World Bank 'Development' Driving—Not Solving—Inequality and Poverty

[xchrom]

https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/04/09-4

The thing about “international development” is that it’s a bit of a murky, catch-all term. It’s got a good feel to it – if you’re involved in international development, you’re more often than not seen as one of the good guys. It’s swirling about in a bucket of meaning alongside “foreign aid” and “disaster relief”. It’s about “doing good”, which is about helping people improve their situation, right? It could be helping people escape from the ruins of an earthquake or the ruins of economic mismanagement but that’s what “international development” is generally understood to be about.

How would you feel, then, if you could be convinced that “international development” was a term hiding something darker, less altruistic and far more self-interested? What if the people charged with leading global the development were actually doing more for the 1% than the 99%? Would that piss you off?

Then prepare to be pissed off. Because the World Bank, with its $30 billion annually budget, is doing just that, and causing misery and environmental destruction along the way.

The Bank’s mission is to “[E]nd poverty within a generation and boost shared prosperity.” Like almost all governments and multilateral institutions, the Bank subscribes to the current economic orthodoxy in as much as all of its models for poverty reduction have economic growth as a prerequisite. For the purposes of this argument, whether they are right or not is not is a secondary, albeit not irrelevant point. The primary point is that it is such a given that almost any sort of growth is considered positive. If it can go on a country’s books as growth – in the form of GDP - it’s good.

[kelliekat44]

1. It was planned that way by the "banksters." Slavery forever!! nt