World Bank's New Vision on Tackling Poverty 'Very Unambitious' (The Guardian)
Research Fellow Alex Cobham is quoted in The Guardian on the "disappointing" leaked World Bank documents discussing poverty and inequality.
Optimism about the prospects of significant change at the World Bank could fall after leaked strategy documents (here and here, pdfs) revealed what critics have called an "unambitious" and "business-as-usual" approach to development, prioritising economic growth over pressing social issues such as rising inequality.
The documents, outlining "A common vision for the World Bank Group," are due to be discussed by executive directors on Thursday. They introduce two new goals to guide the bank's development work: reducing the percentage of people living in extreme poverty to 3% globally by 2030, and promoting "shared prosperity" by monitoring the income growth of the bottom 40% in every country.
Critics say the "shared prosperity" target merely expands the bank's focus on the world's poorest people rather than shifting it to also tackle inequalities and growing gaps between rich and poor.
Alex Cobham, research fellow at the Center for Global Development in Europe, said the document was "disappointing." "What this document says is we're not going to look at ratios. It feels very much against the flow of where the global conversation has gone," he said.
Inequality has risen up the international agenda as leaders debate what should come next after the MDGs expire in 2015. This week, 90 economists and development experts, including Indian academic Jayati Ghosh and Kevin Watkins, the incoming executive director of the Overseas Development Institute, said a post-2015 development framework must aim to reduce "vast and increasing" inequalities.
"Inequalities threaten our ability to pursue fair and sustainable development as much as they threaten the eradication of extreme poverty. Research shows that inequality – both within and between countries – is a barrier to individual development and sustained economic growth. It undermines social cohesion and distorts the democratic process," they argued in a letter sent to the high-level panel set up by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon to explore what should succeed the MDGs. The panel is set to meet next week in Bali, Indonesia.
The leaked documents do mention inequality six times but do not propose a measure to track it or policies to address it.