These Millennium Development Goals- 1

In my considered opinion, if the World Bank is currently helping to fight poverty in low-income countries, it is because the World Bank played a dominant role in entrenching this poverty in the first place. Working on the premise that development meant industrialization as has happened in Europe and North America, the World Bank sought to replicate this “development” in low- income countries by providing loans for huge capital projects that were meant to improve economies and reduce poverty. It didn’t occur to the protagonists of this development model that development had a cultural component, that life in the low-income countries ( LICs) that they sought to develop was, and is different from life in Europe and North America, and that no development can occur without a vibrant health and social sector. Almost all the countries that received these loans defaulted on their payment and during the 1980s, the World Bank entered these countries to collect or renegotiate these loans and the conditions they attached lead to the structural adjustment programmes- currency devaluation, reduction in government spending especially on health and the social sector, reduction of tax on high earners, lower tariffs on imports, and increased free trade. Thus, while Europe and North America had public social and health interventions for the poor, that was lost in the LICs thanks to the World Bank.

It seems to me that the World Bank would rather forget that period of its history. It is glossed over in its website, and even Ruger (2005) did no bother to acknowledge the negative effects World Bank policies of the 1980s had on LICs. Heavy criticism of that approach, new development paradigms, and an expansion and diversification of policy actors and funders has led the World Bank to re-position itself and its LIC poverty eradication efforts. A look at some of the World Bank’s activities in Nigeria in recent years could help us appreciate this radical change in strategy. Nigeria’s current Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) focuses improved governance, non-oil growth, and human development. The key partners in the CPS are the World Bank Group, African Development Bank, USAID (US Government), and DFID (UK Government). As part of the CPS, the World Bank has provided the Nigerian Government loans to support development activities ranging from the improvement of the power sector to the youth employment and social support This indeed is a radical shift for the World Bank from the powerful, sole financier of capital projects in the 80s to the development agency of the 21^st century collaborating with other agencies and working with host country governments to plan together, and support programs that the country really needs including health and social services.

Can low-income countries take advantage of this opportunity?

Ruger, J. (2005) ‘The Changing Role of the World Bank in Global Health.’ Americal Journal of Public Health, 95(1): 60-70.