By Yinka Olusanya
Vanguard Daily (Lagos)December 4, 2000
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have absolved themselves of being responsible for the poverty condition of third world countries. Mr. James D. Wolfensohn, the chairman of World Bank Group was quoted in the IMF/World Bank journal as saying that the Brettonwoods institutions are not responsible for the misery in the Third World.
His words, "on the misery question, no, I do not think that the bank and the IMF are responsible for the misery in the world. Actually, the Bank and the IMF have done quite a lot to address the question of poverty and, in fact, to advance both governance and equity." "It is very difficult," he added, "to measure what the world would have been like without the Bank and the IMF."
Mr. Wolfensohn stated further that, "I am conscious of the criticism of some bank projects, but the overwhelming image I have is to having improved the human condition. It is thought that we were damaging the world, I would have long since stopped this job. I, like anyone else here, am actually trying to make things better.
On the position of debt relief for the poorer countries, Mr. Wolfensohn said, "there were high expectations for deeper debt-relief, but our own expectations were to advance the implementation of the second-round programme of the enhanced facilities. We are very hopeful that we will reach a target of 20 countries by the end of this year, at which point debt relief will be operative.
It would be recalled that in far away Prague, Chechoslovakia during the World Bank and IMF meetings, a senior official of the World Bank Group, Mrs. Iwejeala said that "among all other measures and policies approved by the World Bank and IMF, the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) was a failure, and a mistake that World Bank regretted of, most especially in Nigeria."
More Information on the World Bank
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C íŸ 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
