You are right to wrestle with the problems of the poor and the debt in
developing countries. I will not speak for the World Bank but give my own
perspectives as an economist and researcher on the problem.
1. Most of the world's poor are not in the highly indebted nations but are
instead in South Asia and China. Is it fair to redirect aid resources away from
South Asia and China towards the highly indebted countries?
2. It may well be, as you imply, that the poor (or even the majority of the
population) did not benefit from the proceeds of the loans when they were lent.
Is it then reasonable to expect that the poor will benefit from the forgiveness
of those loans, unless stringent conditions are imposed?
3. Governments in poor countries ran up high debt because they mismanaged their
money. Shouldn't aid donors impose strict conditions that the resources freed up
by debt forgiveness are not similarly mismanaged?
William Easterly
MC3-337
World Bank
1818 H Street
Washington DC 20433
Phone 202 473 8965
Fax 202 522 3518
Web-site: http://www.worldbank.org/research/growth
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|