slower than the rest of the country While the state has 8.5% of India’s population, it accounts for only 1.6% of the country’s GDP.
“It is India’s poorest as well as one of its slowest growing states. But with arable land, water resources, favourable demography, and unexploited tourism potential, Bihar has the necessary preconditions to accelerate development. By focusing on accelerating growth and improving public service delivery, this operation will assist Bihar towards achieving the development goals set out in its Eleventh Plan,” she added.

World Bank and Food Security, by Madhura Swaminathan

2007-12-13T16:42:00.000+05:30

"There is enough evidence now that the Structural Adjustment Programs initiated by the World Bank have been associated with severe reduction in food subsidies in a large number of countries."

Madhura Swaminathan shares her concerns about the implications of World Bank and the IMF narrow targeting of food subsidies. By reducing the poverty line to an alarming level, the government, under the influence of international financial institutions, abandons millions of Indians to starvation.

Author of several books, like Financial Liberalization and Rural Credit in India (2005), Madhura Swaminathan is an economics professor in the Indian institute of Statistics, Kolkatta.

Alternative to World Bank launched

2007-12-11T17:29:00.000+05:30

The Bank of the South, an initiative spearheaded by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, was inaugurated on 9 December 2007. The finance ministers of Venezuela, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Peru and Chile will all sit in the bank’s board of directors.

The new bank is Latin America’s response to years of subservience to the dictates of U.S.-dominated financial institutions. "The Bank of the South is a strategy ... aimed at freeing us from the chains of dependence and underdevelopment," Chávez said.

The Bank of the South will fund projects ranging from infrastructure development to anti-poverty programs without the "strings attached" model of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank that only seek to further the interests of foreign capital.

It is set to have its headquarters in Caracas, with further offices in Buenos Aires and La Paz. It is scheduled to be operational in early 2008, with an estimated initial capital of 7 billion dollars.

The bank is planned to finance development and integration projects with a low rate of interest.

African Diaspora to fund TNCs and the G8?

2007-12-07T10:43:00.000+05:30

A new plan conceived by the Bank, a "Diaspora Remittances Investment Fund", could take the foreign exchange earned by Africans living abroad who send money back home, and leverage it to fund World Bank organized projects.

What does this mean? The Bank would say that this is an effort to improve the economic impact of remittances. If you are among the critics of the Bank who see the Bank as a global institution which influences the policies of Southern governments to the benefit of multinational capital, this new scheme looks like a shameless attempt to co-opt the flow of African remittances to this purpose.

There will have been four Bank publications on remittances this year alone with the upcoming The International Migration of Women (November 2007). The others are:

-Migration and Remittances Factbook (print version December 2007). Online at www.worldbank.org/prospects/migrationandremittances.
-International Migration, Economic Development & Policy (2007)
-South-South Migration and Remittances(2007)

The Bank has published on its web site (in bold no less) that "recorded remittances to developing countries are estimated to reach $240 billion in 2007. The true size of remittances including unrecorded flows is even larger". Bank and the private sector eyes are popping, and the new fund is the first formal plan from the Bank to directly channel this global financial flow.

The plan may be modeled on similar inititatives in Latin America. The Inter-American Development Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) which promotes private sector development in Latin America and the Caribbean, has various programs to manage remittances.

For more information about the "Fund", see:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200712020012.html

European Parliament passes resolution to end taxpayer support for fossil fuel projects

2007-12-03T17:46:00.000+05:30

ECA's promotes export in developing countries which contribute to long term green house emission.
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On November 29, the European Parliament overwhelmingly passed a resolution on trade and climate change calling for the “discontinuation of public support, via export credit agencies and public investment banks, for fossil fuel projects.” The resolution asks EU governments to propose legislative mechanisms that would force export credit agencies and the European Investment Bank to “take account of the climate change implications of the funded projects” and to “impose a moratorium on funding until sufficient data are available.”
The resolution also calls on financiers to work harder to transfer public funds to renewable energy and energy efficient technologies. This move was applauded by civil society organizations who argue that government leadership is needed to hold finance and trade agencies accountable for ignoring the effects their activities have on the climate.

more info:

UN Says Market Privatizations Would Be the Worst Scenario for the Environment

2007-11-21T11:08:00.000+05:30

By Herv Kempf
Le Monde
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The planet's ecological future directly depends on the political choices that will be exercised: this observation had never before been clearly spotlighted by a United Nations decision-making body. Now it's done: the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) asserts in a thick report, the so-called "GEO 4", published Thursday October 25, that generalized privatization of resources and services would be the worst scenario from an environmental perspective.

That's the conclusion of an original approach to possible futures that a group of international experts has been conducting the last two years: it models each scenario as a function of the type of policies put into place. The point of departure for this modeling effort is the major ecological crisis, which the planet is already experiencing.

By actualizing the description through numerous sources, the UNEP report synthesizes changes in climate, biodiversity, soils' health, water resources ... It highlights the shrinkage in available resources per inhabitant, with the available earth surface for each human being going from 7.91 hectares in 1900 to 2.02 hectares in 2005.

The rapidity of the phenomenon is emphasized: the breadth and the composition of terrestrial ecosystems that "are being modified by populations at an unprecedented speed." The experts insist on the concept of a threshold: "The cumulative effects of the continuous changes in the environment may reach thresholds that will manifest themselves as abrupt and irreversible changes." This idea of "tipping points" is applicable not only to climate change, but also to the phenomena of desertification, drops in water tables, collapse of ecosystems, etc.

Tipping Points

How the World Bank is failing to deliver real change on conditionality

2007-11-15T18:12:00.000+05:30

In 2005 the World Bank launched a review of its conditionality policy. This was in response to growing international criticism, from developed and developing countries alike, that the World Bank was still attaching too many intrusive and, at times, harmful economic policy conditions to its development finance to poor countries.

Two years on from this important step, the World Bank is keen to represent the problem of conditionality as one that has been dealt with, and that is no longer a major problem in lending. In order to independently assess whether or not this is the case, this report, by the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad), assesses the effectiveness of the World Bank’s Good Practice Principles (GPPs) in reforming World Bank conditionality.

The report finds that the GPPs have, as hoped, had a positive impact in reducing the overall number of conditions that the World Bank attaches to its development finance in poor countries. However, unfortunately there has been very limited progress in curbing the Bank’s practice of attaching sensitive economic policy conditions like privatisation and liberalisation conditions to its lending.

Click here; to read more

WATER IS OUR RIGHT – NOT A PRIVILEGE!

2007-11-12T18:00:00.000+05:30

Water is essential to life, is best protected by local communities and citizens, and not by private companies. And therefore we must protest the potential monopolization of our source of life and behold our constitutional right

By: Vikas Adhyayan Kendra
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WHY SHOULD WE OPPOSE THE SETTING UP OF PREPAID WATER METERS

·Prepaid water meters pave the way for privatization
The World Bank’s constant use of the term cost recovery and private sector participation lays down the conditions in their lending policies. This reduces the already difficult access and affordability of clean water thus promoting the interference of water companies. Prepaid water meters are simply a tool used under private contract in order to secure profits for the shareholders, not the access to water for the users.

·Prepaid water meters changes the demand responsive nature of water management
With the possibility that one’s access to water will get cut off as soon as one cannot pay, the demand for water goes down as people will buy only how much they can really afford. This results in use of untreated water, which has further consequences on the health and hygiene of persons. It also reduces the interface that exists between the government and the consumers of water. The consumers have no mechanism to be able to address their concerns about loss of access to water once they run out of money to be able to pay for it.

·Prepaid water meters undermine public health
One is forced into making difficult trade offs between water, food, medicine, school fees, transport and other essential goods and services. Hence, all the gains that are supposed to be achieved through access to regular clean water is totally undermined as slum dwellers will have to look for alternative sources of water, which most likely will be polluted

·Are Prepaid water meters really cost effective
Despite potential management savings prepaid water meters are provided at a higher rate for users as compared to traditional billing system as these meters are high technology solutions, hence the private players will also have to recover their costs in installing and operating them

·Prepaid water meters will only widen the inequalities that exist
Water becomes an individualized marketed commodity thus eroding the social relations between families in the communities where these prepaid water meters will be set up. The shared burden of access to water is lost. These meters are provided only in areas that are poor thus securing payment from people who already have a difficulty to pay for the most basic things. The women and children are forced to go back to their traditional role of water carriers. Hence, progress hoped to achieve in gender gains and education for children is all lost.

·It violates our fundamental right to water
The human right to water has been guaranteed in our constitution and also through international covenants set up by the United Nations now. It is the responsibility of the government to provide its citizens with free access to potable water. Water is equivalent to our right to life

Private companies and the World Bank have repeatedly tried to say that all consumers have the willingness to pay for clean water. However, this is true only in the case of the people who have the ability to pay. Is this the case for the poor living in slum areas too? This argument abuses the fact that all human beings need water for basic survival. Instead these decision makers must start analyzing the ability to pay. Households should not be forced to give up food in order to buy water.

Time to say no to WB conditionalities

2007-11-08T16:26:00.000+05:30

The World Bank president, Robert Zoellick, during his two-day visit of
Bangladesh, which ended Sunday evening, said loan conditionalities –
one of the major reasons of discontent across the world – were in fact
needed to ensure that the bank's was not 'stolen'. He insisted that
procurement regulations had to be followed by way of examples. This
was quite evidently to counter the suggestions of civil society
representatives who had met Zoellick during his visit. Civil society
has rightly questioned the necessity of lending agency funds being
pegged with conditionalities as these are seen to have a debilitating
effect on the economy while it erodes and in fact undermines the
government's sovereignty in policymaking. It has been a long standing
demand of activists and a large section of academics that the
adherence to certain prescriptions should not be the basis for
receiving lending agency funds. Instead the basis should be
achievement of certain development indicators such as disparity,
literacy, calorie intake, and child mortality.

As such, it is demanded that the lending agencies allow their clients
a free hand in developing their own policies with meaningful public
involvement which is the only means to ensure complete ownership of
the development strategy. It would then be more useful and effective
than coercing countries to formulate their poverty reduction strategy
'guided' by the lending agencies and authored by quarters faithful to
the preferred to school of neoliberal economics dictating free market,
liberalisation and privatisation. We stress that it should not be the
concern of the lending agencies whether the school or the hospital is
under private ownership or run by the state as long as the students
are educated and patients cured.

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India & China influential countries says World Bank

2007-11-06T16:48:00.000+05:30

The head of the World Bank says China and India are both playing big and influential roles in formulating policies despite the two countries being under-represented when it comes to formal bank voting rights.
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World Bank Chief Praises Indian, Chinese Influence in Top Funding Agencies

In his first trip to South Asia since being named president of the World Bank, former U.S. trade representative Robert Zoellick is calling for India and China to take a larger role in the multi-national funding agency. He is rebutting criticism that the two largest nations need additional voting rights in the bank and at the International Monetary Fund to have commensurate clout with the United States, Japan and European stakeholders.
When the Indian and Chinese executive directors speak up, regardless of the formal votes - because not many things are done in formal votes in those institutions - they're listened to because they're representing big and influential countries," he said. "And I think that's a good thing. And that's one reason why I've taken a different approach than some suggested and remain a good partner with China and India."
Zoellick says fighting theft of funds is also on his agenda.

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