OED Criticises the Bank
The
financial times has an article about a newly released
OED Report that apparently criticises the
Bank's emphasis on social spending over a greater focus on economic growth. This is a very contentious issues. Do you focus on economic growth, which mainly benefits those already with higher wealth and closer access to power at the cost of not focusing so much on equality and development of the poorest regions who don't have opportunities in the early growth stages of a country to take advantage? The main feature of Wolfensohn era at the Bank has been to concentrate on development (ie: social spending) along with economic growth. To have this criticised at the time of his leaving is firstly a bit of a sour note for him to leave on and secondly a bad omen if Wolfowitz decides to use this to re-focus the Bank back to the days when it was criticised for not being humane enough in its policy advice. Anyway, I haven't read the report but will enjoy doing so as it looks like an interesting read.
And now I am off to pack my bags for Laos! I didn't have time to get a camera, yet.
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