The World Bank just released its annual report, World Development Indicators, which focuses on the ongoing poverty that continues to afflict a substantial number of people in our world. But the best bet for alleviating poverty may be for developing nations to ignore the World Bank altogether.
First, the indicators. Summarized by the BBC, among other things revealed by the report:
- 1.2 billion people live on less than $1/day
- 10 million children under five die annually from preventable diseases
- More than 113 million children do not attend school
- 500,000 women die annually as a result of complications from pregnancy and childbirth
Of course the situation throughout the world — even in the worst areas of Africa and Asia — still represents a substantial improvement over the early part of the 20th century, but how should countries go forward to increase living standards?
The World Bank’s answer, not surprisingly, is that developing countries should more closely follow the World Bank’s advice. But so far the World Bank has yet to demonstrate that it understands what causes poverty in the developing world, much less the best solution to the problem.
After all some of the poorest areas of the world, say India for example, have been flooded with aid assistance attached to programs put together by World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and other agencies, all pretty much for nought. Since 1951, for example, India has received about $55 billion dollars in foreign aid, and yet up to 40 percent of its population still suffers from abject poverty. Many countries in Africa who accepted aid from the World Bank or IMF actually saw their per capita incomes decline after going along with “structural adjustments” prescribed by donor agencies.
A lot of the recent anti-globalization rhetoric within the developed countries is way off base, but the notion that the World Bank and IMF do little in the long run to help alleviate global poverty is more than vindicated by the evidence. Developing countries should just say no to such “aid.”
Source:
World Bank’s plea for poorest. David Schepp and Kevin Anderson, The BBC, April 29, 2001.