Donor governments are meeting in Brussels, Belgium this week to complete the 16th replenishment of the World Bank’s International Development Agency (IDA).
IDA -– known as the World Bank’s “fund for the poorest” -– is one of the largest development financiers in Africa and the world’s least developed countries. Historically, Africa has received more of IDA’s funding than any other region, at around 50 percent. IDA funds are delivered through grants and interest-free, long-term loans.
These meetings will conclude IDA’s last replenishment before 2015 — so, the commitments made to IDA will be critical in helping the world’s poorest countries mobilize the funds needed to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa by 2015. In past decade, IDA immunized 310 million children, provided access to water and sanitation for more than 177 million people and brought better education to more than 100 million children each year. With strong commitments from donor countries, IDA estimates that it can immunize 200 million more children, give access to improved water sources to 80 million more people and train and recruit more than two million more teachers.
Mikiko Imai Ollison is a former policy manager at ONE. She currently leads a team at the World Bank Group that gathers data for the “trading across border” indicator, one of the nine indicators of the “ease of Doing Business” measure and is one of the authors of the Doing Business 2011 report.
Doing Business 2011 is the eighth in a series of annual reports that benchmark the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it around the world. A vibrant private sector, with firms making investments, creating jobs and improving productivity, promotes growth and expands opportunities for the poor.
A regulatory environment where new entrants with drive and good ideas — regardless of their gender or ethnic origin — can start their own business and where firms can invest and grow is essential for the private sector to prosper. That’s where the Doing Business report comes in. The report and related data-rich website present quantitative indicators on business regulation and the protection of property rights for 183 economies around the world.
A strong private sector is often a precursor for economic stability in a country, and accurately gauging the health of that indicator just became much more streamlined. Last Thursday, the World Bank Group released “Doing Business 2011: Making a Difference for Entrepreneurs,” an annual panoramic look at private sector development and business regulation for domestic firms across 183 countries.
The report analyzes data collected from June 2009 to May 2010 and ranks economies based on nine measurable areas: ease of starting a business, paying taxes, trading across borders, registering property, dealing with construction permits, getting credit, closing a business, enforcing contracts and protecting investors.
This past weekend, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) held their annual meetings in Washington, D.C., to discuss their work on a wide range of global economic issues including poverty reduction, economic development and international finance. Coming on the heels of the UN Summit and amid negotiations for replenishing the International Development Association (IDA), these meetings gave the Bank and the IMF a chance to discuss their reform efforts and work to recover countries from the financial crisis.
Some critics of the World Bank have focused on the disproportionate amount of voting power that the United States and Western European countries have compared to the rest of the world. India, China and Brazil in particular have argued that the voting procedures of the World Bank members do not accurately represent the world economy. Yesterday, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) ended their annual spring meeting by announcing “historic” and unexpected changes. For the first time in its history, the World Bank took steps to redistribute voting power while at the same time asking for a capital increase.
The first change that came from the meetings was an agreement by member states to increase the World Bank’s lending resources by $86 billion. This is the first capital increase the bank has made in nearly 20 years, and it comes at a critical time. Because of it, the World Bank will be able to uphold its current agreements and continue lending money, in spite of the setbacks of the economic crisis.
The other significant change is the redistribution of voting power among member states, giving more power to developing countries. This redistribution increased the power of developing countries by three percent, to over 47% of the total power shared by member states. China’s influence in particular increased among member states as it was promoted to third among shareholders, behind the United States and Japan and ahead of Germany. India’s influence also increased to 7th, while Brazil, Russia, and Turkey were given more power as well. Many Western European countries who have traditionally dominated international finance, such as the UK, Canada, and France saw their influence decline due to the redistribution.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick endorsed the changes by saying that, “the shift in voting power is crucial for the Bank’s legitimacy. It recognizes that we need to consign outdated concepts like ‘Third World’ to the history books. He continued, “Today, the world is moving towards a fast new evolving, multipolar world economy.” These changes represent a turning point in the distribution of power within the World Bank. The promotion of developing countries and the reallocation of power from traditional leaders show that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are successfully changing their policies and structures in order to more accurately represent the evolving world economy.
Today the World Bank announced a new initiative to offer free access to “more than 2,000 financial, business, health, economic and human development statistics”.
The data– which had previously only been made available to paying subscribers– is compiled at data.worldbank.org/. There’s a wealth of information here, available in English, Spanish, French, and Arabic.
The World Bank just issued a press release announcing their intentions to waive Haiti’s remaining debt to it– approximately $38 million– for 5 years, with a note that they are at the same time “working to find a way forward to cancel the remaining debt.”
We’ll have more on this soon. You can read the full statement here.
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