Source:
Rede Brasil
Tue Dec 20 2005
It is the first time that Mr.Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank, comes in an official visit to Latin America. In his schedule he has meetings in Brazil with Lula, Finance Minister Palocci and visits to different projects financed by the World Bank. The World Bank has for many years financed the construction of hydroelectric dams around the world. The social and environmental impacts of these projects were monitored and criticized by many civil society organizations. In whose interest are Wolfowitz’ visit to Brazil and his analysis of the region’s economic potential and present development conditions?. Will they serve the elaboration of new projects.
It is the first time that Mr. Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank,comes in an official visit to Latin America. It is also his first visit to Brazil, where he will remain from December 15 through 20, 2005. Since his arrival in Brazil, Mr. Wolfowitz has already been in a slum in São Paulo, had meetings with President Lula and Finance Minister, Palocci, and visited World Bank projects in the state of Ceará. He will still visit a sugar cane alcohol factory, will meet ‘beneficiaries’ of a microcredit program financed by the World Bank, the recipients of the Bolsa Família program, and will attend a speech on “Energy and Climate Change” in São Paulo.
Who is Wolfowitz?
In order to better understand this visit and its underlying motives it is useful to recall who is Wolfowitz and what is his political record. The current president of the World Bank was Undersecretary of Defense of the American government, considered a ‘hawk’, and one of the main architects of the invasion of Iraq. The economic overhaul of Iraq – privatization of public enterprises, suppression of food subsidies, liberalization of food prices and so forth – imposed by the World Bank (and the IMF) for the benefit of American private companies is very likely one of the main motivations underlying the invasion of Iraq. Given the goal of maintaining American control over economic resources in Iraq after the period of military occupation, the nomination of Wolfowitz – a great advocate of the expansion of American influence in Iraq – as the president of the World Bank makes perfect sense.
Curiously, president George Bush admitted last week that the information about Iraq that was used to sustain arguments for the invasion was incorrect.
The policies adopted by Wolfowitz as president of a multilateral bank tend to follow his line of work. It is very likely -- and indeed this is already happening – that Wolfowitz will transform the bank in an instrument to advance American geopolitical interests.
The World Bank In Brazil
In whose interest are Wolfowitz’ visit to Brazil and his analyses of the region’s economic potential and present development conditions? Will they serve the elaboration of new projects? One has to bear in mind the fact that the World Bank has for many years financed the construction of hydroelectric dams around the world. The social and environmental impacts of these projects, such as the eviction of millions people out of their lands, were monitored and criticized by many civil society organizations. As a result of pressures brought by civil society, the bank has stopped for some time financing such projects, although never admitting to wrongdoings.
Is the bank again interested in financing mega-projects? The visit of Wolfowitz to the state of Pará covers exactly the location of the planed construction of the hydroelectric power complex of Belo Monte Belo, which will directly affect indigenous peoples’ land. This project will flood an area of 18,000 square kilometers and will impact the survival of natural stocks of fish (a staple among the region's communities), and of the general fauna while also destroying traditional agriculture and livelihoods. In connection to this, it is important to remember that recently the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is part of the World Bank Group and provides finance to private companies, has embarked on a process by which it intends to reduce the safeguards under which certain rights could be protected. In Brazil, the IFC has its own impressive record of providing finance to highly problematic projects. Two recent examples are: the Amaggi soy expansion project (US$ 30 million in 2004), which demonstrated the World Bank does not have an acceptable system of classification of projects by environmental risk categories; and the Aracruz Celulose paper mill project (US$ 50 million in 2004), which is riddled with social conflicts involving the right to land of indigenous peoples known as Tupiniquim and Guarani and of 34 black communities of slave descendants known as quilombolas, in the municipality of Aracruz, state of Espírito Santo. In connection with this last project, it is important to note that Aracuruz Celulose also destroyed more than 50,000 hectares of Rain Forest (Mata Atlântica) in the 1960s and 1970s (and continues at present such destruction), has violated environmental legislation by introducing monoculture in extensive areas, while causing pollution and illegally capturing and channeling natural watercourses previously used by communities, in order to secure sufficient water to run its paper mill operations, which consume water in a proportion equivalent to the water needs of a city of 2,5 million people. One can understand why a visit to the state of Espírito Santo is of no interest to Mr.Wolfowitz.
Dialogue with civil society
Rede Brasil was invited at very short notice to attend a 30-minute meeting with Mr. Wolfowitz, with an agenda pre-set by the Bank. Rede Brasil declined. While it acknowledges the need for the development of a dialogue between the World Bank and civil society, Rede Brasil believes that events of the kind now sponsored by that bank do not contribute in any way to change the institution’s policies. This is more so in light of the fact that the group of organizations that were invited to the meeting is not sufficiently large and plural to include representation of relevant actors, disputes and regions. Such meeting therefore disorganizes and fragments civil society efforts.
Rede Brasil thus proposes that another meeting should be held, to be financed by the bank, with invitation extended to a group of civil society organizations that is more representative of Brazil’s diverse regions and civil society actors, with equal time being allocated to participants, and in which representatives of organizations can speak out freely and be heard, without any mediation that would hinder free expression.
What we want to discuss with Mr. Wolfowitz
· Greater transparency of the bank’s projects and project cycle.
· The need for country representatives to be chosen under supervision of national parliaments.
· Open, public discussion about the criteria for allocation of the bank’s financial resources.
· The cancellation of debts of the so-called underdeveloped and developing countries, without the imposition of conditionalities.
· The abandonment of policies currently adopted by the bank, that restrict the access of millions of people to food, education, health, fresh water and adequate housing, as occurs under privatization.
· The elimination of the bank’s present and future support to projects that are socially and environmentally destructive, such as those in the areas of oil, energy and mining.
· The revision of the current but highly problematic orientation of the bank to resume financing of “High Risk, High Return” projects, in spite of their negative social and environmental impacts.
· The position of Mr. Wolfowitz with respect to the recommendations of the World Commission on Dams.
And more specifically
· Is the World Bank planning to solve the problems associated with financing of the IFC to Aracruz Celulose (see above), given that it has taken no measures in that direction, even after insistent criticisms by civil society?
· In light of the fact that the bank has sent representatives for a visit of the Belo Monte region, is it planning to finance that project?
· What is the bank’s stance on projects located in mangrove areas, considering that the institution has elaborated a document (“Principles for a Code of Conduct for Sustainable Management of Mangrove Forest”), which has been severely questioned by civil society and that shrimp acquaculture in Brazil has produced (and continues to produce at present) disastrous environmental impacts.
Rede Brasil believes that only concrete and effective development policies, originating in the political will of autonomous and democratic governments will be able to become strategies to overcome poverty as well as social, economic, racial and gender inequalities.
The practices under which the World Bank operates do not incorporate this perspective. On the contrary, its actions in borrowing countries have served to keep unchanged the bases for the reproduction of poverty, inequalities and exploitation.
Rede Brasil sobre Instituições Financeiras Multilaterais
Brasilia – December 19, 2005
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