MEDIA ADVISORY
Friends of the Earth International
study: world bank trade strategy has not
adequately helped the poor
WASHINGTON DC, US, 23 March 2006 - One
month ahead of the World Bank's annual
meeting, Friends of the Earth International
draws attention to a key study critical of
the Bank's work on trade liberalization.
The study by the World Bank's Independent
Evaluation Group (IEG) was released on March
22 and concludes that the World Bank's
strategies on trade did not deliver on
employment and poverty reduction. In a press
release announcing the new report [1], the
IEG comments that the Bank "was overly
optimistic about the immediate and universal
benefits of more open trade."
"These findings confirm our daily
experience. Policies to open markets have
benefited the world's largest corporations,
but have a devastating impact on millions of
the world's poorest people," says Alberto
Villarreal of Friends of the Earth
Uruguay.
"World Bank policies have placed serious
constraints on the rights of governments and
citizens to protect the environment and
people at the national level, and on their
ability to control the activities of
transnational corporations," said David
Waskow of Friends of the Earth in the United
States.
Friends of the Earth International, the
world's largest grassroots environmental
federation, maintains that liberalized
international trade is leading to social
disruption, environmental damage and even
hunger, especially in developing countries.
Small-scale farmers are particularly
vulnerable to market opening pressures, and
often forced from their land when it is
converted to plantations or planted with
crops for export.[2]
"For decades now, thousands of farmers and
fisher folk have been on the streets
demanding that their livelihoods and families
be protected, but they have been ignored by
the World Bank. Instead, this institution has
allowed rich countries to pursue their own
trade interests at the expense of the poor
and the environment," added Alberto
Villarreal of Friends of the Earth
Uruguay.
The 270-page report analyzes the World
Bank's trade work from 1987 through 2004,
including lending and technical assistance.
It concludes that: "Trade-related projects
did not adequately attend to the poverty and
distributional outcomes."
"The World Bank should get its act
together and draw lessons from this review,
which is repeating calls from local
communities around the world. The World Bank
should stop imposing trade policies that
clearly fail to support the poor," according
to Janneke Bruil of Friends of the Earth
International.
The evaluation was carried out by the
Bank's Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), an
autonomous body reporting directly to the
Board of Executive Directors of the World
Bank that assesses the effectiveness of the
Bank's development efforts.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT FRIENDS OF
THE EARTH
In Washington DC, USA: David Waskow, + 1
202 492-4660
In Montevideo, Uruguay: Alberto Villarreal,
+598 995 24003
In Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Janneke
Bruil, +31 20 622 1369
NOTE TO EDITORS
[1] World Bank's Independent Evaluation
Group press release on the study is online:
http://www.worldbank.org/ieg/trade/docs/press_release_trade_evaluation.pdf
[2] See the report 'The tyranny of free
trade; wasted natural wealth and lost
livelihoods'online at:
www.foei.org/publications/pdfs/tyranny.pdf
>
|
