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World Bank refocuses agenda in fight against poverty

World Bank policymakers met in Washington yesterday to anchor agriculture at the center of their agenda in a major shift aimed at lifting billions of people out of poverty.

New bank president Robert Zoellick has pledged to boost the institution's lending to the farm sector after allowing it to decline in 1980s and 1990s.

Zoellick vows the bank will use an inclusive approach to fight poverty, hunger and disease, and last week unveiled a controversial proposal to allow private-sector business to help finance aid to poor countries.

"There is much more we can do to connect the `bottom billion' to the rest of the world," Zoellick said on Saturday, after attending a meeting of the IMF steering committee.

The twin institutions are holding their annual meetings in Washington through today.

"Inclusive development means greater voice for those most affected by our decisions," said the former US trade chief and Goldman Sachs executive, who took office in July after his predecessor was forced to resign in a favoritism scandal.

Globalization has created opportunities but "has not embraced all," he said. "Too many countries, especially in Africa, are expected to fall short of meeting many of the Millennium Development Goals" of halving the percentage of people living on less than US$1 a day by 2015.

The institution's annual World Development Report, released this week, acknowledged that bank lending to agriculture had declined from 1980 to 2000 but said its support for rural development had begun to pick up four years ago and would increase further. Commitments this year are expected to come to US$3.1 billion.

Nevertheless, while 75 percent of the world's poor live in rural areas "a mere 4.0 percent of official development assistance goes to agriculture in developing countries," the report said.

In sub-Saharan Africa furthermore, public spending on farming amounts to only 4 percent of total government expenditure.

An improvement in a country's GDP that is agriculture-driven is four times more effective in reducing poverty than is GDP growth originating in other sectors, the report said.

"We need to give agriculture more prominence across the board," Zoellick said in presenting the report on Thursday. "At the global level, countries must deliver on vital reforms such as cutting distorting subsidies and opening markets, while civil society groups, especially farmer organizations, need more say."

ActionAid, which is spearheading a campaign against hunger, denounced the report for perpetuating the "same market-led approach, which for the last 25 years has been a massive failure even by its [the bank's] own standards."
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