WB Vs HRW: What a Yawning Difference

Desta D.

Nov 17, 2010

What is it that the World Bank (WB) is watching and Human Rights Watch (HRW) is not willing to watch in Ethiopia? Let me quote a couple of notes from a fresh case study titled “Africa’s Future and the World Bank’s Role in it” and documented by the World Bank. A line from this document mentions Ethiopia as one of the leading examples for optimism in seeing poverty as history in Africa:

“…alongside the acceleration in growth, progress on the MDGs has been sufficiently rapid that many countries (such as Malawi, Ghana and Ethiopia) are likely to reach most of the goals, if not by 2015 then soon thereafter.”

To see Ethiopia being mentioned among the leading pack is so refreshing for everyone who wishes to see Ethiopia out of the abject poverty trap. But there is another long quotation I want to share with you from this same document is the following:

Ethiopia: Leveraging safety nets for effective crisis response
In 2008, Ethiopia faced a crisis that was broader, deeper and more complex than the food crisis in almost any other country. Despite a long-spell of strong economic growth, the long-standing problem of pervasive food insecurity and severe vulnerability to shocks had not been overcome. In 2008 the country, under threat from high inflation and a widening trade deficit suffered failed small season rains. The resulting drought and local food shortages in several parts of the country affected some 12 million people, and exacerbated the rise in food prices already under way due to global, regional and domestic factors. Food price inflation peaked at 91.7 percent for the 12 months ending July 2008, giving Ethiopia one of the highest food price inflation rates in the world. Given the scale of the shock the government needed to launch a traditional humanitarian appeal to raise resources to protect the poorest. However the scale of the emergency appeal was much smaller than traditionally the case. The Government was able to leverage its existing safety net program, the PSNP, to provide additional resources to the program’s existing 7.5 million beneficiaries to protect them until the next harvest. It then expanded the program to an additional 947,000 people. The Government adjusted the program wage rate from 6 to 8 birr and then again to 10 birr in early 2009 to ensure that inflation did not erode the purchasing power of the program transfer. It also shifted increasingly to food as the medium of transfer for part of the year to help mitigate the impact of seasonal food prices.

Now, try to process these case-study testimonies from WB in contrast with the recent allegation reported by the HRW that accuses the Ethiopian government of politicizing humanitarian aid and calling donors to call-off their aid programs on Ethiopia.

You can also access the entire paper at the following link:
Africa_s_Future_and_the_World_Bank_s_Role_in_it.pdf