WORLD BANK REGRETS REPORT AUTHOR'S DEPARTURE.
Ravi Kanbur, the author of the World Bank's annual World Development Report has left following a fierce internal row over the report's content, reports the Financial Times (p.7). Kanbur, a former academic at Cornell University in the US, left after a dispute over the appropriate role of free markets in developing countries.
Bank staff said Kanbur's emphasis on income redistribution brought him into conflict with other World Bank economists, who argued that the promotion of growth through market liberalization was the most effective weapon in combating poverty. A paper entitled "Growth Is Good" produced earlier this year by David Dollar was seen as a direct challenge to Kanbur's views.
Separately, the Guardian (UK, p.14) notes that World Bank chief spokeswoman Caroline Anstey, said in a statement that Kanbur had repeatedly been given an assurance that the World Development Report would be objective and analytical, but that "he himself felt at odds with some other voices in the Bank over the emphasis."
Noting that influential government departments, including the US Treasury and the UK's Department for International Development, also wanted a focus on economic growth, the FT says development campaigners consulted on the report earlier this year reacted with dismay to the news. The resignation marked "the ultimate triumph for the Neanderthal forces within the World Bank," said OXFAM Senior Policy Adviser Kevin Watkins.
"Ravi tried to bring distribution to the heart of the debate on development," Watkins noted. "His departure is a clear signal to developing country governments that they should go for growth above all else. It is a denial of all the thinking introduced by [World Bank President] James Wolfensohn over the last few years."
The Guardian also quotes Alex Wilks of the Bretton Woods Project as saying: "Coming soon after Joe Stiglitz departed as chief economist, this is a major blow for an institution trying to position itself as a 'knowledge bank' and a 'listening bank'. It raises questions of who really calls the shots and what evidence or opinions about the impacts of globalization they are trying to suppress."
A former Bank employee who had worked closely with Kanbur also said: "I suspect Ravi is very concerned about letting down organizations and groups involved in the consultation process. He's taken the consultation exercise extremely seriously. If there's pressure on him to weaken his message, he would be very unhappy."
But the Bank denied that Kanbur's departure reflected a climbdown in response to external pressure, the FT says. "The final report will reflect the World Bank's views, not simply those of the US Treasury," a Bank spokesperson said. The report did not mark a return to the free-market "Washington consensus" and would not be toned down from the draft version circulated earlier this year, she added. "The World Development Report will continue to reflect the main themes of the draft, following consultation with policymakers, NGOs and others."
A Bank official also denied that the institution was being leant on by US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, notes the Guardian.