| US President Bush asks the World Bank to
provide grants rather than loans and vows increase in funding for
education with a special focus on Africa.
On
Tuesday 17 July 2001, US President Bush called on the World Bank and
other development banks to increase the share of their funding
provided as grants rather than loans, proposing that up to 50
percent of aid to poorest countries be given as grants for
education, health, nutrition, water supply, sanitation and other
human needs.
In a
speech at the World Bank headquarters in Washington, Bush also
proposed that the United States increase funding for the education
assistance programme by 20 percent. Moreover he directed the
Secretary of State and the Administrator of the Agency for
International Development to develop an initiative to improve
basic education and teacher training in Africa, “where some
countries are expected to lose 10 percent or more of their teachers
to AIDS in the next five years”. Bush said
“The
United States has been, and will continue to be, a world leader on
responsible debt relief. The developed nations must also increase
our commitment to help educate people throughout the
world.
Literacy and learning are the foundation of democracy and
development … For its part, the World Bank and the other development
banks must, as Secretary O'Neill has noted, focus on raising
productivity in developing nations, especially through investments
in education.
Yet only about 7 percent of World Bank resources
are devoted to education. Moreover, these funds are provided as
loans that must be repaid, and often times aren't. Today I call on
all multilateral development banks to increase the share of their
funding devoted to education, and to tie support more directly to
clear and measurable results. I also propose the World Bank and
other development banks dramatically increase the share of their
funding provided as grants rather than loans to the poorest
countries. Specifically, I propose that up to 50 percent of the
funds provided by the development banks to the poorest countries be
provided as grants for education, health, nutrition, water supply,
sanitation and other human needs, which will be a major step
forward. Debt relief is really a short-term fix. The proposal today
doesn't merely drop the debt, it helps stop the debt.”
To the
Remarks by the President Bush to the World Bank: (http://whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/07/20010717-2.html)
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