Parliamentarians Review IDA's Impact and the Parliament's Role in Niger

Niamey, Niger - On the eve of the closing of IDA replenishment negotiations, Members of Parliament (MPs) from Belgium, Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, France, Haiti, Ireland, Malawi, Morocco, Poland, Portugal, Senegal and the European Parliament visited Niger from December 2-6, 2007 to foster dialogue with local authorities and MPs, learn about the challenges and successes around the implementation of the country's poverty reduction programs, citizens' participation, and donor harmonization in Niger.

The visit, which is part of the Parliamentarians in the Field Program, was sponsored by the Finnish government and organized by the Bank's country office in Niamey and the Paris based External Affairs parliamentary unit, in partnership with the Parliamentarian Network of the World Bank (PNoWB), which also hosted the visit.

Discussions underscore need for greater involvement of legislators

Under the leadership of Honorable Mohamed Bazoum, Vice President of the National Assembly and head of PNoWB Niger, the Niger chapter of the PNoWB hosted a welcoming dinner meeting attended by a delegation of some 25 MPs from Niger, and the international delegation of MPs and World Bank officials. "In the next four days, our mission as elected representatives from this country and abroad is to assess the World Bank's activities and impact in Niger," but also the role of our national parliament and exchange best practices; we are a poor country that is willing to learn from others to embark in the long road to development" said the Chair in his opening remarks.

"Keeping parliament in the picture brings about greater mutual understanding, ownership and commitment to our development work," said Ousmane Diagana, World Bank country manager for Niger, in a briefing session on the first day of the meeting during which he shared his insights on the country's political economy and gave an overview of the World Bank's support to the country. Diagana highlighted the emphasis the Bank puts on the need to increase public voice and build capacity, accountability and participation.  "It is crucial that MPs from donor and recipient countries see for themselves IDA's impact on poverty alleviation at this important stage of the IDA-15 replenishment exercise."

Meeting with Niger's Parliamentarians

Following the briefing session on the World Bank portfolio, Bazoum made a vibrant introduction on the country's political and historical landscape. In an open debate with the representative of the Finance Committee of the Parliament, members of the committee praised the government for its major achievements in development but also raised several issues of concern, including the need to strengthen governance, fight corruption further as well as to address problems of education and natural resource management. The Finance committee composed of MPs both from the majority and opposition highlighted that it was its responsibility to question the government budget by meaningfully exercising its oversight role and acting in favor of citizens' voice.

The visiting MPs suggested that a robust donor support to education and agriculture development could become a key factor contributing effective economic independence of the continent. "Let us learn from the Asia economic miracle and apply in the continent. We do not need to reinvent the wheel", concluded the Indian MP, who urged donor countries and the World Bank to promote steadfast policies and actions to tackle bottlenecks hindering agriculture development in Africa, as means to create the necessary economic surplus, key for economic development of the continent.

Other salient themes and messages included the need for a continued support to human development in order to address the challenge of population growth, capacity gaps and combat effectively the scourge of diseases including malaria and HIV/AIDS; the need to support efforts towards good governance as means to promote social justice, by securing that benefits of economic growth trickle down to the poor; and a continued support to infrastructure development, including water, energy, roads, railways and ports.

Country Ownership, Donor Harmonization, PRSP, Voice and Participation

These have also been the main themes of the discussion session during all other meetings throughout the visit. Further, the visit included in-depth discussions with Niger's major stakeholders, including government officials, civil society, representatives from the donor community and the private sector.

In a keynote address to the delegates, Malla Ari, Niger's PRSP coordinator highlighted the strategic themes of the country's poverty reduction strategy. MPs from Niger complained that they had not been consulted at the early stage of design of the strategy and requested that their input be sought from the start and not only at implementation time.

Mohamed Lamine Zeine, Niger's Finance Minister in a dinner with delegates made a plea for IDA. He also underscored his support in favor of greater parliamentary involvement in the country's loans and budget negotiations.

"Provide us with the fishing rod, not your fish"

Niger's Head of State Mamadou Tandia hosted a meeting where he addressed the delegates. Welcoming The World Bank and PNoWB initiative President Tandia used the occasion to urge the World Bank and its overseers to move away from project financing and provide a larger share of development assistance through direct budget support: "We count on the World Bank, the country's major development player for leading other donors and helping us own our country's development through enhancing direct support to our programs aligned with our development priorities and strategies".

Delegates also met with prominent members of Niger's civil society. The meeting gathered together an array of national NGOs, and opinion leaders, including representatives of media groups, and served to review aspects related with civic engagement, women's rights' including better representation of women in the decision-making process, and participation in planning and monitoring the PRSP process.

Finally, delegates met for about two hours with Development Partners to discuss donor coordination and harmonization challenges for the country. "There needs to be a cultural revolution in the way we assist African countries "pleaded Portuguese MP Renato Leal who insisted on the need for a paradigm shift in relations between donors and African leaders.

Human Development (Health, Education) Agriculture, Water Management, Decentralization Topped the Program of Visits in the Field

The delegates traveled for one full day in the province of Tillabery where they visited several projects and held talks with beneficiaries, local authorities as well as the Governor of the province.

A visit to an innovative onion farm preservation business owned by the brothers Wankoye closed the cycle of field visits. It was a unique illustration of the paramount role of the private sector in fostering the country's development efforts and contributing to its economic growth. 

Finally, the visit was brought to closure with a press conference widely attended by local and international media.

All of the participants agreed that the field visit to Niger improved their understanding of what the Bank is doing and of the context in which we are working "It is important for us to report back to our own parliaments on the effectiveness of aid delivery" said Dominic Hannigan, MP (Ireland).  "I will now be more questioning of my own government's policy on aid and development and encouraging more aid flows to developing countries through the World Bank" added Jérome Lambert, MP, France.

They also remarked on the "depth of the challenges facing the World Bank on the ground".  This visit had provided "exceptional insights" into the broader challenges facing countries in sub-Saharan Africa said Belgian MP Procureur.

• More on the World Bank work in Niger: http://www.worldbank.org/niger
• The World Bank and Parliamentarians: http://www.worldbank.org/parliamentarians
• The Parliamentary Network on the World Bank (PNoWB): http://www.pnowb.org/

Following the successful session on "Aid Architecture and IDA impact" organized during the Annual Conference of the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank (PNoWB) in Cape Town in March 2007, EXT Parliamentary Unit has dedicated most of its activities and resources over the last months of 2007  to build suport from parliamentarians for a successful IDA replenishment. Among the activities organized were field visits to the following IDA countries to make the case of strong IDA results on the ground :Mozambique (July 2007), Haiti (September 2007), Cambodia (November 2007) and Niger (December 2007).