The World Bank is to blame for the people of southern Sudan having to wait years for donors' funding for development. Shame on them. In an interview with Sudan Radio Service in Khartoum, EU Special Representative to Sudan Pekka Haavisto said European states have fulfilled their Oslo pledges, but the money has not been released because of World Bank bureaucracy. Full story ST 19 Jan 2007.
Note, news reports from a few years ago said the $4.5 billion pledged would be tied to Darfur peace being agreed. So it looks like World Bank strings can be pulled and delayed to aid international diplomatic pressure on Sudan.
Here's a thought, what if South Sudan votes to break away and take its oil with it, and fighting breaks out again ... what's the point in investing $4.5b on development that might end up being destroyed. Sudanese people are their own worst enemy.
It is kind of strange that, the World bank is still bugged down with her bureaucracy. I thought that, with the appointment of Paul Wolfowizt as her New boss things were going to change. However, I am also certain that, poor Wolfowizt may be having a tough time to change the old communist style of work at the World bank. The sad thing is that, people in Sudan and South Sudan in particular are suffering.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've been told the real problem has been the refusal of the World Bank to deploy senior people to Juba to run this MDTF fund. Every decision on funding a project has to be relayed to regional centres and then to World Bank headquarters. Not surprising that it's been so slow to disburse money. The only developments in Juba at the moment seem to ones directly funded by the government of southern Sudan... that's if you exclude the extremely plush Joint Donor Office which the donors have built themselves... easily the most stylish construction in southern Sudan. Interesting priority.
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