Bank speaks out for the poor

• Effects of food, fuel and economic crises to be felt for longer in Africa, says Zoellick

London

A robust programme to protect Africa’s poor from the effects of the global recession needs to be enacted soon, the president of the World Bank has said after a tour of the continent.

Mr Robert B. Zoellick said the effects of the global food, fuel and economic crisis will be felt by Africa’s people for some time, particularly in terms of high prices.

He added that it was important to persist with efforts to protect the most vulnerable, while laying the foundations for future productivity and growth.

Ending an eight-day, three-nation trip to Africa last week, Mr Zoellick said success would depend on making the continent a more attractive destination for investment, on donors providing adequate support, notably to countries emerging from conflict, and working with Africans to ensure that each dollar spent had an impact on overcoming poverty.

“We still face considerable risks in 2010 and must work to repair the damage to human lives from the global economic crisis,” Mr Zoellick said.

His visit took him to Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire and Ethiopia.

“At the same time, we must ensure that Africa’s robust growth rates of the past two decades are not a one-off event and that the basis for future productivity and growth are put in place to help overcome poverty on the continent.”

Mr Zoellick said the World Bank had helped countries, working with partners at the UN and elsewhere, with targeted social safety nets such as school feeding programmes and cash-for-work programmes.

To address longer term challenges, he appealed for investments across Africa to expand its share of global and intra-African trade while fostering regional integration and building crucial infrastructure in energy, transport and irrigation needed to promote agriculture and manufacturing.

“I leave Africa impressed by the actions many governments have taken to cope with the global economic crisis but also aware that governments and their partners, like the World Bank group and others, must work harder  to expand opportunities and improve prospects for economic growth,” he said.

“The progress I have seen across the region, but also in fragile and post-conflict countries, has confirmed my belief in Africa’s potential to become another source of growth for the world economy,” the World Bank president said.

During a breakfast forum hosted jointly on the sidelines of the AU summit by Mr Zoellick and the African Development Bank president Donald Kaberuka, African leaders agreed on the need to do more not only to lift the barriers to more private sector investment in the Information and Communications (ICTs) sector, but to expand the opportunities generally for the private sector in their countries.

The private sector has driven technological progress across the continent, investing about $60 billion from 1998-2008 in ICTs.