 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 | ||
|
 |
Environmentally and Socially Sustainable DevelopmentThere is little point in lifting people out of poverty today only to have their children–or their children’s children–thrust back into its grip tomorrow. Ensuring sustainable development is a complex task that must integrate many strands of the development process. First, it must take into account the growing pressures on the world’s natural resource base that lead to expanding deserts, degrading soils, worsening air quality, depleting water resources, degrading forests, and endangering biodiversity, both on land and under water. Second, it must address the crucial role of poor people, who bear the impact of these pressures but also determine–through their behavior–the condition of forests, soils, fish stocks, and the air we breathe. Environmental protection thus entails a comprehensive vision of rural development, to address poor people’s needs for not only food security but also nonfarm sources of income, improved transport links to markets, and greater rural access to health and education. Finally, sustainable development requires that poor people have more say and participate as equal partners; key to such social transformation are efforts that promote participation, civic engagement, cultural expression, and post-conflict reconstruction. The 2.8 billion people living on less than $2 per day are disproportionately affected by bad environmental conditions and natural catastrophes. Every year, between 5 and 6 million people die in developing countries from water-borne diseases and air pollution. The livelihoods of more than 1 billion rural people are at risk because of desertification and dryland degradation. The loss of an estimated 65 million hectares of forests in developing countries in the last five years is also hurting rural poor people, a quarter of whom depend on forests for income, food, and medicines. Policymakers also face hard decisions on how to allocate scarce water.Emphasizing the Role of Environment in Poverty Reduction A key principle underlying World Bank assistance in fiscal 2000 was that lasting poverty reduction is only possible if the environment is able to provide the services people depend on, and if natural resource use does not undermine long-term development. The Bank is supporting countries in their efforts to preserve the environment in the following ways: • Natural resource management. Several projects are helping to protect forests and watersheds, support land tenure and property rights issues, and create appropriate incentives for conservation. A project in Vietnam, for example, will re-establish the coastal mangrove wetland ecosystem along the Mekong Delta and protect the system’s aquatic resources. • Institution building. The Bank is increasing its support for the institutional and regulatory frameworks that govern natural resources, which will ensure long-term environmental stewardship. Brazil’s Second Environmental Project, for example, aims to make national environmental institutions more effective and to strengthen decentralized environmental management at the state and municipal levels. • Support in dealing with natural disasters. The Bank has provided extensive support in the wake of floods, droughts, cyclones, and earthquakes to help countries rebuild and reduce risks of future damage, with a focus on poor people’s needs. Examples include the introduction of an early warning network under the Amazon Emergency Fire Prevention and Control Project and efforts to prevent the spread of disease and to rebuild roads after floods in three Chinese provinces under the Yangtze Emergency Rehabilitation Project. Preparation of a new environment strategy is underway. It focuses on the effect that the environment has on the health, livelihoods, and vulnerability of poor people. The environment strategy complements work on other strategies that guide Bank work in the water, energy, forestry, transport, urban, and rural sectors, and it also reflects the lessons of OED’s environment review. In addition, the Bank is developing an environment sourcebook to help policymakers mainstream environment concerns into a country’s overall poverty reduction framework. The Global Dimension As an implementing agency of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Multilateral Fund of the Montreal Protocol (MFMP), the Bank helps developing countries address global environmental challenges and meet their international obligations in this area. In fiscal 2000, the GEF Council approved 20 Bank—GEF full project grants, amounting to $266 million; 17 GEF medium-sized grants (each under $1 million), adding up to $13.07 million; and two activities building capacity to prepare inventories, strategies, and action plans in response to biodiversity and climate conventions, involving grants of $0.4 million. Significant progress has also been made in helping developing countries phase out the use of ozone depleting substances (such as chlorofluorohydrocarbons or CFCs) under the Montreal Protocol, with more than 70 percent of CFC production in developing and transition economies now slated for phase-out. In an innovative approach to address climate change issues, multiple partners came together in fiscal 2000 to launch the Prototype Carbon Fund (see Box 5.3). Strengthening Compliance Of increasing importance in the design and implementation of Bank-supported projects is the careful application of environmental and social safeguard policies and guidelines, with support from the Bank’s Quality Assurance Group (QAG). Support to the private sector in dealing with environmental regulations is an emerging priority. A new Bank publication, Greening Industry: New Roles for Communities, Markets, and Governments, advocates combining market-based incentives and public information disclosure to encourage factory managers to improve environmental performance while pursuing profits. With 70 percent of the world’s poor people living in rural areas, support for rural development is central to poverty reduction efforts. The Bank’s rural strategy recognizes that, while a vibrant and growing agricultural sector is vital in reducing poverty, agriculture alone is insufficient to solve the problem of rural poverty. A total of 38 projects was approved in fiscal 2000 in support of rural development, including 25 in the agriculture sector, amounting to $1.6 billion and $1.1 billion, respectively. On June 30, 2000, the Bank’s rural development portfolio stood at $22.1 billion.With a view to moving to a more action-oriented phase, the Bank conducted a review of its rural strategy in fiscal 2000. Experience from successful strategies, notably those in Brazil, Ethiopia, Mexico, and Uganda, points to the need for: • Strong political commitment and leadership: While a stable macroeconomic policy framework and a good rural strategy are critical, sustained commitment to rural development is important for results, as seen in Mexico and Uganda. • Effective rural institutions: Strong institutions able to formulate and implement rural development strategy are important, along with a long-term strategy to identify and nurture potential leadership for rural development. • Information on rural development: There is a dearth of data on the number of rural poor people, the specific determinants of their poverty, their access to land and other resources, the level of resources directed at rural poverty reduction, or the level of financial and other services available to poor people. While the Bank has developed a rural score card providing a composite indicator to monitor progress, data availability remains a serious constraint in many countries. A doubling of world food production to feed an extra 2 billion people by 2025–most of them in developing countries–will require new and improved agricultural technologies. Such innovation calls for not only more resources for agricultural research but also a better balance between public and private sector funding. Supported by 58 public and private sector members, including the Bank, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) works through a network of 16 international research centers to mobilize modern agricultural science on behalf of the world’s poor and hungry. CGIAR technologies support the Bank’s rural lending programs to alleviate hunger and poverty; improve rural productivity and raise agricultural incomes; manage natural resources sustainably; and build partnerships with national agricultural research programs. The Bank has made progress in promoting a more equitable and inclusive approach to development. Compliance with Bank policies on resettlement, indigenous peoples, and cultural property has been improving; social analysis and participation are being mainstreamed into projects; and projects are addressing social development needs and becoming culturally sensitive. Several tools have been developed to promote the inclusion and empowerment of poor people, and new ground has been broken in the areas of conflict and culture. Participation and Civic Engagement During the past year, the Bank scaled up its work to promote participation and civic engagement in a number of ways. Facilitating public participation in investment lending operations has enabled local communities to identify priorities and act on them. Support for decentralized institutional arrangements is allowing local governments to assume responsibility for resource allocation and enabling communities to assert more voice in decisions that affect them (see Box 5.4). Finally, the Bank has also been promoting increased participation of civil society in national-level policymaking to make it more responsive and transparent. Conflict and Development Conflict and violence remain among the world’s most pressing problems. In societies emerging from conflict, the Bank has shifted its emphasis from the physical dimensions of reconstruction to the social aspects of conflict prevention and reconciliation. The Post-Conflict Fund was established in 1997 to provide catalytic financing for early phases of Bank work in post-conflict situations and to promote best practice and piloting of initiatives in conflict prevention. This fund allocated approximately $22 million in grants across 25 countries over the first two years of its operation. A grant to Kosovo covered teachers’ and health workers’ salaries, for example, while support in East Timor funded the international community’s initial assessment mission and the start-up of the local empowerment and governance program. Culture Cultural identity is an essential part of empowering communities to take charge of their own destinies. From tourism to restoration, investments in cultural heritage promote labor-intensive economic activities that generate wealth and income. Community-based development through social funds and innovative cultural heritage operations is responding to the interests of poor communities to develop income-generating activities that draw on their traditions, skills, and other cultural endowments. The Bank has increasingly included culture in its core work, both to make development services (such as education) more culturally responsive and effective, and to develop new tools to reduce poverty. Over the past year, the Bank has financed culture-oriented urban, education, and social development projects in Bolivia, China, East Timor, Indonesia, Romania, and the Republic of Yemen. A research program is under way to develop the socioeconomic rationale for investment in culture. |
| Thematic Perspectives | |
| Top | |
| Contents | |
| Annual Report 2000 | World Bank Group | Publications | IBRD | IDA | IFC | MIGA | ICSID | |
| Help us serve you better -- fill out our Annual Report Reader Survey | |
| Copyright © 2000 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank | |
 |
|