Talking World Bank blues

By Derek MacCuish

The young gentleman from Ghana sat directly opposite the man from the World Bank at the conference table, and asked why the World Bank doesn't engage Ghanaian expertise in its water projects. He said they opposed the privatization of water, but wanted to find ways to improve the inefficient system they have. The problem is that the World Bank is forcing the sale of the water system as a condition of debt relief and other assistance, and the only possible buyers are foreign corporations.

Why go to outside people, he asked. They could use the talent to be found within Ghana, and benefit from local knowledge.

The World Bank official's response? He described how, in the 1960s, the French brought their engineers from Paris into Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire and built the best water supply system in Africa. He left it to us to draw our own conclusions.

The next day, in a discussion about Third World debt, another World Bank official said that maintaining a certain level of indebtedness was a good thing, meaning that it helped in managing a country's economy.

In a two hour meeting on the debt crisis attended by dozens of NGO representatives, another official responded to one speaker after another with a smile and a look of understanding, saying that the points raised were certainly interesting, and that we should have a good discussion about it – some other time.

Welcome to the World Bank consultations with civil society that have become part of its Annual Meetings ritual. Always polite, frequently dismaying, and once in a great while helpful, these discussions take place in the days prior to the World Bank's meetings. Activists of all stripes converge on Washington, lobbying for debt relief, transparency and information disclosure, and against privatization and oil and mining projects.

I was there in late September for the Social Justice Committee and the Halifax Initiative Coalition, as I have often been before, spending several days in back–to–back discussions on everything from mining operations in Peru to the privatization of peanuts in Senegal.

Many meetings are with the World Bank and IMF staff, but an equal number are with partners from around the world, and these are where the inspiration and hope are to be found.

They include people like the doctor from India who is fighting the privatization of health care because it robs the poor of basic service, the activist from Tanzania who is facing the double burden of pushing for debt relief and against government corruption, and the environmentalist from Nicaragua who wants Northern NGOs to join the struggle against the Plan Puebla Panama.

The Social Justice Committee will be adapting its advocacy and education activities to respond to ongoing shifts in global dynamics. We have begun to place a greater emphasis on the conditions attached to debt relief, especially privatisation, deregulation and cuts to public service spending, and we are expanding our work with partners around the world to ensure that we contribute in a meaningful way to the struggle for social and economic justice.

This includes pushing for information, transparency of process, and the accountability of the financial institutions, but it mainly means aiming for the empowerment of affected communities.