WASHINGTON, July 17, 2000 - As the Group of Eight prepares to meet in Okinawa, Japan, for a three-day summit (July 21-23), World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn has appealed to its leaders to ensure that the power of globalization is harnessed to reduce poverty and disease worldwide.
In a letter dispatched to all eight leaders, Wolfensohn writes that the primary challenge confronting the international community is to use the forces of the global economy to tackle poverty in the poorest countries in the world, many of them in Africa.
"There is much to be done if we are to ensure that all countries are included in the world economy, and that the poorest countries benefit from the process of globalization," said Wolfensohn. "A world in which the rich get richer while the poorest countries are left out can never be secure and stable. Despite a relatively benign short-term economic outlook, without further action the international development goals we have set for ourselves will not be met. Business as usual will not do. It will take more efforts by developing countries themselves, and also by the advanced countries through increased aid, debt relief, sharing of experience and access to markets."
With the issue of debt relief likely to feature prominently at the summit, Wolfensohn urges that "we need speed and flexibility in delivering debt relief and other assistance as quickly as possible to countries able to use it effectively."
On the basis of the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC), nine countries will have been approved for substantial debt relief by the time of the Okinawa summit. These countries¾Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Honduras, Mauritania, Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda-will receive relief amounting to more than US$15 billion. Of this total, the Bank will contribute some US$4.5 billion. Sixteen countries have been reviewed under the HIPC Initiative, for debt relief packages amounting to some US$25 billion.
Thanking the G-8 countries for their continuing strong backing for the HIPC initiative, Wolfensohn writes that difficult decisions will lie ahead in expanding the list of countries eligible for debt relief since many of them are still beset by conflict and have serious governance problems. Over and above debt relief, the world should not lose sight of the longer term objective, which is to work with all low-income countries to help them design and implement the high-quality reform programs, with stronger institutions and governance, needed for sustained development and poverty.
"We are working to implement the Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF)-an approach to country-led poverty reduction that we and the IMF-and increasingly other multilateral and bilateral donors as well-will use as a basis for our assistance. The Bank's particular mission and expertise is in helping countries adopt the structural and social policies that-combined with macroeconomic stability-are so crucial both to growth and to poverty reduction."
Global public action
In addition to asking world leaders to support the development prospects of developing countries, the World Bank President also calls for a number of global initiatives that would supplement national efforts in leading the fight against communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. Without such universal actions, it would be vastly more difficult to harness the potential benefits of globalization for developing countries.
"We believe that a major international effort on communicable disease control, especially for AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and childhood diseases, is a global public good that is now critical for successful poverty reduction strategies and for development more generally. The Bank continues to play a full part in this effort-by expanding the scale and flexibility of World Bank lending, by tackling disease prevention and control at the source and multi-sectorally, and by intensifying its engagement with governments to encourage strong nationally driven programs that Bank lending can then support."
For AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and immunization, the Bank intends to triple its commitment of concessional lending by the International Development Association (IDA) in FY01, aiming to boost annual commitments from the recent annual average level of $200 million (FY97-FY00) to between $600 and $700 million; in this regard, Wolfensohn says he is delighted at the IDA donors' recent agreement to commit at least $1 billion through these programs to help fight communicable diseases.
Commitment of World Bank (IBRD) lending for these areas is projected to expand threefold in FY01, from the recent annual average level of $70 million to over $200 million per annum. Following this major increase in activity over the next year, the Bank expects to maintain significantly higher levels of lending for communicable diseases, compared to the levels of recent years.
In addition to financing specific disease control and immunization programs, the Bank will increase its support for basic child health services, which are central to controlling communicable diseases in the long term. These efforts will require strong partnership among donor governments, the Bank and other multilateral agencies. The Bank will also attempt to increase its non-financial advisory help to client countries within the limits of its available resources.
Bridging the Digital Divide
Another global initiative urgently needed, Wolfensohn writes in his letter, is to bridge the digital divide between rich and poor countries so that everyone has access to the power of new technology and its ability to transform personal and national livelihoods. The World Bank could make a big impact in this area by using the new technologies to deliver knowledge to wherever it was needed, from schools and research institutes to hospitals and homes.
"Too many in developing countries have yet to cross the divide, which is widening and worsening. It is essential that we assist developing countries in establishing a structural internal framework in which information technology can flourish. We must work with them as they establish laws and regulations, as they establish a competitive framework and as they assure the lowest cost of access to educational institutions, research institutions and poor communities in urban and rural areas. Beyond the internal organization it is necessary to establish international linkages using radio satellites and land lines and to ensure that they have available mechanisms both to access information, to translate it into local languages, and to make it accessible and usable within the country."
The World Bank has taken a leading role in encouraging the creation of local solutions to technology problems with the creation of InfoDev (the Banks' Information for Development Program that promotes information and communication technologies through grants) where the shareholders are both the Bank and private sector participants. It has established direct communications through the African Virtual University, which we created and which is operating in 14 countries, as well as through the Partnership for Capacity Building in Africa.
The Bank has already linked 35,000 school children in 15 developing countries with partner schools in developed countries through our World Links Program, providing training and information exchange and joint projects between teachers and students. Linking the world's leading research institutions with local and regional research institutions in developing countries provides the possibility of Internet communication and joint research.
Another important Bank innovation which helps developing countries bridge the new technology divide is the Global Development Learning Network (GDLN). Linked through a web of high-speed communication technologies, such as interactive video, electronic classrooms, satellite and Internet links, GDLN members are part of a worldwide exchange of learning activities including courses, seminars and discussions on key development issues. These technologies allow people everywhere to share their know-how and experience, regardless of time-zones, distance or national boundaries. The Bank offers roughly 80 teaching courses each month to developing countries, via the GDLN Network, on topics as diverse as health reform, setting up social safety nets, devising tough anti-corruption strategies, and business journalism.
Global Development Gateway
The World Bank's major current initiative to help bridge the digital divide is the creation of a Global Development Gateway in collaboration with others in the public and private sectors and in civil society.
"This initiative builds on our own internal 'knowledge bank' and has, as its objective, the development of useful information on all aspects of development, the provision of information on projects being undertaken anywhere in the developing world, creation of private sector information exchange that will lead to investment, and a host of other initiatives which will make possible our dream of a world unified by information and knowledge," Wolfensohn writes.
"We believe that we can play a central role as an equal partner with others in building a framework for the development of a truly global development information system. There is nothing more important to breaking down the digital divide than this initiative which will provide a base for coordinating, planning and implementing knowledge-sharing efforts throughout the developing world."
Education
The World Bank will continue to push for a global consensus on the centrality of education for economic and social development and for poverty reduction. It will partner with others to support countries that are committed to achieving the Education for All goals much sooner than the 2015 timeline and will intensify its efforts to help countries identify priorities and finance and implement national action plans. It will leverage stronger partnerships on core topics such as improving girls' education and providing basic education for the poorest.
In the past decade, new annual lending, on average, was close to US$2 billion and the Bank is prepared to increase it by 50 percent in the coming years to assist countries in systemic educational reform and in particular universal primary education.
"I want to underscore that the World Bank is committed to working with its partners, including other donors, to ensure that no country with a credible, viable, and sustainable education plan will be unable to implement it for lack of external resources," writes Wolfensohn.