BY: Ross Coggins
Excuse me, friends, I must catch my jet-
I'm off to join the Development Set;
My bags are packed, and I've had all my shots,
I have travelers' checks, and pills for the trots
The Development Set is bright and noble,
Our thoughts are deep and our vision global;
Although we move with the better classes,
Our thoughts are always with the masses.
In Sheraton hotels in scattered nations,
We damn multinational corporations;
Injustice seems so easy to protest,
In such seething hotbeds of social rest.
We discuss malnutrition over steaks
And plan hunger talks during coffee breaks.
Whether Asian floods or African drought,
We face each issue with an open mouth.
We bring in consultants whose circumlocution
Raises difficulties for every solution-
Thus guaranteeing continued good eating
By showing the need for another meeting.
The language of the Development Set
Stretches the English alphabet;
We use swell words like 'epigenetic',
'Micro', 'Macro'. and 'logarithmetic'.
Development Set homes are extremely chic,
Full of carvings, curios and draped with batik.
Eye-level photographs subtly assure
That your host is at home with the rich and the poor.
Enough of these verses -- on with the mission!
Our task is as broad as the human condition!
Just pray to God the biblical promise is true:
The poor ye shall always have with you.
2007/02/14
2007/02/03
Critique on the World Bank 为什么不能尽听世界银行
An evaluation of World Bank Research 1998-2005
Whistling in the dark: Why the World Bank's latest poverty
projections are meaningless
This artilce finds the World Bank's latest annual Global Economic Prospects report, which sets out the Bank's vision of the global economy until 2030, including its latest projections for poverty, meaningless and plain wrong. On of the reasons is that the World Bank fails to factor in the effects of climate change into the poverty projections. (David Woodward, Jubilee Research at the New Economics Foundation, January 2007)
The quality and relevance of the World Bank's research comes under fire in a recent audit that examines a large random sample of the nearly 4,000 reports, books and papers produced by the Bank between 1998 and 2005.
This new report seriously calls into question the credibility of the Bank as the "Knowledge Bank" and provides significant support to civil society campaigns against ideologically based conditionality and policy advice. The report says that Bank research is used to "proselytise on behalf of Bank policy, often without taking a balanced view of the evidence" and that outside views that disagree with Bank positions are little taken into consideration - "internal research that was favourable to Bank positions was given great prominence and unfavourable research ignored".
The Bank is accused of "trumpet(ing) these early empirical results without recognising their fragile and tentative nature" and "seriously over-reaching in prematurely putting its globalization, aid and poverty publications on a pedestal". Arguments frequently used by the Bank that "aid is most effective in countries with good policies" and "growth is good for the poor" were found to be based on unreliable results. The report says that "in some cases, where groups are almost entirely inward looking, the degree of self-reference rises almost to the level of parody". (World Bank, September 2006)
This new report seriously calls into question the credibility of the Bank as the "Knowledge Bank" and provides significant support to civil society campaigns against ideologically based conditionality and policy advice. The report says that Bank research is used to "proselytise on behalf of Bank policy, often without taking a balanced view of the evidence" and that outside views that disagree with Bank positions are little taken into consideration - "internal research that was favourable to Bank positions was given great prominence and unfavourable research ignored".
The Bank is accused of "trumpet(ing) these early empirical results without recognising their fragile and tentative nature" and "seriously over-reaching in prematurely putting its globalization, aid and poverty publications on a pedestal". Arguments frequently used by the Bank that "aid is most effective in countries with good policies" and "growth is good for the poor" were found to be based on unreliable results. The report says that "in some cases, where groups are almost entirely inward looking, the degree of self-reference rises almost to the level of parody". (World Bank, September 2006)
Whistling in the dark: Why the World Bank's latest poverty
projections are meaningless
This artilce finds the World Bank's latest annual Global Economic Prospects report, which sets out the Bank's vision of the global economy until 2030, including its latest projections for poverty, meaningless and plain wrong. On of the reasons is that the World Bank fails to factor in the effects of climate change into the poverty projections. (David Woodward, Jubilee Research at the New Economics Foundation, January 2007)
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