News
|
||||
Poverty
reduction key issue at World Bank donor conference The GOSL, which was expected to provide the PRS during the spring meeting of the World Bank in Washington DC last month, asked for more time to finalize the study which will be the centrepiece of discussion at the Kandy meeting. The Sri Lanka delegation at the Washington meeting was reminded that it was imperative the poverty report be ready long before the donor conference. Officially called the Sri Lanka Development Forum (SLDF), the Kandy meeting is not a pledging session, unlike the Aid Group meetings of the past, although there is nothing to prevent participating donors from announcing what priority areas they will support and with how much aid. A joint assessment by the three major participants in the SLDF – namely the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation -- estimates that the value of "asset losses" caused by the tsunami last December amounted to some 4.6 per cent of Sri Lanka's gross domestic product (GDP), and that reconstruction will require investments of approximately $ 1.6 billion. The PRS will cover all aspects of poverty reduction in the country including the North-East. According to World Bank estimates, over 4.0 million Sri Lankans live below the poverty line of less than a dollar a day. However, as the tsunami has affected livelihoods in key sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, and tourism, the PRS will deal substantively with post-tsunami needs. This would be in keeping with outgoing World Bank President James Wolfensohn's view that reconstruction should not mean "reconstruction of poverty." Representatives from all major donor countries – along with a finance ministry delegation from Sri Lanka-- will participate in the SLDF which will be chaired by Praful Patel, World Bank's Vice President for South Asia. The World Bank's current Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) for Sri Lanka is based on the PRS (i.e. "Regaining Sri Lanka") presented at the 2002 SLDF and cannot be updated until a new PRS is discussed and agreement reached between donors and Sri Lanka on implementation and funding. The donors at the upcoming meeting expect the PRS to provide details on
Because post-tsunami reconstruction is expected to be a central element in the government's PRS, some donors are concerned that unless arrangements (e.g. a "joint mechanism") for implementing agreed reconstruction proposals are in place, discussion of the government's PRS would be impractical. The European Union, for instance, is said to have proposed that the SLDF be postponed until the "joint mechanism" has been created. Mano
Tittawela for Washington tsunami summit The summit is expected to provide a high-level forum for corporate representatives, senior government officials from the hardest hit areas and representatives from NGOs working on reconstruction to discuss ways for the private sector to help and support the reconstruction effort, four months after the tsunami devastated the lives of millions in Asia and Africa. Getting pledged monies spent is the focus of the seminar which would also be addressed by Jan Egeland, UN Under-Secretary-General, Humanitarian Affairs; Richard C. Holbrooke, Chairman Asia Society; Sri Mulyani Indrawati Minister National Development Planning Indonesia; Kantathi Suphamongkhon, Minister of Foreign Affairs Thailand; Mano Tittawela, Senior Advisor to the President and Chairman Task Force For Rebuilding the Nation Sri Lanka and Robert B. Zoellick, United States Deputy Secretary of State. The seminar is being organised by Asia Society, The Asia Foundation, U.S.-ASEAN Business Council, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. |
||||
Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
