World Bank Ignores Its Own Advice

According to the attached article by Nadia Martinez, the World Bank's energy lending policies are benefiting the giants of the energy industry rather than providing assistance to struggling economies. In 2000, former Indonesian environment minister, Emil Salim was appointed by the World Bank's president to review the World Bank's lending to the energy industry. Although Salim and his team found that the bank's support of the energy industry was not doing much to reduce economic hardships in developing nations, the World Bank delayed actions and, for the most part, ignored the recommendations of the team. A major component of the recommendations was that the World Bank should do a better job of monitoring the money gained from bank financed energy projects. The money simply was not being used for the basic needs of the people the investment of the bank was intended to help. The Institute for Policy Studies' research suggests that large oil companies, such as Shell and ExxonMobile, are the main beneficiaries of World Bank fossil-fuel projects and that 82 percent of the oil from the bank financed energy projects was supplying the United States and Europe. This defeats one of the World Bank's own arguments defending their actions which was that people in developing countries need energy. It does not appear that much of the energy derived from World Bank lending is reaching the intended recipients. Perhaps this author has a biased or slanted perspective of the World Bank and has written a one-sided argument. However, if there is any truth in the article, the bank and its 184 members should take a closer look at the ethical ramifications of its behavior and the mission of the institution.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0816/p09s01-coop.html