The evolution of the policies of WB is the next. First of all the country develop strategies to reduce poverty and help to the economic development. Secondly the project continues through of a stage of evaluation, financiation and identification. Then the WB knows if the proyect will be good evaluating it economically, financially, socially and environmentally. Finally the Bank evaluates the goals and failures of the project.
In this essay the principal question is about the policies. They take charge of the third stage, the economic, financial, social and environmental evaluation.
The WB try to develop different topics that the LCDs have to improve. For example, the Agricultural and Rural development, the Justice, the fight against AIDS, the improvement in quality of life of children and women, the big problem of the Water in these days, to finish with the poverty, to achieve a sustainable development, to help in topics such as nutrition, health and a sustainable level of population. Besides a development of infraestructures, transport, trade, urban development and a very important point, the improvement in education.
These are the principles of the WB for achieving the final goals in the well development of LCDs:
- “Development strategies should be comprehensive and shaped by a long-term vision,
- Development goals and strategies should be "owned" by the country, based on local stakeholder participation in shaping them,
- Countries receiving assistance should lead the management and coordination of aid programs through stakeholder partnerships, and
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Development performance should be evaluated through measurable results on the ground, in order to adjust the strategy to outcomes and a changing world.” ()
However I am going to talk about the reality of these policies. There are a lot of projects of World Bank . For example in 2004, countries in Europe like Bosnia and Herzegovina in basic health and Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro for the improvement in private sectors. Of course we have the typical LCDs in Africa such as Uganda with the development of local governments, or in India with projects of water supply and construction of highways. In America countries like Brazil with disease surveillance and control project, in Peru with the indegenous and afro-peruvians people development. Argentina, Mexico, Colombia has been taking part in one of the projects of the last year too. Actually a lot of countries were helped through the WB strategies according with the datas offered by the webpage of WB.
Terribly in many years the most important catastrophe has been the Tsunami in Indian Ocean the last month. WB has reacted inmediately. The president has promised US$250 million for the recontruction of more devastated areas. Emergency credits and immediate assistance for countries like Indonesia, Maldives and Sri Lanka. This amount is for the next six months while the bank evaluates all the damages. The experts of WB are working with other oficial agencies and the affected governments evaluating the impact of Tsunami for the next years.
Critics to the World Bank
But all of it is according with the version of World Bank. However we can do many asks, does all the amounts of money finalise the persecuted targets?, or why does some LCDs continue with big problems in spite of the strategies of WB?, or does all these amounts of money to reach the whole finality?, or why does some countries have more power in the decisions of the Bank than others? and why all the decisions require `the yes´ of the United States?
The questions produced about the correct work of the WB have been based in macroeconomic conditions and the criterion assigning resources when it has gived loans.
Besides formers World Bank workers like J. Stiglitz, Nobel Prize in economics in 2001, and G. Saitoti give an idea of the serious problems of the organization. “The idea of allowing developing countries to choose their best path for development is not welcomed by the World Bank. “Experimentalists” like Kanbur and Stiglitz, who believe that governments can set their own path and pace to the market, both ended up going back to their cozy academia. (New York Times)”. ().
Saitoti ex vice-president of WB critics it authority in these lines, “The immediate former Vice President, Prof George Saitoti, said development structures prescribed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the 1980s failed because they were imposed on Africans and not properly negotiated in a spirit of partnership. Such prescriptions, he said, were accepted without a sense of ownership and tended to expose more people to poverty instead of reducing poverty.” ()
As a matter of fact if you explorer a little in Internet you can find a lot of organization web pages again the policies of World Bank. We can see in the television manifestations in the principal capitals usually again the WB and the IMF. All these organizations claim a change in the character of WB. They acusse to WB of to be an institution born for defending only capitalist and global interests. They claim more transparency and responsability in It decisions and a clear determination for resolving the environmental problems. One of the most important critics to WB is that only represents economic interests.
Conclusion and personal opinion
Personally on the one hand I think that institutions like World Bank, IMF, and so on must to exist. However on the other hand I am very agree with the critics.
From my point of view the WB has follow a liberal position sice It was born. I think that this organization has been directed by political and economic forces of the most rich countries. As a result of that the rich countries have searched more own interests than interests for developing the poorest countries.
Exceptional economists like J. Stiglitz maintain this point of view. The efforts of Wb has to be bigger and with more transparency. Countries like United States can not to force to other countries to follow its economic interests. They don´t want to know what are the principal problems of the LCDs.
In spite of that the WB is necessary. The LCDs are needing assistance and economical helps. For instance the catastrophe of the last tsunami. What could happen if these institutions not exist? The WB can coordinate the helps rapidly because has workers in all the world. Besides has a big value like coordinator between countries.
Bibliography:
World Bank and India; Author: C.P. Bhambhri ,year of edition 1980.
http://www.worldbank.org/