Wolfensohn promotes WB's new development policy<\/p>\n
BANDUNG (JP): Some 100 demonstrators who delayed World Bank
\npresident James D. Wolfensohn for about 20 minutes inside the
\nAkatiga office in Bandung on Friday afternoon believe the
\nmultilateral bank is a vestige of the corruption-infested,
\nauthoritarian rule of former president Soeharto.<\/p>\n
But Wolfensohn, despite his busy itinerary, came to the West
\nJava capital precisely to listen to the aspirations of poor
\npeople, to critics, and to convey a message that good governance
\nis now central to the World Bank's new development policy.<\/p>\n
The World Bank chief, accompanied by Minister of Settlement
\nand Regional Development Erna Witoelar, held a brainstorming
\ndiscussion for about two hours with representatives of non-
\ngovernmental organizations (NGOs) and student activists
\nimmediately after arrival on the Parahyangan train.<\/p>\n
\"I can get reports and read them at my hotel room in Jakarta,
\nbut I prefer talking to people, listen to their voices,\" said
\nWolfensohn in opening the discussion at the Akatiga NGO office.<\/p>\n
He said he had found during his visits to developing countries
\nover the past five years that poor people lacked a voice and had
\nno opportunity to speak up and be heard.<\/p>\n
That is why, he added, he has promoted within the World Bank a
\nnew development policy called comprehensive development framework
\n(CDF) that covers social, structural, human, institutional,
\nenvironmental, economic and financial aspects of development.<\/p>\n
From now on, according to Wolfensohn, World Bank lending
\nprograms should be based not only on consultations with the host
\ngovernment, as in the past, but also on partnership with civil
\nsociety elements, the private sector and other stakeholders and
\nexternal development partners.<\/p>\n
\"We are no longer oriented to project lending but to capacity
\nand institution building. We consider a loan only part of the
\nmeans in the overall development approach,\" he said in reply to
\nquestions from skeptics at the meeting.<\/p>\n
He added that poor people were adversely affected by
\ncorruption.<\/p>\n
According to Wolfensohn, development in a country is
\nfundamentally flawed and will not last even with the most sound
\nmacroeconomic management and good fiscal and monetary policy if
\nthat country does not have good governance.<\/p>\n
Most activists who got the opportunity to speak during the
\ndiscussion said they still doubted the World Bank's seriousness
\nin its new development philosophy, pointing out that the agency
\nis part of the global capitalist system.<\/p>\n
\"How can you promote accountability, when you yourself are not
\naccountable to anybody? How can you listen to our views when you
\nget impatient with a participatory development process?\" a
\nstudent activist retorted.<\/p>\n
Wolfensohn admitted that in the past it was extremely
\ndifficult for the World Bank to get its message across to the
\nIndonesian government.<\/p>\n
\"Sounding an alarm when the economy was growing 7 percent a
\nyear was a futile move,\" he said, referring to the situation
\nunder the Soeharto administration.<\/p>\n
He did not entirely dismiss accusations that the World Bank
\nhad been a source of corruption and loyal supporter of the
\nSoeharto regime.<\/p>\n
The World Bank, whose Jakarta office was set up in 1968 and is
\nnow one of the largest of its country offices overseas with 200
\nstaff members, was completely caught off guard by Indonesia's
\neconomic crisis that began in late 1997 with the crash of the
\nrupiah.<\/p>\n
Its annual report on Indonesia issued in May 1997, titled
\nSustaining high growth with equity, gave an optimistic assessment
\nof the country's economic prospects.<\/p>\n
Erna, who was herself an NGO activist before her appointment
\nto the Cabinet last October, admitted she was in the past one of
\nthe strongest critics of the World Bank.<\/p>\n
\"I myself took part in the demonstrations in Washington in
\n1994, which called for the dissolution of the World Bank,\" Erna
\nrecalled.<\/p>\n
When the World Bank celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1994, a
\nlively network of critics organized itself around the world with
\nthe provocative slogan of \"Fifty years is enough\".<\/p>\n
The World Bank listened politely to the worldwide criticism
\nand promised to consider people's complaints, but appeared to go
\non with business in the usual manner.<\/p>\n
Wolfensohn, who was appointed president of the bank in 1995
\nand was reappointed last year for a second term until 2005,
\napparently needs to work harder to promote the new development
\npolicy among the World Bank staff members themselves.<\/p>\n
Erna added, however, that the World Bank had begun changing
\nits approach to development, emphasizing partnership with all
\nelements of society.<\/p>\n
\"I notice the World Bank is now listening to people's voices,
\nto NGOs and no longer dictates its policy,\" Erna said.<\/p>\n
Wolfensohn conceded that the World Bank found it much easier
\nto work with the new government (under President Abdurrahman
\nWahid) since what the government is now striving to achieve is
\nwhat the World Bank has aspired to do.<\/p>\n
He acknowledged that the new approach to development the World
\nBank is promoting is much slower as the process requires a lot of
\nlistening to different views.<\/p>\n
\"But working out a program through such a comprehensive
\nconsultative process would be much more effective for ensuring
\nbroad participation,\" he added.<\/p>\n
But the \"Go to hell with your aid\" and \"Damn your project\"
\nbanners that greeted Wolfensohn when he and Erna exited the
\nAkatiga office and escaped inside a Kijang van to attend another
\nprogram speak volumes about the amount of convincing he needs to
\ndo to get his message across to poor people in developing
\ncountries.<\/p>",
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