UN Official: 'Guerrilla Assault' Needed on World Bank/IMF Policies

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http://commondreams.org/headlines03/0708-01.htm

Published on Tuesday, July 8, 2003 by the Associated Press
Programs to Help Poor Nations Criticized
by Naomi Koppel

GENEVA -- International programs to help poor nations develop and industrialize are failing in many countries and need radical changes if the world is to meet its targets for reducing poverty, a major United Nations report said Tuesday.



UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch-Brown said a "guerrilla assault" is needed on the so-called "Washington Consensus" that sets out the general policies used by the IMF and the World Bank -- including an emphasis on careful control of public spending, tax reform, trade liberalization and privatization.


Instead of forcing developing countries to cut back on public spending, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank should be pressing rich countries to provide more help, the 367-page Human Development Report 2003 said.

Despite a widespread assumption that all countries are slowly getting richer, the report says that 54 are poorer now than they were in 1990, while life expectancy fell in 34 countries -- primarily because of the HIV/AIDS epidemic -- and 21 countries are hungrier than they were in 1990.


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