WB body calls for aid as per pledges

In the wake of the global financial meltdown, a joint ministerial committee of the World Bank has called upon multilateral lending agencies to deliver aid in consistent with their pledges to help poor nations overcome the current crisis.
The development committee of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund also urged the International Finance Corporation to explore options for supporting banks in developing countries adversely affected by the global liquidity crisis.
Finance ministers at a meeting in Washington on Sunday observed that developing and transitional countries risked very serious setbacks in their efforts to improve the lives of their populations from any prolonged tightening of credit or sustained global slowdown. Many of these countries have already been hit hard by current high prices for energy and essential foodstuffs, the ministers mentioned.
‘We stressed that aid volumes need to be consistent with existing commitments and we called for full compliance with these commitments,’ read a development committee communiqué received in Dhaka on Monday.
Finance and planning adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam has now been in Washington to attend the global lenders’ meetings being held in the backdrop of worldwide concerns about the financial market turmoil, worst since the Great Depression of 1930.
In support of concerted actions, including the most recent commitment, the ministers called on the World Bank to join with the IMF in drawing on the full range of its resources - finance, analysis and advice - to help poorer nations strengthen their economies, maintain growth, and protect the most vulnerable groups against the impact of the current crises. ‘The poorest and most vulnerable groups risk the most serious – and in some cases permanent – damage,’ the ministers noted in the communiqué and urged member countries of the Bank to consider making contributions to a $1.2-billion rapid financing facility fund to help countries to cope with the impact of high food prices on the poor.
They encouraged the Bank and its partners to move forward with a planned new programme — energy for the Poor — that would provide rapid support for countries’ efforts to strengthen social safety nets to protect the poor against the impact of high fuel