Global Policy Forum

By Anna Willard

The World Bank, facing calls from U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill to better account for the billions of dollars each year spent trying to reduce poverty, has proposed stepping up measuring the success of its projects.

The paper was subject to a lively discussion among shareholders at the bank's executive board last week as several of the poorer shareholders, particularly those in Africa, fear extra burdens on them, diverting funds away from real efforts to help the world's poor. "The enhanced focus on results represents a natural next step in the ongoing efforts to improve the effectiveness of aid," the bank's report said, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.

The paper is expected to be revised to take into account comments from the board members before it is discussed by finance ministers at the bank's annual meetings at the end of this month. The bank said the effort to better measure development must start with developing countries by providing data and relevant information to show how projects are working. The bank is preparing an information package to help countries do this.

And donors -- from development banks, to charities and governments -- must improve coordination on projects. "What we are proposing is much better coordination among donors and a greater focus on tracking results on the ground," said Caroline Anstey, World Bank spokeswoman. "There are over 400,000 development projects being undertaken by governments, international organizations and nongovernmental organizations but at the moment there is very little coordination." Anstey highlights the case of Tanzania, where a few years ago it received over 1000 missions a year from different donors and had to fill out 2,400 quarterly reports.

Nongovernmental organizations cautiously welcomed the report. "It's saying all the right things. Whether or not they can walk the talk it's going to remain to be seen," said Rick Rowden, of RESULTS educational fund, a U.S.-based lobby group. He worries that the report may just be a sop to the bank's largest shareholder, the United States.

O'Neill has been reluctant to sign off on new aid unless it can be proved it makes a difference. "I don't want to be part of the next false hope that doesn't produce results, just more spending," the Treasury chief said.

It is not yet clear how the United States plans to use its Millennium Challenge Account, a new multibillion dollar fund. The handouts will be closely tied to measurements due to be drawn up by O'Neill and Secretary of State Colin Powell, but they have not said how far they will coordinate with organizations like the bank.

"Post Monterrey everyone is talking about a new partnership to achieve millennium development goals," said Oliver Buston, policy adviser for the charity Oxfam. "But at the moment it is a one sided partnership with donors asking countries to jump through a lot of hoops but failing to fulfill their own pledges to improve the quality and quantity of the aid they're giving."

The United Nations' millennium development goals aim to cut world poverty in half by 2015 and were endorsed at a conference attended by world leaders in Monterrey, Mexico, earlier this year.

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