The World Bank is a multilateral organisation and the most important
player in the field of development cooperation. It works closely together
with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), for example in the assessment
of PRSPs (see below), which is one of the most important topics in development
cooperation at the moment.
The following links will
lead you to the respective Internet-pages of the World Bank:
Strategies
for the fight against poverty; Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP)
Each
developing country should formulate its own strategy following guidelines
like the PRS Sourcebook developed by the World Bank. The formulation of the
strategy is a time consuming process which requires the involevement of the
best experts of the respective country. Currently (March 2004), 35 countries
have finalised their PRSPs and another 20 countries have completed their Interim-PRSP
which serves as a first overview and leads to a full PRSP.
- Comprehensive
Development Framework. This is the guiding principle of
the PRSP-Strategy of the World Bank, proposed by James D. Wolfensohn, President
of the World Bank, in 1999.
- Poverty Net (Main page for
the activities of the fight against poverty)
- Poverty
Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP). This page provides an overview
over the current status of the creation of the PRSPs of the countries involved
in the process. .
- PRSP Document Library.
Download here the Joint World Bank and IMF Staff Assessment Papers of PRSP,
Interim-PRSPs or PRSPs.
- World Development Reports.
A Report covering hot topics in the field of development cooperation, published
annually, each year with a different topic.
- Voices
of the Poor. Three studies on poverty in the world, many poor
people have been interviewed throughout the world.
- "Can
Anyone Hear Us?" analyses the voices of more than 40.000 poor
in 50 countries;
- "Crying
Out for Change" presents the results of studies undertaken in
1999 in 23 countries in the developing world:
- "From
many Lands" investigates in detail the situation in 14
countries
Evaluation within the World Bank
Further topics and activities
- Debt Initiative for the heavily
indebted poor countries (HIPCs)
The principal objective of the Debt Initiative for the heavily indebted
poor countries (HIPCs) is to bring the country's debt burden to sustainable
levels, subject to satisfactory policy performance, so as to ensure that
adjustment and reform efforts are not put at risk by continued high debt
and debt service burdens.
- Millennium Development Goals
The Millennium Development Goals and targets come from the Millennium Declaration
signed by 189 countries, including 147 Heads of State, in September 2000.
The goals and targets are inter-related and should be seen as a whole. They
represent a partnership between the developed countries and the developing
countries determined, as the Declaration states, “to create an environment
– at the national and global levels alike – which is conducive
to development and the elimination of poverty.”
- Goal
1 states: "Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger" and has two
specific targets:
-
Target 1: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people
whose income is less than less than one dollar a day.
- Target
2: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer
from hunger
- Goal 2 deals with
the achievement of universal primary education, Goal 3 with the promotion
of gender equality and empower women. The Goals 4 to 6 focus on health
topics (Reduce child mortality, Improve maternal health, Combat HIV/AIDS,
malaria and other diseases), Goal 7 aims at ensuring environmental sustainability,
while Goal 8 is of a broader scope aiming at developing a global partnership
for development.
There are various
websites on this topic intensely discussed at the moment, participating
agencies are the World Bank, UNDP,
UNESCO (education) and WHO (health).
Documentations, Counts specific information
Publications