Africans Are Ready for Bold Change, With Help

We at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund regard debt relief, especially for the poorest countries, as crucial to our mission of alleviating poverty. We have been working with national governments to develop comprehensive poverty reduction strategies, drawing on the experience of civil society groups, as well as donors, in their preparation, to ensure that money goes where it is most needed.

We recognize that we have more to do. In the coming months we will be supporting countries in their efforts to use debt relief for poverty reduction. In particular we hope to see debt relief extended to countries emerging from civil conflict and trying to put themselves back together again.

The World Bank has committed half a billion dollars to fight AIDS, and will commit more once that is spent. At the same time, in line with African proposals to reduce conflict in the region, we will be moving swiftly to cut assistance to aggressor countries.

We will step up our work with African governments to build an enabling environment for private investment, both domestic and foreign, which is so important for economic growth and poverty reduction. We will respond to leaders’ requests to help build their capacity through technical assistance and training on a larger scale.

The fight against poverty requires courage, commitment and sustained effort. It requires new partnerships and a spirit of cooperation. It will succeed only if it is based on a strategy designed by the affected country itself. Governments, together with their people, must be in the driver’s seat.

We have great expectations. With Africans themselves insisting on leaders who govern for the good of people rather than for themselves, the sharply disappointed experience of the last 40 years can become a thing of the past.

This will be all the more possible if the international community mobilizes behind African countries willing to work for the benefit of their people.

 

(By Horst Kohler and James D. Wolfensohn, International Herald Tribune, 2001.)

 

18 Discuss in groups the ideas on how to help African countries in a contemporary society expressed by Horst Kohler and James D. Wolfensohn in the article ‘Africans Are Ready for Bold Change, With Help’. Work out your own strategies on how to help developing countries overcome social and economic problems.