As Wolfowitz Saga Nears Endgame, Campaigners Demand Meaningful Reform

May 8, 2007
by 50 Years Is Enough

As the World Bank’s Board of Directors takes further steps to censure World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz for granting a pay rise to his longtime partner, Shaha Riza, World Bank campaigners are demanding more than merely another U.S. replacement for Wolfowitz. Activists eager to see Wolfowitz out of the World Bank, will converge at the World Bank’s headquarters tomorrow at 12pm to bid a “fond farewell” to the beleaguered World Bank President.

“The Wolfowitz scandal is a symptom of a much deeper problem,” said Sameer Dossani of the 50 Years Is Enough Network. Referring to the “gentleman’s agreement” which allows the U.S. to appoint the head of the World Bank, while Europe appoints the head of the IMF, Dossani said “The head of the World Bank Group, ostensibly the most important position in development financing, should not be the unilateral decision of the U.S. If the World Bank has any hope of recovering from this ordeal, it must at least make some attempt at developing transparent and democratic procedures for hiring its own President.”

“The Bank’s record on poverty reduction is even worse than its record on transparency and democracy,” said Nunu Kidane of the Priority Africa Network. “For the past ten years, all we have heard from the World Bank’s public relations department is that it is leading the fight against poverty in Africa. This month-long crisis clearly shows that the World Bank marches to the tune of big, Northern creditors. Wolfowitz’s future is presently being negotiated by the U.S. and European Countries, with little or no input from countries in the Global South who are most affected by the Institution’s policies.”

“It’s important to remember that the World Bank and the IMF still tout an economic model that has been proven a failure,” said Ruth Castel-Branco of the 50 Years Is Enough Network. “World Bank sponsored privatization and liberalization policies have been a disaster in country after country. Those few countries that have experienced meaningful growth and a reduction in poverty rates – Thailand, Malaysia, Botswana, and Argentina, to name a few – are those countries that have broken with the dominant World Bank backed model. No matter who leads it, the World Bank must deal with its legacy of impoverishing millions through its pushing of failed neoliberal economic models.”

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