World Bank Faults Itself for East Timor’s Struggles

[Judi Lynn]

Source: New York Times

World Bank Faults Itself for East Timor’s Struggles
By BRIAN KNOWLTON
Published: April 23, 2011

WASHINGTON — A frank evaluation by the World Bank’s internal auditors of a decade of efforts to help East Timor underscores the challenges facing international organizations trying to assist struggling nations.

The draft report, not yet released publicly, assigns much of the blame for slow progress in East Timor, which emerged in 1999 after a quarter-century struggle for independence from Indonesia, to the World Bank itself.

But it also illustrates the problems that arise as development agencies try to meet urgent needs while ensuring that donors’ money is not misspent.

The review by the auditors, the Independent Evaluation Group, which reports directly to World Bank directors, covers the period from 2000 to 2010. Among its findings are that the bank delayed the opening of four desperately needed hospitals for a year because it adhered too rigidly to its own procurement rules, even though East Timor’s child mortality rate was among the highest in Southeast Asia and life expectancy was barely over 55.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/24/world/asia/24timor.html?_r=1&ref=world

[jwirr]

1. I think it must be hard for persons coming from a rich industrial

background to a very poor country to know exactly what to do to help. One of the worst mistakes we make is to think that all it takes to modernize a nation into a functioning productive democracy is to hand over money and send in our corporations to give them jobs. They forget the almost 300 years it took us to get where we are at (not that it is so good either) and they forget that we had almost unlimited natural resources to work with in the building. We also were not over populated at the time.

I think we need to listen to the people of those nations more and work for their needs instead of our own interests. We also should start closer to where we started in our own development. A friend from Nigeria told about a soap factory that was built in his area - nice modern - but after the builders left no one knew how to fix it after it broke down. Sustainable green progress would help them a lot more than some damn corporation that only wants cheap labor.

[primavera]

2. Apparently

Although it mystifies me that intelligent people could have any doubts as to the effect of compelling countries to offer their economies up to be pillaged by multinational corporate pirates.

[jwirr]

3. When you are talking about the leaders - yes. For the poor in those

nations who must choose between their starving families and no job at all - it is easier to see why they do it.

[marasinghe]

4. add: the US govt., kissinger, rumsfeld, et al, to the list of would-be penitents;

since it's Easter season.

and Freeport Mining & the 3M corp. in Irian Jaya; and all those other philanthropists who bring good things to the lives of the East Timorese & Papua-New Guineans.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Environment/Freeport_IrianJaya.html
http://www.djpu.com/tag/jayawijaya-mountain
http://www.summitreports.com/indonesia/mining.htm