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SECTION A TALK
The World Bank is one of the major channels through which development aid is passed from industrial west to the poor and developing nations of the world. Its scale of operations is vast, which is why its lending program exceeds 7 billion a year, and its work force numbers about 4500. In the last decade important changes have taken place in the size of the bank’s operations and in the emphasis of its lending policies. What immediately strikes anyone looking at the lending figures over the last 10 years is the tremendous expansion in the bank’s loan program. This has increased from 1 billion to nearly 7 billion. The figure includes hard loans, which are made at the current rate of interest, and soft loans, which are allocated to poor countries at concessionary rates, and usually channel led through the bank’s affiliate—the International Development Association.
In deciding the emphasis of its lending policy, the bank has had to take into account the population explosion which is occuring in many poor countries of the world. It is a fact that the fertility rate of the poor countries is often very high. This is one of the main reasons for these countries remaining poor. Unfortunately, wide-ranging country section programs do not usually reduce this r ate because this was a strong and deeply rooted tradition among people in these countries to have big families. What the bank discovered was that there was a link between economic and social development on the one hand, and reduction of fertility rate on the other. Thus by improving basic health services, by introducing better nutrition, by increasing literacy, and by promoting more even income distribution in a poor country, a lower and more acceptable fertility rate will be achieved. This advanced thinking persuaded the bank to change its overall lending strategy, where previously it concentrated on the big infrastructure project s, such as dams, roads and bridges. It begun to switch to projects which directly improve the basic services of the country. There was a shift, if you like, from building dams to digging water holes to provide clear water.
A second reason for the change of approach was that the bank has learned a big lesson from projects financed in the 1960s. Many of its major capital investment had scarcely touched the lives of urban and rural poor, nor have they created much employment. The project did not have the trigger-down effect they have in industrialized countries. Instead the huge dams, steel-mills, and so on were left as monuments to themselves. This redirection of its lending has meant that the bank has tended to support labour intensive activities, rather than capita l intensive ones. Both rural and urban areas, there is a better chance in the first case, that its funds will benefit the bottom 40% of the country’s population.
The bank is also looking for ways of stimulating the growth of the small businesses in many developing countries since this would create employment opportunities for people with lower incomes. Being such a big, obvious target, the bank has often come under fire. For example, its officials have been taken to task for u sing Concord supersonic aircraft so frequently, about 500 times in one year. Also, the large growth of the organization’s personnel has not pleased some critic s . A more substantial criticism has concerned the bank’s policy of setting annual target for lending to specified countries. This could lead to the deterioration in quality of loans, some say. One former bank official has said, rather than encourage growth for its own sake, the bank should begin to think of itself less as a foreign aid agency and more of a financial deal-maker, combining official wit h the private resources for specific purposes.
Finally, some people maintain that the impact of the projects funded by the bank has been modest. When one looks around the world at regions or countries that have successfully transformed to industrial status, it seems that one should be aware of over-estimating the bank’s impact. Take Hong Kong for example. Its changes have come about as a result of trade offensive. The purpose has been to flood western market with low price goods made by capitalist methods of production. The example seems to indicate that some regions can prosper without the bank’s aid as well.
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