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World Bank president visits Sub-Saharan Africa

The president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, began a tour of Sub-Saharan Africa on Sunday, January 27th and visited the countries of Mauritania, Liberia, Ethiopia and Mozambique. The World Bank is aligned with the International Development Association and the International Finance Company to promise deeper economic support to Africa. This year’s funds promise to surpass last year’s figure of $7.3 billion and Mr. Zoellick embarked on his tour with aims to ensure the region of the Bank’s commitment to Africa [1].

Mauritania was the first stop on Mr. Zoellick’s tour, at which he met with newly elected President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, as well as Prime Minister Zeine Ould Zeidane and members of Parliament. Mauritania’s main focus will be on developing more advising and lending options that will support the newly democratic country maintain political stability. After twenty years of political turmoil, Mauritania completed its first free and transparent elections in 2006 and 2007, and now hopes to continue on with a peaceful transition to democracy. Main concerns were the encouragement of a return to Mauritania by displaced refugees in Senegal and Mali, along with the establishment of solid laws prohibiting the practice of slavery in the region. Mr. Zoellick also planned to meet with members of the community by visiting urban and rural areas in which Bank-sponsored projects are based. His aim was to understand what is needed in these regions to accomplish more inclusive and expansive growth, especially targeting services for the poor. The World Bank recognizes that though Mauritania seems to have promising growth statistics (11.4% economic growth in 2006) there remain significant sections of society – urban and rural – in which citizens are missing out on the gains [2].

Second on the tour was the country of Liberia, where Mr. Zoellick met with members of the private sector, as well as with Liberian citizens to talk about the country’s Poverty Reduction Strategy. Liberia is trying to focus on private sector development, which demands improvement of private sector infrastructure and economic governance. Mr. Zoellick also met with President Johnson-Sirleaf to discuss the success and possible improvement of World Bank programs currently in place in Liberia [3].

Following Liberia, Mr. Zoellick visited Ethiopia, where he was lan attendee of the 10th Ordinary Assembly African Union Summit. This was the first time a president of the World Bank has addressed the African Union. Mr. Zoellick hoped to use this trip to strengthen the cooperation between the World Bank and the African Union on issues such as regional integration, governance and post-conflict resolution. Following the Summit he met with Ethiopian leaders to discuss the progress toward Millennium Development Goals in Ethiopia [4].

Mr. Zoellick’s final stop was in Mozambique, which boasts one of the highest economic take-off rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this visit he aimed to address the same business as in Mauritania and Liberia – meetings with government officials, the private sector and citizens to tackle poverty issues and also assess World Bank programs that are in place. Mr. Zoellick also planned to meet with Prime Minister Luisa Diogo and President Armando Guebuza to discuss conflict resolution in the wake of the country’s 1992 civil war, beneficial ways to capitalize on the country’s natural resources and also methods of addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic [5].

The IIJD is excited about the effort being made on part of the World Bank president to understand what is needed in these developing countries in order to combat the poverty that continues to plague the region. Community involvement is key to understanding what types of effort should be made and what strategies promise the best results. The fact that Mr. Zoellick aimed to meet with citizens of these four countries should add to the success of his trip. The IIJD considers the aim of the World Bank to help to establish stronger infrastructure and economic governance to be of extreme importance.

What can be observed here, outside of the case of Ethiopia, is that the countries to be visited by the World Bank President can all be said to be on the path to democracy and political stability. In these countries, the electoral process seemed to be functioning well and in a peaceful manner, which for countries such as the oil exporting country of Mauretania, is certainly an impressive achievement. However, it is too soon to conclude that democracy has gained sure footing. The experience of many less-developed countries towards democratization shows that, unless the necessary democratic institutions are established and functioning, elected leaders tend to consolidate power into their own hands and rule despotically. In Africa, where autocracy, constitutional manipulations, and lack of transparency and accountability are the norm, newly democratizing countries have an especially hard time establishing new democratic regimes. This is largely the case because the international community tends to base relations on individuals rather than on whole peoples and countries. Democracy and political stability can not be limited to the political will of an individual personality.

Moreover, free and fair elections are just a first move toward liberal democracy. The establishment of elections and democratically elected leaders does not guarantee that the rights and freedoms of the citizens will be protected and guaranteed. We must take advantage of the favorable political environment to finance the establishment of strong institutions that will guarantee future free and fair elections that will consolidate democracy and create durable peace, as well as transparent rule of law and accountability, all of which is necessary for sustainable economic development. The political system that best protects basic liberties incorporates not only free and fair elections, but also respects the rule of law, a system of checks and balances, the separation of powers, and the freedoms of speech, religion, assembly, and property.

Progress in Africa and especially in these countries depends upon the displacement of despotism by democracy; it cannot occur under the governance of corruption and tyranny. Only once the people of Africa have the right to demand accountability from strong independent Justice Systems can the environment needed for sustained economic development be established.

If we spend the time and resources focusing only on the symptoms, without taking vigorous and definitive actions to tackle the root causes of poverty, we will end up years from now with very little accomplished. Mr. Zoellick’s priorities of infrastructure and economic governance will be difficult to achieve in the current political environment and require new strategies to address the repressive environment and the systemic barriers to securing civil and political rights imposed by government institutions. These barriers paralyze the ingenuity of the people of Africa and keep the rich continent of Africa in a state of political turbulence, instability and extreme poverty.

[1] “World Bank Group President to Visit Africa.” The World Bank. 

[2] “Mauritania: A Country in Transition.”  The World Bank. 

[3] “Liberia: A Post-Conflict Country Poised for Full Re-engagement.”  The World Bank.

[4] “World Bank Group President to Visit Africa.” The World Bank.