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 21st 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.
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