World Bank Fully Endorses Anti-corruption Strategy

“World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz on Tuesday declared the bank's board of member countries had fully endorsed a controversial strategy for tackling corruption in developing countries… ‘We can say clearly that the board of directors unanimously endorsed the bank's new governance and anti-corruption strategy,’ Wolfowitz told reporters in a joint news conference with Germany's Executive Director, Eckhard Deutscher, who is also dean of the board… Wolfowitz also said the revised strategy would ensure the bank scaled up its engagement with watchdog grass-roots groups, parliamentarians and the media, while also working with the political leadership to root out corruption in all areas.” [Reuters]

 “The revised strategy backed by the board preserves Mr Wolfowitz’s emphasis on corruption and governance as central to development and poverty reduction… Developing countries also insisted upon and secured a heightened emphasis on what Mr Wolfowitz called the ‘supply side of corruption’ in the form of bribe-paying companies based in the industrialised world, and a commitment by the Bank to help make it easier to recover money stolen by corrupt officials and held in developed country banks…” [The Financial Times]

The New York Times notes: “…the World Bank committed itself Tuesday to a new strategy to combat corruption in its $20 billion annual loan program…   ‘I think we now have the framework that will help the bank achieve the main objective of a governance strategy, which is strengthening the ability to help the poor escape poverty,’ Mr. Wolfowitz told reporters after the board meeting. ‘The strategy is focused on broad principles to be applied in a consistent manner while remaining flexible to the needs of specific countries…’ Bank officials said that after extensive consultation, the document adopted Tuesday committed the Bank to remaining engaged with recipient countries, even when corruption forced the Bank to deal with independent groups in the country rather than with the government itself. On the other hand, they said the new strategy continues the Bank’s policy of not dealing with any group in a country if the leadership of that country objects.” [The New York Times]

AP writes: “The World Bank has revamped its strategy on governance and anti-corruption policies as part of its effort to help the world's poor escape poverty and to promote economic growth, Paul Wolfowitz, the president of the lending institution, said Tuesday…‘There was clear unanimity, no doubt about it,’ he said… He said Tuesday the Bank remained engaged in projects in countries like Congo and Liberia, which are both emerging from periods of civil strife without accountable government institutions to handle such projects as road-building.” [The Associated Press/Factiva

AFP adds that “… Details of the new campaign are yet to be fleshed out, but the strategy emphasizes the need to engage more with civil society, the private sector and the media in the World Bank's client countries….. ‘We have to get involved. But in getting involved, we bring money, but we also need to work with governments to improve governance,’ he [Wolfowitz] said… ‘We can't sit around and wait three or five years for the governance situation to be perfect. We have to produce some results and do it in a way that keeps track of where the money's going…’ Eckhard Deutscher, Germany's representative on the World Bank board, underscored ‘good relations’ between management and directors over the latest version of the corruption strategy. ‘Now, a lot of work still lies before the implementation. I must say I'm happy that we came to such a broad, common conclusion,’ the German official said.”   [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

Agencia EFE writes that “… In September, the Development Committee, a joint World Bank/International Monetary Fund forum gave a green light to Wolfowitz’s anticorruption plan requesting that consultations take place. The revised plan will be resubmitted to the Development Committee, according to Wolfowitz, who further stated that the implementation of the program will begin now [with a view to putting its provisions into practice when the Bank's fiscal year ends in June].” [Agencia EFE/Factiva]

EIB, World Bank Launch Carbon Fund

“The World Bank and the European Investment Bank joined forces on Tuesday to launch a carbon fund to help countries meet commitments under the Kyoto Protocol to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The Carbon Fund for Europe (CFE) will be worth EUR50 million ($66.42 million) with contributions from Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Belgium's Flemish region and Norway's Statkraft Carbon Invest AS. The fund will buy carbon credits from projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions under Kyoto's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation (JI) schemes. …” [Reuters/Factiva]

Xinhua reports that “…The CDM and JI are flexible mechanisms… , that, under strict conditions, allow industrialized countries to fulfill some of their greenhouse gas emission-reduction commitments through projects in the developing world and in countries with economies in transition. …” [Xinhua (China)/Factiva]  

AFP writes that “…In exchange for spending on emissions-reducing projects in emerging economies, the investors will receive so-called carbon credits as foreseen by the Kyoto Protocol. These credits can then either be sold on the European emissions trading market for a financial gain or be used against the investing countries' targets under the Kyoto Protocol for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. …”  [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

Agencia EFE notes that one of the Vice President’s of the EIB, Simon Brooks noted that ‘There is no magical solution for the problems of climate change, [therefore] in its place we need an ample series of initiatives.’ [Agencia EFE/Factiva]

Europolitics adds that “… The CFE is the tenth fund of this type created by the World Bank since 2000, which together total $2 billion. It is intended, on the one hand, to help EU member states to respect their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol and the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), and on the other to help developing countries by supporting sustainable development projects and the transfer of clean technologies. …” [Europolitics (Belgium)/Factiva]

World Water Council: Access To Clean Water Must Be Priority

“Leaders preparing for the World Water Forum in 2009 pleaded Tuesday for rich nations to make universal access to clean water a top priority, calling it one of the world's most pressing challenges.  ‘The lack of water or its poor quality causes 10 times more deaths than all the wars waged on this planet together,’ said Loic Fauchon, President of the World Water Council, speaking at the forum's initial preparatory meeting in Istanbul. Fauchon called for development of policies that relied on ‘man's genius and his capability to invent new solutions,’ saying it had become a moral imperative to place water at the center of the public and political debate. Fauchon suggested solutions would be found in technological development such as processes that might be able to tap water buried deep in the earth, separate water from salt, and transport fresh water over great distances. … Fauchon warned necessary actions wouldn't be without cost. … Hilmi Guler, Turkey's Minister of Energy and Water Issues, said the forum, which was devised to be the world's preeminent think-tank on water issues, would be an opportunity for countries to discuss common problems and work toward common and equitable solutions. …

Guler said he expected 20,000 participants at the 2009 meeting, a number that would match the last forum held in Mexico City in 2006. The forum is held every three years. …” [Dow Jones/Factiva]

In an interview with the Turkish Daily News, Fauchon warned that “… ‘Because the stories about global warming are more spectacular, it's true that the public started to forget about the water shortage problem.’ … According to Fauchon, climate change and water scarcity are two interrelated issues. The exact implications of climate evolution over the water resources are not well known. ‘However, what we know and what worries us a lot is that in 20 years time, there will be 60 mega cities of 10 million or more habitants about the size of Istanbul; most will be in poor countries with no financial or technical capacity to solve water and sanitation problems,’ warned Fauchon … . According to Fauchon there are thousands of ‘sanitation bombs’ that are ‘thrown below the table, waiting to explode in 10–20 years time.’ Without water, you have pollution, with pollution comes epidemics and when you have an epidemic that starts in a mega city you don't know where it will stop; warned Fauchon. Water shortage is also at the root of the immigration issue; an acute problem the world tries to tackle. ‘If you have no water, you have no energy, no energy, no development. We take the luggage and we leave. Think about one part of Africa immigrating to Europe,’ said the French water expert. …”   [Turkish Daily News/Factiva]

IN related news, AFP notes that “Five rivers in Asia serving over 870 million people are among the most threatened in the world, as dams, water extraction and climate change all take their toll, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said on Tuesday. The Yangtze, Salween-Nu, Indus, Ganges and Mekong-Lancang rivers make up half of the WWF's ‘top ten’ most threatened river basins, which ‘either already suffer most grievously under the weight of these threats or are bracing for the heaviest impacts,’ the organization said. … [A] WWF report [launched ahead of World Water Day] highlighted water extraction, dams, and climate change as the most wide-ranging threats that will have the most impact on people, though invasive species and pollution also pose serious problems. … [Director of WWF's Global Freshwater Program, Jamie Pittock] warned of ‘dire consequences’ if the situation is left unchecked, with increasing risk of conflict over access to water, as well as the spread of disease and a fall in nutrition standards. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

The Guardian adds that “… A wasteful attitude to water use and inadequate protection of rivers has destroyed ecosystems while threatening the livelihoods of people living in river basins. … Rivers are the world's main source of fresh water and, according to the WWF, almost half of the world's supply is currently being tapped. … The world's longest river, the Nile, has served as a source of drinking water for thousands of years but, according to the WWF, it will face scarcity by 2025. … The Rio Grande, which flows along the US-Mexican border and contains 69 fish species found nowhere else in the world, is threatened by excessive extraction of water, mainly for agriculture. … [Tom Le Quesne, freshwater policy officer at WWF-UK] said that problems highlighted by the WWF report have been man-made. Impending climate change will just make things worse. …” [The Guardian (UK)/Factiva]

Indonesia Plays Down Chance Of Doha G33 Breakthrough

“Indonesia does not expect a breakthrough on global free trade talks at a meeting of G33 countries on Wednesday, but developing nations aimed to ‘really push’ to make progress, the country's trade minister said.  Indonesia chairs the G33 group of developing countries and is hosting a meeting to discuss positions for the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) long-troubled Doha round of negotiations. … [Meanwhile,] Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said that it was key to reach a deal by June not just because of political timetables but because there were ‘already a lot of things that are concrete gains for developing countries that should not be thrown away.’ He also told reporters poorer countries needed to show leadership too. … The minister also warned in a statement read at the meeting that plans to expand the use of greener biofuels globally could be scuppered if poorer nations faced high tariff barriers. …” [Reuters/Factiva]

The Jakarta Post writes that “[Indonesian] President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono kicked off the G33 meeting Tuesday evening by urging the grouping of 46 developing countries to unite to help rectify imbalances in the world's trade regime, which he said were inflicted in part by the developed countries. … The meeting, which ends on Wednesday, is also being attended by representatives of the G20 countries, the G10, the Least Developed Countries Group, and the African, Caribbean and Pacific groupings. … His statement appear[ed to be] designed to show that the developing nations will not compromise their interests in the next stage of the Doha Agenda negotiations, which only resumed a month ago. …” [The Jakarta Post (Indonesia)/Factiva]

Dow Jones writes that “EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson warned Wednesday that key stumbling blocks to the successful conclusion of the WTO's Doha development round of trade talks must be resolved by the end of April. … Mandelson's comments echo those of WTO chief Pascal Lamy, who last month said he would delay scheduling a WTO Ministerial meeting to finalize a possible Doha deal until he is confident the ‘acrimony’ that undermined the previous Doha-related ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in July 2006 won't recur... Indonesia's Minister of Trade Mari Elka Pangestu indicated that the G33 is linking a return to multilateral negotiations to substantive reductions in perceived protectionist import barriers of developed countries. …” [Dow Jones/Factiva]

Iraqis To Assert More Control Over Foreign Aid, Donors Organization Says

“The fund representing foreign donors to Iraq will now include an Iraqi co-chairman who will help decide how to allocate aid money, an additional step towards getting Iraqis to assert more control over their own country's development, the outgoing fund chairman said Tuesday.  Ali Baban, Iraq's minister of planning, will serve as co-chairman of the International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq (IRFFI), a body created by the World Bank and the United Nations, said Michael Bell, outgoing chairman of the donor committee. ‘The purpose of this is to enhance still further the role of Iraq in the development of that government,’ Bell said. He also said the fund would place a secretary in Iraq for the first time, to allow for closer cooperation between the Iraqis and their international donors. Baban had pushed for more authority in administering foreign reconstruction funds on the first day of the international donors meeting, which began on Monday in Istanbul. …” [The Associated Press/Factiva]

Anadolu Agency further notes that “… Following the two-day meeting … Baban and IRFFI President Michael Bell held a news conference. Bell said that Canada handed over presidency of the Donor Committee to Iraq and Italy during the meeting. He said that they decided to establish the IRFFI Secretariat in Baghdad with the support of the United Nations and the World Bank to provide communication and dialogue between the committee and the Iraqi government. …” [Anadolu Agency (Turkey)/Factiva]

Briefly Noted…

Environmentalists have written to the World Bank asking it to re-inspect Uganda's Bujagali Power Project, a move likely to cause further construction delays escalating the country's already acute power crisis. According to a letter by the National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE) quoted by The Daily Monitor on Tuesday, the assessment of the power project is “based on flawed assumptions and data that have little or no bearing to the current situation and therefore are not an adequate basis for approval of the project.” [Xinhua (China)/Factiva]

Cyclone Indlala became the 12th cyclone of the season to slam into Madagascar last Thursday. The National Office for the Management of Risks and Catastrophes said that 37 people were dead and 12 still missing after the cyclone. Some 16,000 people were made homeless - in addition to the 283,000 who had lost their homes in earlier storms. [The Associated Press/Factiva]

Talks between Argentina and the Paris Club of creditor nations on restructuring the country's debt must be held under the auspices of the International Monetary Fund, the German Finance Ministry said on Tuesday. [Reuters/Factiva]

China’s revamped postal ­savings system on Tuesday opened for business as the country’s fifth biggest bank, pledging to improve its reach in rural areas where financial services and capital are scarce. The launch of the China Postal Savings Bank ­followed years of delay and dispute over how to reform the sprawling postal bureau, which at the end of last year held Rmb1,600 billion ($207 billion) in deposits through more than 36,000 branches. [The Financial Times (UK)]

Armenia is the only country in South Caucasus continuing substantial economic reformation, World Bank Lead Economist Saumya Mitra said Tuesday in Yerevan as he presented a World Bank report on efforts to maintain stable economic growth. He said that reformation launched a decade ago are now at due level in Armenia. [ARKA - News (Armenia)/Factiva]

The Turkish Treasury said on Wednesday it had agreed with the International Monetary Fund on setting a timetable for meeting social security reform targets. It also said that in ongoing IMF discussions about its $10 billion stand-by accord steps were agreed on keeping health spending in line with 2007 targets. Turkey delayed a social security reform package until July 1 after a constitutional court veto. A government official told Reuters on Monday the IMF team visiting Turkey had urged Ankara not to postpone the reform further. [Reuters/Factiva]

Despite the international embargo on aid to the Palestinian Authority since Hamas came to power a year ago, significantly more aid was delivered to the Palestinians in 2006 than in 2005, according to official figures from the UN, US, EU and IMF. Instead of going to the Palestinian Authority, much of the money was given directly to individuals or through independent agencies like the World Food Program. The International Monetary Fund and the United Nations say the Palestinians received $1.2 billion in aid and budgetary support in 2006, about $300 per capita, compared with $1 billion in 2005. [The New York Times/Factiva]

The year-long boycott of the Palestinian Authority by the west is coming to an end, with the US and the EU moving towards establishing contacts with independent members of the new government of national unity. Western officials still rule out meetings with ministers from Hamas, which the EU and the US classify as a terrorist group. But contacts with other government officials are set to go ahead and the EU may soon discuss resuming direct funding for the Palestinian Authority. [The Financial Times (UK)]

The top UN envoy to Afghanistan said Tuesday the international community must step up efforts to help develop the war-ravaged country, improve security and eradicate the drug trade in order to counter a Taliban resurgence. Tom Koenigs, the UN's special representative to Afghanistan, told an open meeting of the UN Security Council that reconstruction projects and basic services should be expanded throughout Afghanistan and more attention should be paid to the "inextricable link between development and security." [Dow Jones/Factiva]