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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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