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World Bank pledges $3.5bn for international development

World Bank pledges $3.5bn for international development
By Joan Chirwa
Friday October 12, 2007 [04:00]

THE World Bank has pledged US$3.5 billion of its own resources to the International Development Agency (IDA), with Zambia set to benefit through grants and interest free loans. And World Bank Group president Robert Zoellick has said the Bank is also strengthening its work with countries on good governance and anti-corruption, as the foundation to improving development.

Zoellick announced in Washington on Wednesday that the World Bank would provide US$3.5 billion to the IDA, which provides grants and interest free loans for the 81 poorest countries, Zambia inclusive. This is more than double the US$1.5 billion the Bretton Woods institution pledged to the previous IDA replenishment in 2005.

And Zoellick challenged the world's developed countries to follow the Bank's lead and increase their support for the world's poorest people, especially in Africa and South and East Asia.

"I wanted all donors to know, in concrete terms, that the World Bank Group will put its money where its mouth is when it comes time to boosting IDA," Zoellick said. "Now we need the G-8 and other developed countries to translate their words from Summit declarations into serious numbers too.

Together, we must show that multilateralism can work much more effectively, not just in conference halls and communiqués, but in villages and teeming cities, for those most in need."

As an integral player in the multilateral economic system, Zoellick said, the Bank Group had an important role to play in advancing an inclusive and sustainable globalization.

He however noted that globalisation brings about grinding poverty and environmental damages which were a danger to society.

"The ones that suffer most are those who have the least to start with - indigenous peoples, women in developing countries, the rural poor, Africans, and their children," said Zoellick. "Inclusive globalisation is also a matter of self-interest. Poverty breeds instability, disease and devastation of common resources and the environment."

Labels: IDA, World Bank, ZOELLICK

posted by MrK @ 3:39 AM