Sobre a corrupção na África
TAKING IDA OUT OF THE WORLD BANK
Government representatives that fund the International Development Association (IDA) – the part of the World Bank that provides loans and grants to the world’s poorest countries – meet in Mozambique from 28 to 30 June. They will decide how much money they will give to IDA over the next three years, starting from 2008. Many of those governments may think that their money is put to good use by the World Bank to help ‘reduce poverty’. But that is not the case. The debate on ‘aid effectiveness’ has certainly alerted these governments that something is wrong with the ‘aid business’. But in the eyes of the World Bank, the culprits are ‘corrupt’ and ‘wasteful’ southern governments, especially in Africa!
But what the Bank doesn’t mention is that its policies have contributed to generating and even aggravating corruption and waste. In fact, the World Bank uses IDA loans to impose unfettered market mechanisms on African countries without due consideration for their economic and social situation and without any serious analysis of their impact. According to its own statistics, people living on less than one dollar a day have almost doubled in Africa between 1981 and 2001, jumping from 160 million to 340 million. And of the 50 countries classified as ‘least developed’ 34 are in Africa.
So, the World Bank is using IDA money, not to help ‘reduce poverty’, but to push policies that generate poverty on a massive scale. Trade liberalization, deregulation and privatization of State-owned enterprises and public services are the conditionalities associated with IDA loans. Even within the so-called ‘poverty reduction strategy’, these conditions top the criteria for eligibility. For instance, Senegal was forced to privatize in 2005 the groundnut processing company, SONACOS, the country’s largest industrial unit, at a very cheap price, in order to achieve the ‘completion point’ within the HIPC Initiative.
Most of these conditions are purely ideological and there is a tenuous link with the objective of promoting economic growth. For instance, Christian Aid has indicated that trade liberalization alone has cost Africa some $272 billion in 20 years. Another negative impact of trade liberalization is the deindustrialization of many African countries. Even education, health and essential services like water and not spared from privatisation. It is well-known that the Bank has imposed user fees in public hospitals in the name of ‘cost recovery’. The effects have been just devastating. According to the Bank, the average life expectancy at birth has declined from 48 years in 1981 to 46 years in 2001.
In return for all the sacrifices imposed African countries, what did the latter get? Very little. According to Bank officials, the average disbursement of loans to Africa is 20%! And for some countries, like Senegal, in 2005 it was even lower with a rate of 13%. In other words, the World Bank uses IDA money to make promises to African countries while the bulk of the money promised is withheld under the pretext that countries are ‘off track’ with the implementation of harsh and unacceptable conditions. This vicious circle explains, among others, why ‘aid’ cannot be ‘effective’!
It is obvious that the World Bank uses IDA not as a lending instrument genuinely dedicated to improving the lives of people in Africa, but to further impoverish African countries. Therefore, continuing to put IDA money into World Bank’s hands is to give its bureaucrats free rein to impose more harmful policies which violate the African people’s basic human rights, such as the right to education, food, health care and shelter. Furthermore, these policies violate democratic principles because they ignore representative institutions, like the national parliaments.
In the eyes of millions of Africans, the World Bank and the IMF have lost their credibility – even their legitimacy- because of their ideological bias and the disastrous impact of their policies. This is why, if most African civil society organizations and citizens had their wish, IDA would not remain within the World Bank group. Donors should take IDA out of the World Bank group and put it in the hands of the UNDP or another UN-controlled structure, with democratic and transparent decision-making processes in which African and other southern countries can have a real say on how the IDA money should be used and for what purpose.
We hope that governments which believe in democratic principles, in the defense of human rights, in policy ownership and in genuine partnership with Africa will heed our plea when they meet in Maputo, later this month for the IDA replenishment.
Demba Moussa Dembele
African Forum on Alternatives
Dakar (Senegal)
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