World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz hopes the United States will be a leader, not a follower, when it comes to committing new funds for the world's poorest countries in negotiations of the bank's 40 biggest donors starting in Paris next week.
In an interview with Reuters ahead of a four-country African tour starting on Friday, Wolfowitz said he also hoped for new money from emerging lenders like rich oil-producing countries. The World Bank passes the hat around to rich countries every three years for its International Development Agency, or IDA, which is the globe's biggest lender to impoverished nations.
The bulk of IDA's $9.1 billion annual lending for development projects goes to countries in Africa and South Asia, including India, Afghanistan and Pakistan. This time, the negotiations are likely to be tough given a general belt-tightening throughout the rich world and commitments by the principle donor, the United States, to a war on terror.
The IDA is especially in need of a good dose of generosity since the Group of Eight industrialised countries agreed in 2005 to cancel the debts of 19 of the Bank's poorest borrowers, which would leave the facility with an income shortfall unless donors keep their promises of additional funding.
A smaller IDA would mean less money for poor countries and would also reduce the pot of cash for potential new recipients. In 2005, donors pledged $18 billion in new contributions.
"What I would hope is that some of the donors whose shares have been slipping, including the United States, would do more," said Wolfowitz. "To be fair, the US didn't lower their contribution, it's just that others increased theirs more."
"The new donors tend to do their things bilaterally on their own and I think some of the more traditional donors say everyone should play by the same rules. Well, one way to have that is to have a strong multinational organisation that is helping to set the rules for everybody," he added.
The United States and others have voiced concern that African countries whose debts have been written off may be taking on excessive new burdens due to a burst of lending by countries including China and India.
FOCUS ON WOLFOWITZ Representatives of donor countries in Washington say privately that Wolfowitz himself will be a determining factor in how much donors are willing to give to the bank.
Some donors have clashed with Wolfowitz, the Pentagon's former deputy defence secretary, on issues like how to position the bank to tackle corruption. But Wolfowitz said it would be a mistake and hurt the poor if donors' decisions were because of him.
"I would hope that everyone will keep their eyes on the fact that this is not about me or any other individual," Wolfowitz said. "It is really about an institution with a long-term commitment to serving the poor and we're making decisions that are going to affect the viability of the World Bank," he added. Wolfowitz emphasised that the talks were an opportunity to strengthen the IDA, aid effectiveness in general, and to reward good performing countries.
"I really do believe that quite a significant number of very poor countries, particularly in Africa are showing a very new kind of determination to move forward and to make use of the resources made available to them and ...that is in everybody's interest," he said.
He said some donors had expressed a desire to do more for so-called fragile states, which refer to those coming out of conflict such Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo or Afghanistan, while others were pushing for increased funding for regional infrastructure projects.
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