(Is a lack of security of tenure over property not the root cause?)
Despite an intensified campaign against poverty, World Bank programmes have failed to lift incomes in many poor countries over the past decade, leaving tens of millions of people suffering stagnating or declining living standards, according to a report by the bank’s autonomous assessment arm.
Among 25 poor countries probed in detail by the bank’s Independent Evaluation Group, only 11 experienced reductions in poverty from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, while 14 had the same or worsening rates over that term. The group said the sample was representative of the global picture.
“Achievement of sustained increases in per capita income, essential for poverty reduction, continues to elude a considerable number of countries,” the report declared, singling out programmes aimed at the rural poor as particularly ineffective:
In a statement distributed with the report, World Bank management rejected its assessment as “overly bleak,” arguing that the overall trend is improving in every region except Africa. Bank administrators noted that reducing poverty requires economic growth, something they said the world has been enjoying:
But the study found that growth has rarely been sustained, exposing the most vulnerable people the rural poor to volatile shifts in their economic fortunes. Per capita income rose continuously from 2000 to 2005 in only two in five of the countries that borrowed from the World Bank.
Source: Peter S. Goodman, The Persistently Poor; An Internal Report Criticizes World Bank’s Efforts on Poverty, Washington Post, December 8, 2006.
For text (subscription required): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/07/AR2006120700427.html
For more on International Issues: http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=26
FMF Policy Bulletin/ 12 December 2006
