World Bank Lending Practices in Developing
Countries
in Historical, Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives
Jean-Germain Gros
& Olga Prokopovych
Published
July 2005; 94 pages; ISBN 2-86978-159-8
‘Gros and
Propokovych provide a brilliant and balanced critique of the
World Bank – “world’s largest multilateral development lending
agency”, in relation to poverty reduction in developing
countries. Coming at a time when, thanks to the hegemonic
forces of globalisation and the increasing domestication of
market-based economic reforms, sharp criticisms of the Bank’s
pernicious lending practices in the developing world have
become muted, this monograph is an important reminder of the
continued existence of the problem of poverty, and how World
Bank lending has worsened the economic crises in developing
countries.
Adopting
a triple-pronged historical, theoretical and empirical
approach, the authors explore the Bank’s moorings in
neo-liberal market ideology and western hegemony. They show
how its dismal record has contradicted its rhetoric on poverty
reduction – its lending has neither gone to the poorest
countries, nor reached the poorest people in the developing
countries.
Confirming
what is well known; they add a new dimension showing that the
World Bank’s lending behaviour is moderated by its
organisational/bureaucratic politics, the external environment
and the personality of its Presidents, and is largely an agent
for the domination of poor countries by rich countries. The
Bank is hardly democratic or transparent, even as it attempts
to hide the highly asymmetrical power relations between itself
and the borrower-countries in the developing world behind
pro-poor rhetoric.
This
monograph goes beneath the rhetoric to explode the pro-poor
myth of the World Bank’s lending practices in developing
countries. It brings to the fore one of the most critical
challenges confronting the developing world – poverty – and
suggests how the Bank must be radically transformed in a
rapidly globalising world to deal with the problem. Its
uniqueness lies both in its depth and clarity, and in its
optimism that the World Bank, warts and all, can be
revolutionized in the 21st century!’
Dr.
Cyril I. Obi, Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, Sweden.
‘This
study of World Bank lending policies as they relate to
economic development in Third World countries is innovative,
comprehensive and, more importantly, entirely convincing. The
weight of the compelling empirical evidence the authors
provided is guided by a theoretical critique that provides one
of the most cogent analysis of World Bank lending to date. In
short, the inherent failure of World Bank lending policies in
the underdeveloped world, including a critical examination of
the neo-liberalist ideology guiding the Bank’s policies, is
explained in one of the most exhaustive and insightful studies
in the broader field of political economy’.
Dr.
Michael Williams, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra
Jean-Germain
Gros,
senior co-author, formerly visiting professor of political
science at the University of Ghana, Legon and director of the
Missouri-Africa Program, is associate professor of political
science and public policy administration and Center for
International Studies fellow at the University of Missouri,
St. Louis. In addition, Professor Gros is a partner in The Aya
Centre, a development consulting organization dedicated to
genuine, grassroots, Pan-African development based in Accra,
Ghana.
Olga
Prokopovych
is a law
associate at B. C. Toms & Co, Kiev, Ukraine, where she
specializes in public and administrative law matters. She
earned a masters’ degree in public policy administration (MPPA)
in May 2003 from the University of Missouri, St. Louis. In
summer 2002, Ms. Prokopovych was an intern at the World Bank.
Published
July 2005; 94 pages; ISBN 2-86978-159-8
Price: Elsewhere: 15.00 USD; Africa: CFA 5000; non CFA zone:
10.00 USD.
Contents
|
Introduction |
1 |
|
Part I |
|
|
The
World Bank: Institutional Setting, Policy and Intellectual
History |
5 |
-
SAPs as Alchemy in Africa
-
Conclusion
|
26
38 |
|
Part
II |
|
|
Theory
Building and the World Bank |
39 |
-
Propositions
-
Other Policy-Influencing Factors
-
Conclusion
|
49
51
54 |
|
Part
III |
|
|
World
Bank Lending in Empirical Perspective |
57 |
|
Conclusion |
|
|
Reforming or Rethinking the World Bank? |
71 |
|
Notes
|
76 |
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