Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-02-21-Speech-1-121"
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"en.20050221.14.1-121"2
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"Mr President, the World Social Forum was originally initiated as a counterpoint to the World Economic Forum in Davos with the intention of trying to force social issues onto the globalisation agenda. At this, its fifth meeting, there are over 150 000 participants from 150 countries and, amongst the hundreds of meetings, representatives of the IMF and the World Bank face their critics for the first time.
These two institutions stand accused of imposing neo-conservative economic fundamentalism on the poorest countries in the world. Aid carries with it the poison pill of conditionality that forces the opening of the markets to privatisation of state assets, and the straitjacket of monetarist policies. This approach flies in the face of reality. The challenge to them is to name a country with a weak economy that has opened up and succeeded in developing its economy.
The two latest much-lauded success stories are India and China, neither of which has followed their prescriptions. Both protected their young, growing industries until they were capable of entering the global market. But even India has its downside. Its economy is booming but it is a pity about the poor. In 2003, 11 000 new millionaires were created in India, while 8 million people were unemployed and 50 million lived on less than a dollar a day.
What is to be done? In the next ten years 45 million children will die of poverty-related diseases, 12 million AIDS orphans will be produced in Africa, and 100 million children will remain totally illiterate. The World Bank claims it is merely carrying out the wishes of the 147 states which own it – a verbal sleight of hand. African countries do not impose conditionality on themselves, nor do the Latin-Americans. It is the G8 industrialised countries that make decisions, often led by their own self-serving agenda.
Yet the fact that the IMF and the World Bank are now ‘talking the talk, but not walking the walk’ suggests that pressure from civic society can have an impact. The World Bank is including poverty reduction programmes in its plans, and is expressing concern about countries such as Tanzania which spend more on debt servicing than either health or education.
China and India can force these issues onto the agenda and the fact that the European Union has more votes in the IMF than the United States suggests that the World Social Forum slogan 'Another world is possible' is achievable: with sufficient willpower and political commitment. It is for the NGOs and civic society to give Europe's politicians the necessary backbone."@en1
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