August 22, 2003—The World Bank confirmed yesterday that despite the attack against the UN headquarters in Baghdad last Tuesday, the Bank’s ongoing assessment of Iraq’s reconstruction and development needs would be completed as scheduled. The assessment of 14 different sectors will form the basis of discussion at an international donors conference in October.

"We have committed to the international community to do a needs assessment in connection with the reconstruction of Iraq and the transition of Iraq to a position of sustainable development," World Bank Iraq Country Director Joe Saba said in a press briefing held yesterday at World Bank headquarters. "We remain committed to completing that needs assessment on time, according to the schedule, and according to the needs originally determined. The fact that we took some efforts this week, in light of this rather murderous blast, to protect employees does not mean in any way that we have abandoned the purpose that we set out for in Iraq."

The Bank, which had 15 staff members in Baghdad at the time, including five Washington-based, nine local, and one international staff in charge of security, has temporarily moved its operations to Amman. One of the Bank’s employees, Dr. Alya Sousa, an Iraqi national and UN employee who was seconded to the Bank’s Baghdad office since July 2003, died in the blast.

"This tragedy will not shake the World Bank’s determination to help the people of Iraq," said World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn. "I met Alya, who was an extraordinary colleague, during my recent visit to Baghdad and we would like to extend our deepest sympathy to her family, friends, and Bank and UN colleagues."

Work is continuing on the needs assessment, launched in July 2003, from the Bank’s offices in Amman and Washington. To date, more than 25 World Bank staff have traveled to Iraq and taken part in the needs assessment process, which is proceeding in coordination with United Nations development agencies. The Bank and the UN are co-sponsoring an assessment of the reconstruction needs in a wide range of sectors, including health, education, agriculture, water supply and sanitation, economic management, and investment climate.

"We have completed most of the compilation of data information and coordination with other NGOs and donors in preparing to complete the assessment," said Saba. "Most of the background work we had set out to do has been done. In terms of data assessment, we have roughly completed 75 to 80 percent of the work. The remaining 20 percent of data collection we had already begun the process to obtain, and we have a large network of Iraqi consultants on the ground with whom we are still in contact and continue to work with."

The first draft of the needs assessment is scheduled for 1st of September, with the final version of the report due to be released prior to the Iraq donors meeting in Madrid on October 24th. Saba said he expected both deadlines would be met.

The assessment is being conducted in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Union (EU), and in close coordination with Iraqi experts at the technical level, a partnership Saba said was working well:

"Each of these agencies have different comparative advantages and tend to look at certain areas of the assessment in different ways. We tend to focus more on financial management, on planning and budgeting, on the areas of macro, state enterprises, private sector development and small and medium enterprises. With the IMF, we have been working on setting up a coherent budget and expenditure framework, which primarily entails ensuring well-functioning payment systems, so that a teacher can get paid and the local village can maintain its water pump. This is what people care about on a day to day."

Saba said that the assessment would take the form of a series of prioritizations, with the main concern being to enable Iraq to reach the Millennium Development Goals, so as to bring basic services to the population. The price of the needs, in order of priority, will subsequently be balanced against Iraq’s estimated revenue over the short-term. Thus, the report would not produce one final number for the Iraq reconstruction bill, but several, based on varying sets of options. These will serve as a baseline for the donors to determine at what level, how much and where they wish to contribute.

Saba concluded the briefing by saying that the Bank stood ready to return to Iraq when appropriate security arrangements to ensure the safety of staff could be made.

"It is not as if we’re unaccustomed to working in dangerous places, we have worked in areas of conflict before, but in the past, we weren’t specifically targeted," he said. "The shock at the moment to all of us is that this was very deliberate, it was very planned, it was very cowardly, and it was very murderous. This is specific targeting of what is ultimately an indefensible organization. We cannot reach a level of absolute security. By the nature of our job, we need to get out and test social indicators, as well budget indicators. We need to understand the social context of our work. Our job is not to hunker down into bunkers. It’s to be out there and work with our counterparts. Once we can do that, it will mean that it is safe enough."

World Bank Communications Director Gerard Rice and Iraq Country Director Joe Saba.

"We remain committed to completing that needs assessment on time, according to the schedule, and according to the needs originally determined," Saba said.

"This tragedy will not shake the World Bank’s determination to help the people of Iraq," said World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn.

"Our job is not to hunker down into bunkers. It’s to be out there and work with our counterparts," said Saba.