[A-List] World Bank scandals

["Michael Keaney" <michael011@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

As a list we have been remiss in our lack of coverage of this. The
anti-corruption crusader hoisted on his own petard is a nice story, but
the apparent influence of Opus Dei looks more substantial. - MK


Leak prompts fear over World Bank health policies

· Madagascan contraception targets deleted, critics say
· Managing director said to have links to Opus Dei

Sarah Boseley, health editor
Monday April 16, 2007
The Guardian

A key figure in the World Bank, said to have links to the Roman Catholic
sect Opus Dei, was accused yesterday of undermining its commitment to
the health of women by ordering the deletion of goals, targets and
policies relating to family planning.

Juan José Daboub, the bank's managing director, ordered staff to remove
all references to family planning from its country assistance programme
document for Madagascar. Mr Daboub is the former finance minister of El
Salvador and a member of the Arena party, which has close ties to the
Catholic church.

The Guardian understands from sources close to the Africa region that
specific targets relating to contraception were also deleted. The
original draft committed the bank to work to increase contraception
uptake from 14% as of 2004 to 20%. The final document contained no goal.

The British international development secretary, Hilary Benn, who has
strongly backed efforts to improve the reproductive health of women in
the developing world, said yesterday that he was very concerned. "If
true, they [the reports] are extraordinary. This would be inconsistent
with bank policy on reproductive health."

In the past, the World Bank has championed the sexual and reproductive
rights of women, which are considered by most in international
development as critical to their health, status and economic progress.
There are 75m unplanned pregnancies around the world each year, a third
of which end in unsafe abortions. The need for better services to enable
women to protect their health has been thrown into sharp relief by the
Aids epidemic.

Mr Daboub's intervention was revealed through a leaked email from the
country programme coordinator at the bank, Lilia Burunciuc, who warned
that the absence of family planning policies would be a problem, because
Madagascar had specifically asked for them.

She writes: "By the way, one of the requests received from the MD [Mr
Daboub] was to take out all references to family planning. We did that.
However, this is a potential problem for us as the upcoming Health Swap
[sector wide approach] includes family planning measures in response to
the government's strong request for help in this area ..."

Sources within the region are concerned that other health documents may
also have been tampered with. Health projects relating to Niger, Rwanda
and Ethiopia are all due to reach the board shortly. High-fertility
countries with Aids epidemics in Africa are particularly vulnerable to
restrictions in family planning services.

Worryingly, they say, the board which contains representatives from
governments including the UK, did not spot the changes to the Madagascar
strategy.

Family planning organisations such as the International Planned
Parenthood Federation (IPPF) are concerned that a new global health
strategy which is still in draft form may also ditch reproductive health
strategies. It also omits specific references to family planning.
Instead, it talks about education. "Bank population and reproductive
health policy advice ... will emphasise options for improving demand for
reproductive health advice and services by strengthening female
education, improving women's economic opportunities and reducing gender
disparities," it says.

Yesterday Mr Daboub said the bank's policies had not changed in any way.
A statement from the bank added: "Mr Daboub says he recognises that he
is the managing director of an institution that implements policies
approved by an international board of executive directors, and that his
job is to execute those policies, independently of what his personal
views on any particular issue may be."

Paul Wolfowitz, the bank's president, has also claimed there is no
change: "I want to make it clear, personally; I think reproductive
health is absolutely crucial to what I have said over and over again is
a major part of the development agenda."

*****

Sex, money and neocons

The World Bank must get rid of Wolfowitz if it wants to prioritise the
fight against poverty

Richard Adams
Saturday April 14, 2007
The Guardian

When George Bush picked Paul Wolfowitz as head of the World Bank, the
biggest fear was that the architect of the US invasion of Iraq would
turn the world's most important aid agency into a neocon arm of the
White House. The reality has been far worse: in two years Wolfowitz has
turned the bank into a rudderless, divided institution that is seeing
its credibility drain away.

The most obvious villains of this particular drama are Wolfowitz and his
small coterie of advisors. But in reality the sound haunting the bank's
executive board and their government masters is that of chickens coming
home to roost.

Back in 2005, when the Wolfowitz appointment was announced, there was a
brief flutter of mutiny on the part of the European nations that hold a
substantial number of the bank's purse strings. Yet they eventually
waved through the appointment with barely a flicker - being more
concerned with protecting the cosy agreement that allows Europe to pick
the head of the International Monetary Fund, while the US gets its
choice in the World Bank.

This is a shabby arrangement - and the appointment of Wolfowitz would
have been the ideal catalyst for the Europeans to end it. But they shied
away from the fight and now are suffering the consequences: a lame duck
president in the World Bank, appointed by a lame duck president in the
White House.

In spite of its gleaming headquarters and heavyweight staff - boasting
enough PhDs to stock several reputable economics departments - the bank
is a fragile organisation. It is only as powerful as the rich developed
governments that fund it allow it to be. That's why the controversy that
has engulfed Wolfowitz this week hurts the bank more than it does the
hammer of Iraq.

The affair involves preferential treatment afforded to Wolfowitz's
girlfriend, Shaha Riza, who worked at the bank long before her lover
received his sinecure from a grateful president. Bank rules forbid those
romantically involved to work together - a dubious rule, especially as
the bank has 10,000 staff, but a rule none the less. What happened next
is murky, with conflicting accounts from Wolfowitz and his advisors set
against those of other bank staff. But we now know - thanks to a smoking
gun memo - that Wolfowitz intervened to secure salary increases of 46%
for his girlfriend, dictating in precise detail the terms to be offered
to Riza on her secondment.

That Riza then went to work for Liz Cheney, the daughter of
vice-president Dick Cheney, only adds further piquancy. Concerning as it
does sex and money - a rare combination at the World Bank - the
controversy has transfixed Washington, and the calls for Wolfowitz's
resignation have come thudding in from sources as diverse as the bank's
own staff and the Financial Times.

Yet it could not have come at a worse time for the bank. It is in the
middle of its triennial funding round, where wealthy donor nations
replenish the bank's pot of resources for the world's poorest countries.
Wolfowitz's ability to go cap in hand for funds is surely impaired when
he is simultaneously trying to save his job. The real losers, in that
case, will be the world's poor.

The case against Wolfowitz does not rest solely on his generosity
towards his lover. Two other "Bush administration retreads" - to use
Wolfowitz's phrase - have received even more generous salaries, compared
with their thin experience in an institution where degrees are weighed
rather than displayed. Kevin Kellems - nicknamed "keeper of the comb" by
bank staff for his role in passing a comb to Wolfowitz in Fahrenheit
9/11 - receives $250,000 for his loyalty. The irony is that Wolfowitz's
signature policy since arriving at the World Bank has been a drive
against corruption - a controversial policy in the eyes of reputable aid
agencies, as tangential to the bank's real task of fighting poverty.

But even then, Wolfowitz has been accused of using its policies as a
veil for US-inspired actions, such as the rapid turnaround in treatment
of Uzbekistan by the bank, shortly after the former Soviet republic
expelled US troops from bases there. Even more disturbing evidence
emerged this week, of a bank director removing all references to family
planning policies from a draft strategy document. The evidence revealed
by the Government Accountability Project - a watchdog group that also
uncovered the pay increases awarded to Riza - contradicts a statement by
Wolfowitz that there had been no changes in the bank's policies on
promoting family planning.

After all this, will the European governments finally pluck up the
courage to rid themselves of Wolfowitz? They have already bottled this
decision once. They now have a opportunity to make amends - and should
seize it or risk letting the bank drift into irrelevance. 


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