World Bank News

World Bank Praises Forward-Looking Agenda For Afghanistan

US$9 annually for every Afghan will provide basic health services over next seven years

Kabul March 24: World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn today congratulated the Government of Afghanistan on the release of a report outlining a comprehensive development agenda for the next seven years, a plan designed to lift the living conditions of all citizens as their nation emerges from conflict.

Mr. Wolfensohn said the Afghan Government’s latest report, Securing Afghanistan's Future: Accomplishments and the Strategic Path Forward, sets out the needs of the country for the next seven years “clearly and realistically”.

“Their targets are ambitious but achievable,” he said. “We in the World Bank remain committed to working with the Government and its donor partners towards these noble and important goals. This framework, developed in partnership with the international community, provides a clear direction as we move forward. At the upcoming meeting in Berlin, I am confident all Afghanistan's partners will, like us, support this important document: after all, the future of Afghanistan's citizens is the future of us all in an interconnected world. We cannot find our global balance if we leave significant component parts like Afghanistan behind.”

The Government report, prepared in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations Development Program, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan and the World Bank, sets out a comprehensive framework for the country’s development. The report goes beyond economic and human development issues such as health, education, infrastructure and private sector development, and also, for the first time, integrates issues related to security, justice, counter-narcotics efforts and human rights. The report outlines costs for 7 years to support a 12-year investment program.

The costs of the seven-year program laid out in the report total US$27.5 billion. Within this figure are plans for achieving universal primary education for girls and boys, and for the provision of a basic package of health services which could reach almost the entire population for just US$9 a person annually – a vital goal in a country where the maternal mortality rate is among the highest in the world.

The plan also addresses the needs of the poor and vulnerable, including Afghanistan’s many widows and disabled, with employment programs costing just US$3 a day per person.

The US$27 billion price tag for the next seven years includes programs designed to address the needs of Afghanistan’s citizens and help create opportunities for them which could lift the country to a per capita annual income of about US$500 over the next seven years. At this level Afghanistan would still be a poor nation but a nation whose citizens could begin to see a hopeful path forward to improving their livelihoods. Significantly, over US$7.5 billion of the total is needed for security, a cost not integrated into earlier assessments, and without which Afghanistan’s future would remain compromised and undermined by forces opposed to the nation’s progress. The report argues that investments in security would allow a gradual phasing out of the approximately US$13 billion currently spent annually by the international community on the Coalition and ISAF operations in Afghanistan.

While forward-looking, the report also notes the many achievements accomplished over the last two years in Afghanistan. “The Government should be commended for the impressive progress made in the reconstruction of Afghanistan,” said Wolfensohn. “In a very short space of time they have articulated a clear development framework, taken ownership of their development agenda with a profound conviction and rapidly brought about meaningful and visible change. This is testament to the very hard work of many in both Government and their partners in the international community. But a huge amount remains to be done and Afghanistan must continue to be a major focus of the international community.”

Since April 2002, the World Bank has committed over half a billion dollars to development projects in Afghanistan. Of this US$282 million is in grants and the remainder in interest-free loans. The projects are helping to meet urgent needs by providing jobs, supporting and empowering communities, improving roads, increasing the power supply, cleaning up waste, repairing schools and improving health services.

“The World Bank is committed to a long-term role in Afghanistan,” said Praful Patel, Vice President for the South Asia Region of the World Bank. “We welcome this new framework from the Government as a clear strategy to address poverty and build an effective, accountable state in Afghanistan and we look forward to working with them and with our partners in the international community to continue to move forward and implement the ambitious program laid out in this groundbreaking document.”

A two-day conference of the international community in Berlin beginning March 31 will review the broad plans contained in Securing Afghanistan’s Future. Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai and delegates from the international community will also examine the security and political progress of the country as essential components of Afghanistan’s reemergence as a nation following decades of conflict. On April 2, the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund -- a fund of over US$500 million with contributions from 24 countries -- will be reviewed. -Keralamonitor.com

Middle East: World Bank Announces Global Learning Conference

Development experiences from four countries in Middle East and North Africa to be showcased

Washington Mar 23: As part of a global learning process that aims to step up efforts in reducing poverty by assessing best practices and sharing valuable knowledge among developing countries, officials from the World Bank and the Government of China today announced a conference to be held in Shanghai next May 25-27. The World Bank, along with its partners, is sponsoring this conference because it is critical to "unlock" knowledge in order to expand or "scale-up" development results across regions and countries. For the first time developing country practitioners and policymakers from around the world will share their expertise about what works, what doesn't, and why, analyzing 70 cases of poverty reduction, and identifying key success factors throughout those efforts.

In the Middle East and North Africa region, case studies are being drawn from Egypt, Iran, Morocco and Yemen where efforts to address the needs of poor communities in health, education, microfinance and rural infrastructure have yielded concrete results. The case study of Egypt, for example, demonstrates how girls' school enrollment in rural areas increased in the late 1990s as a result of government efforts to build schools for girls in remote areas and raise local communities' awareness about the benefits of girls' education.

The main goals of the Conference are to uncover the economic, social, and governance components that enabled some countries to reduce poverty on a large scale; to share these lessons across regions and countries; and to disseminate them widely to policymakers, practitioners, and researchers.

"This first global South-South exchange of development expertise and experience is expected to change our way of doing business. We are calling on developing country experts to identify solutions that can travel," says World Bank President, James D. Wolfensohn. "We've had many good years of development experience, but to meet the MDGs, to not fall behind in the struggle, we need to accelerate results. This is the first comprehensive look at what works, what doesn't, and why."

This highly interactive process of knowledge exchange focuses on analyzing more than 70 case studies which are expected to shed light on some common ingredients of development success. The cases are being presented and discussed through 20 multi-country interactive videoconferences, on-line dialogues, and 10 field visits to project sites in Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Turkey, Uganda, and Yemen.

The field visit to Yemen took place earlier this month in which local and international development practitioners toured projects supported by the Social Fund for Development-a leading development agency in a country where nearly half of the 18.8 million people live in poverty. During the three-day learning event, development practitioners from countries like Japan, Nicaragua, Bangladesh and Morocco had a first-hand glimpse of how the Social Fund mechanism adopted by the Government of Yemen since 1997 has been successful in delivering basic services to the poor with the participation of local communities.

The Conference in Shanghai is expected to bring some 600 participants together around a series of case studies illustrating successful and not so successful examples, providing high visibility to approaches that really worked in reducing poverty on a large scale within various economic, social, and institutional contexts. -Keralamonitor.com

South Asia Features 11 Cases in Global Learning Process for Poverty Reduction Conference

Beijing March 23: The World Bank and the Government of China announced today the global learning process leading up to a conference about poverty reduction to be held next May in China. The South Asia Region will feature 11 case studies at the Shanghai poverty conference, aimed at sharing knowledge and learning from both successful and less successful attempts to reduce poverty in all its dimensions.

The World Bank, in partnership with other multilateral and bilateral donors, is sponsoring the conference, with the Chinese Government hosting it in Shanghai, from May 25-27, 2004.
"More than half the people in developing countries-2.8 billion-live in poverty, on less than $2 a day. How can we possibly achieve the Millennium Development Goal of cutting this number in half by the year 2015, without large-scale solutions that can be widely reproduced?" points out World Bank President, James D. Wolfensohn, from headquarters in Washington D.C.

The main objective of the learning process and conference is to uncover the economic, social, and governance components that enabled countries to achieve poverty-reducing development results on a large scale; share these lessons across regions and countries; and disseminate them widely to policymakers, practitioners, and researchers. This process is now known as the Global Learning Process.

In South Asia the case studies are being drawn from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. South Asia also hosted two high level delegations for field-visits, in India and in Bangladesh. The case studies are broadly arranged under two main categories known to impact poverty reduction: social inclusion and investment climate (see box).

The learning process leading up to the Conference in Shanghai is being prepared through a series of interactive videoconferences, online dialogues, and site visits that started last December, and will continue on through April. This interactive process includes:

More than 70 cases representing most economic and social sectors will form the backbone of the global exchanges. Eleven case studies are being contributed by South Asia
Site visits to eleven project sites in several countries will complement the cases and add a human dimension through interviews and dialogues with experts, stakeholders, and other central actors. In South Asia, visits in India and Bangladesh are planned for February.
Eight online discussions will be held in parallel with the videoconferences to broaden the dialogue and give access to thousands of practitioners who may not attend the videoconferences and the conference in Shanghai.
To ensure a rich multilateral exchange of knowledge and broad participation by donors, the World Bank and the Chinese government have engaged with many external partners to develop the Global Learning Process and Conference. Those partners include: Governments, civil society groups, U.N. agencies, multilateral development institutions, bilateral aid agencies, and regional development banks.

The Conference in Shanghai will bring some 600 participants together around a series of success stories in development, providing high visibility to approaches that have been effective in poverty reduction. The participants will share their insights with peers from other developing and developed countries about what worked, what did not, and why. The proceedings will be available over the Web through video streaming. -Keralamonitor.com