Governance-Reform der Weltbank: Mangelnder Ehrgeiz

In einem Offenen Brief will eine von Oxfam International, Eurodad, dem Bank Information Center, dem Bretton Woods Project und der New Rules for Global Finance Coalition initiierte NGO-Koalition in diesem Monat Weltbank-Präsident Robert Zoellick dazu auffordern, die Gelegenheit für eine ehrgeizige Reform der Bank zu nutzen. Zugleich bringen die NGOs ihre Besorgnis zum Ausdruck, dass der derzeitige Prozess der Governance-Reform bei der Weltbank hinter dem zurückbleibt, was angesichts der „neuen systemischen Realitäten“ in der Weltwirtschaft geboten wäre. In dem Brief, für den z.Zt. weitere Unterschriften gesammelt werden, heißt es u.a.:

“We urge that any reform be substantial, resulting in fundamental changes that would allow the Bank to fight poverty in a far more effective, equitable and transparent manner. For this to happen there must be a true partnership between developing and developed countries.

Key to this is a commitment to parity of voice between developed, and developing and transition countries within an agreed timeframe. This would also need to be accompanied by other measures such as a transparent, merit-based election process for the president, and a consolidation of European power at the Bank’s board.

The quota reforms voted in at the IMF earlier this year were far from adequate. We believe it is important that any notion of parallelism between the IMF quota and World Bank votes be dropped in favour of the clear recognition that the World Bank has a very different purpose from the IMF. As the World Bank/IMF 2008 Spring Meeting Development Committee Communiqué stated, the Bank’s development mandate means it is distinct in nature.

Failure to achieve this deeper, systemic reform would leave the Bank vulnerable to irrelevance in the evolving structures of global financing and policy. For this reason, we urge you to use the Bank governance reform as an opportunity to promote a vision for the Bank which conforms more closely to the dramatically changed global context than the one currently being envisaged.”

Wer den Brief unterstützen will, sollte eine entsprechende Erklärung an Jeff Powell beim Bretton Woods Project schicken (jpowell@brettonwoodsproject.org).