STWR - Share The World's Resources

There is good and bad to the news that Britain surpassed the United States for the first time ever in donations to the World Bank's unit to combat world poverty.

24th Dec 07 - Editorial, International Herald Tribune

This should help dispel the notion that the bank's International Development Association is an arm of the U.S. Treasury doing Washington's will around the world. The more depressing side to the news is that the United States - with an economy five times the size of Britain's - is doing far less than it could and should to help the world's poorest countries.

Despite steep declines in poverty in China and other developing countries, world poverty is much deeper than was previously thought, according to new World Bank estimates. The bank had estimated that economic output per person in Congo amounted to about $2 a day in 2005, one of the lowest in the world. It is 72 cents in the bank's recalculation. The new estimates shaved those numbers in Bangladesh to $3.50 a day from $5.60.

The International Development Association is the single largest source of donations for basic social services in the world's poorest countries, financing projects in everything from education and health to public administration and roads. The $25.1 billion in new pledges that the World Bank announced this month was a record, 42 percent higher than what it got in the previous round in 2005.

The generosity was an endorsement of the new head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, who has championed the development association's cause. Not only was Britain's contribution of $4.2 billion about 60 percent higher, in dollar terms, than its pledge during the last round, six countries, including China, pledged money for the first time. The United States' pledge of $3.7 billion was also 30 percent higher than its previous commitment, but still $500 million less than Britain's.

The United States can partly blame the disparity on the declining value of the dollar versus the pound. But the fact remains that, no matter what Americans may think, the United States has long lagged behind other donors when it comes to doling out foreign assistance.

While President George W. Bush has increased American official foreign assistance, it is still paltry: about 0.2 percent of the economy - and some 50 percent less, proportionally, than Britain's and less than one-fourth the level of Sweden's and Norway's. Moreover, only about half of America's foreign aid is devoted to programs aimed at alleviating poverty and promoting development.

The latest World Bank pledges are good news for poor countries.

They show that developed nations are aware that they need to do more to assist those left behind by globalization.

But they are also a reminder that the United States needs to be doing a lot more. It is the right thing to do. And it is the best way to help poor countries develop and avoid becoming failed states or breeding grounds for terrorism.

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