World Bank breaking its promise

The World Bank has caused the displacement of 3.4 million people despite its vociferous campaign against harming humans and nature, a study by 50 journalists from 21 countries has revealed.

A report, in the US-based The Huffington Post, says four World Bank projects have led to the displacement of 84,408 people in Bangladesh alone.
  
The report, titled ‘How the World Bank breaks its promise to protect the poor’, says the implementation of projects funded by it has led to the displacement of 3.4 million people and the destruction of their livelihood in various countries over the past ten years.
 
The report has also revealed the repeated ‘failure’ of the projects, funded by the bank, to abide by its own guidelines to protect ordinary people.
 
The Huffington Post carried the report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on Thursday, before the bank’s spring meet gets underway in Washington DC.
 
The report, which has taken about a year to prepare, is said to be based on WB data and on interviews with those directly affected in countries such as Albania, Brazil, Ethiopia, Honduras, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Kenya, Kosovo, Nigeria, Peru, Serbia, South Sudan, and Uganda.
 
The investigation shows that, because of the World Bank, slum dwellers, marginal farmers, poor fishermen and indigenous people have lost their homes and land and have been alienated from their natural way of life.
 
“At times, all this has happened because of the use of force and violence”, says the report.
 
It says the WB has often not cared to find out whether anyone is being affected by its projects.
 
“As a matter of fact, it has not bothered to see what has lain in store for displaced people,” the report claims.
 
It says the WB has persisted with giving loans to oppressive regimes, making them believe that flouting of the guidelines would invite penalty.
 
Navin Rai was in charge of protecting the rights of indigenous people from 2000 to 2012.
 
He is reported to have said that, in many cases, a government taking a WB loan it not quite eager to follow the bank’s guidelines and the bank, in turn, is not very interested in making it fall in line.
 
The report says the WB and its associate, the International Finance Corporation, have continued giving loans to regimes and institutions accused of killings, torture and even rape.
 
On some cases, the loans have been given even after such charges being proved, it says.
 
Quoting WB officials, the report says that the Ethiopian government had siphoned off millions of dollars from a bank-aided project and used the money to carry out a massive eviction drive.  
 
It has been said that, between 2009 and 2013 the WB had given about $50bn as loans for projects that are extremely hazardous to society and the environment.
 
The ICIJ and The Huffington Post had drawn the attention of bank President Jim Young Kim to loopholes in the bank’s policy regarding the safeguarding of the interest of those affected.
 
He is reported to have responded by saying that the matter was being thoroughly scrutinised, and the findings were deeply worrying.
 
The goal of the WB, formed by the US and its allies after the World War II, was to help the economic recovery of poor, war-ravaged countries.
 
The bank, on an average, disbursed loans and grants amounting to $65 bn each year from the funds contributed by the donor countries for projects approved by them on the basis of votes.
 
The ‘safeguard policy’ pursued by the bank for over three decades says that no government can ask indigenous people to shift without giving them adequate notice.
 
People whose lands are acquired for big projects, such as dams or power plants, must be compensated and alternative sources of income should be arranged for them.
 
According to the WB, this policy framework has helped it create a more ‘humane’ and ‘democratic’ development model.
 
But the ICIJ and The Huffington Post report says the bank’s 221 projects in Asia have displaced 2,897,872 people; 417,363  people in Africa (136 projects); 26,262 in South America (31 projects); 5,524 in Europe (11 projects); 2,483 in the Oceania region (two projects); and 90 in island nations (one project).
 
The report says 2,721,858 people have been displaced in China, India, and Vietnam alone due to the WB’s callousness.