Hi Cindy and All,
Excellent work. This is what I've been referring to
when I said more research and knowledge is needed to
make a real "critique" of aid. Now, here are some
comments with the intention of further openning the
discussión:
1. About conditionality (EURODAD report)
Certain conditions are good and necessary, such as
(a) country ownership, (2) enhanced Civil Society
participation and (3) social auditing and impact
measurement. Perhaps a better analysis would be
between the "old, traditional" conditions vs. new open
conditions.
The amount of conditions are not important because
they could be a product of a more fine-tuned poverty
reduction strategy. Honduras is considering a new
version of the PRS document simply because we have
progressed beyond those initial conditions. I'm sure
that when you count the conditions in the new one,
there will be more in number than before.
But Civil Society wants certain conditions imposed
aimed at guaranteeing that the funds go to the people
that need it most and not get lost in conditioned
hiring of foreign consultants when there are good
professionals locally or buying cars that come from X
country.
For instance, in Honduras we're entering a
presidential race and we want to make sure that no
matter what new government we get, the new and
improved poverty reduction strategy is fully
supported.
(2) Mbeki article
I get the impression that Mbeki is arguing more
from the perspective of private enterprise. The kind
of "aid" that Mbeki argues have only succeeded in
making the rich richer here in Honduras. I remind you
that we've just finished negotiating the Central
American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and there is
much opposition to it because we're going to start
getting dumpings of subsidized products and a lot of
small businesses are going to go broke when big
businesses start competing here.
You can't just open up trade barriers and suddenly
all problems disappear. Mbeki's statement that free
trade is the "only" kind of aid that is needed is
completely false. Today's developed nations used
trade barriers to protect their industry and look at
where they are now. Why do they now want poor
countries to take them down?
Only the rich in developing nations who want to get
even richer want that here. And the theory that
economic growth will "tricle-down" to the poor is
already been proved false.
(3) I have the IMF's study but haven't read it yet.
Somebody asked this question, though: If aid saves a
little girl's life, but she doesn't go on to become a
millionaire, was the aid a failure?
(4) Finally, about the 14 country pro poor growth
study, let me only say that there is a study of a 15th
country that can be added to that series. The 15th
country is Honduras and I'm currently reading it. The
pro poor growth theory of economic development is an
important contribution because in it, economy finally
takes into consideration the topic of inequality,
which is a major problem in poor countries and a great
source of social upheaval.
Sorry, I'm busy, gotta go. More later...
Jorge
--- Cindy Lemcke-Hoong <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> All,
> Below is the most recent newsletter from the
> European Network for Debt and Development (EURODAD).
> The content is related to this thread.
>
> Cindy
> ------------------
> The European Network for Debt and Development
> (EURODAD) believes that the World Bank must
> radically improve the way it designs and applies its
> conditions in order to make aid more effective in
> reducing poverty. New civil society research
> undertaken in 2005 has found that;
>
> · World Bank Conditions have risen
> not fallen in low income countries - Benin, for
> example, has moved from 58 conditions in its first
> Poverty Reduction Strategy Credits (PRSC) to 130
> conditions in its second PRSC
>
> · Country Ownership is actively not
> being respected by the Bank, which is continuing to
> impose controversial conditions like privatisation
> on low income countries even when these are not
> within countries nationally development poverty
> strategies. For example, condition to privatise
> health care services in Senegal and the condition to
> privatise water management in Guyana
>
> · Conditions are still not clearly
> linked to program objectives.
>
> The forthcoming 2005 World Bank Conditionality
> Review offers a unique opportunity for the Bank to
> outline a much-needed bold and ambitious reform
> agenda. Recent reforms by the World Bank on
> conditionality, including the new operational policy
> on Development lending, which calls for critical
> conditions only, greater transparency and more
> participation in setting conditions, do not go
> nearly far enough and are not being properly
> implemented
>
> Eurodad has sent a letter to all the Executive
> Directors of the World Bank, ahead of their board
> meeting on 21st July highlighting the current
> failures and calling for:
>
> · A cessation of all economic
> policy conditionality
>
> · A dramatic reduction in binding
> and non-binding conditions
>
> · More transparency, parliamentary
> oversight and CSO participation in Bank lending
> negotiations
>
> · Greater linkages between
> conditions and overall program objectives, including
> more use of independent poverty and social impact
> analysis
>
> · An urgent review of the World
> Banks Country Policy and Institutional Assessment
> Framework
>
> For full Eurodad letter:
> http://www.eurodad.org/articles/default.aspx?id=635
>
>
>
> NEWS: Aid Backlash Growing voices argue aid is not
> the answer
>
>
> In the run up to the G8 Summit with campaigners
> hoping for a political commitment to increase aid by
> the worlds richest nations, voices of discontent
> have been rising over the impact of aid on reducing
> poverty. The IMF has released two extensive research
> papers that suggest aid flows to poor countries have
> not led to higher growth rates, Moeletsi Mbeki,
> brother of South African President Thabo Mbeki and
> deputy chairman of the South African Institute of
> International Affairs has also issued a new book
> which is highly critical of aid and finally, African
> leaders attending the African Union Summit in Libya
> this week have also registered their discontent.
>
> The IMFs new studies, which took into account
> duration, type of donor and governance record of
> recipient, found aid did not boost growth. This
> conflicts with findings of an influential World Bank
> study five years ago that found aid boosted growth
> in countries with good policy environments. We need
> to be careful given the chequered history of aid,
> that we do not place more hopes on aid as an
> instrument of development than it is capable of
> delivering, the fund said in a recent article in
> the Financial Times ( Aid will not lift growth in
> Africa, June 29th). In the article, the author of
> the new reports, Raghuram Rajan, noted that aid
> needs to be more effective, but argued that this
> will mean more than just good governance It is not
> the case that all that matters is good governance,
> said Raghuram Rajan, We know far less about what
> makes aid work than the public or governments would
> like. By acting like we know all the answers raises
> false expectations.
>
> Moeletsi Mbeki, author of 'Perpetuating Poverty in
> sub-Saharan Africa' and brother of South African
> president Thabo Mbeki has also recently questioned
> the value of more aid to Africa. In an article
> originally published in the New Statesman (Aid must
> help people, not governments July 4th) Mbeki notes
> the negative political impact aid can have one of
> the unintended consequences of foreign aid is to
> make African governments even less accountable to
> their people because they do not need their taxes
> and therefore their consent. Mbeki goes on to
> argue that the real freedom Africans need is not
> just shows of democratic reform but real
> institutional reforms: property rights and the rule
> of law. Whilst, the real trade "justice" they need
> is free trade with each other, within their
> countries and with each other's countries, free of
> compulsory-purchase marketing boards, of customs
> barriers and of preferential licences. And finally,
> Mbeki notes that The real aid Africans need!
> from the
> West is free trade without tariff barriers and
> other protectionist distortions. The money value to
> Africans of lifting these subsidies would far exceed
> the amount they receive in sterile aid. Finally,
> Mbeki argues for economic and political conditions,
> noting that these may well draw accusations of
> interference in sovereign affairs, but that is just
> too bad.
>
> Leaders and senior officials of the 53-member
> African Union (AU) have also expressed some
> reservations about the role of aid. Opening the
> summit on Monday 4th, Muammar Gaddafi, President of
> Libya urged African leaders to not go begging to the
> rich nations, telling them to embrace self-reliance
> and reject conditional aid from the West. Gaddafi's
> message is unlikely to set the tone of the
> gathering, which is due to adopt a broadly
> favourable stance on the British-backed drive for
> more help for Africa to be presented to the G8
> summit on Wednesday and Thursday. However, it is
> likely that there will be some strong words on the
> need for greater aid effectiveness with the
> African Union communiqué due out this week likely to
> call for improvement in the quality of the aid so
> that it is really helpful to poor African people."
>
>
>
> Links:
>
> Financial Times, Aid will not lift growth in Africa
> (June 29th 2005):
>
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/68c254e8-e8d3-11d9-87ea-00000e2511c8.html
>
>
> IMF, Aid and Growth: What Does the Cross-Country
> Evidence Really Show?
>
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2005/wp05127.pdf
>
> IMF, What Undermines Aids Impact on Growth?
>
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2005/wp05126.pdf
>
> Moeletsi Mbeki, Aid must help people, not
> governments, New Statesman (July 4th):
> http://www.newstatesman.com/200507040004
> Reuters, Gaddafi urges self-reliance at Africa
> summit (4 Jul 2005):
> http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/B686258.htm
>
>
>
>
> REPORT: Joint Donor Study on Impact of Economic
> Growth on Poverty Reduction
> A new study, "Pro-Poor Growth in the 1990s: Lessons
> and Insights from 14 Countries," presents evidence
> that underscores the importance of promoting strong
> and sustained growth as part of any pro-poor growth
> strategy. It also demonstrates the need to implement
> policies that enhance the ability of poor households
> to participate in growth. The study is part of a
> work program sponsored by the Bank, Agence Française
> de Dévelopement, German Development Policy and the
> UK Department for International Development. It
> draws on 14 case studies that analyze patterns of
> growth in countries, and how they can be affected by
> specific policies and conditions. The studies
> include Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso,
> El
=== message truncated ===
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
_______________________________________________
DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list
[email protected]
http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide
To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE
in the body of the message.
