Reform: World Bank and Western Donor Policy to Underdeveloped Countries Need Reform - Essay Example

Reform: World Bank and Western Donor policy to underdeveloped countries need reform The donor policy adapted by the World Bank and Western Donors in relation to giving aid to the underdeveloped countries needs reform. The need for change emanates from the concern that the current World Bank and Western Donor policy is a tool for violation of sovereignty of nations, and a platform for subordination and negative influence of the internal jurisdiction powers of underdeveloped nations (Press TV, n.p.). This proposal for reform seeks to address the problem of inequality treatment received by the Third World and other underdeveloped countries, which feel that the World Bank and Western Donor are treating them with discrimination on the international front. This is because, while the major economic and world powers have made several internal jurisdiction laws that do not seem to suit the international standards, such countries do not receive the threat of political, social or economic sanctions from the World Bank and Western Donors (Holman, n.p.). However, when the poor and the underdeveloped countries in the world enacts internal jurisdiction laws that do not suit the interest of the major world powers, then, the World Bank and Western Donors reacts through issuing political and economic sanctions, purely because the underdeveloped countries are in need of donor funding to run most of their internal affairs (Holman, n.p.). Thus, to address this problem, the proposal recommends a reform in the World Bank and Western Donor policy, so that the policy will change from economic, social and political considerations when advancing aid and donor funding to the underdeveloped countries, into adapting donor policy that only considers pure humanitarian interests as the basis for offering aid and extending donor funding to the underdeveloped countries. The need to reform the policy is because, as it is now, the World Bank and Western Donors give aid to the underdeveloped countries, on condition that such countries fulfill the policies that are favored and supported by the western countries. Thus, any attempt to go against their wish then results to sanctions and withdrawal of donor aid to such countries. For example, in a recent development in regard to homosexual rights, the World Bank and Western Donors, which include the USA, Britain, Denmark, Norway and Netherlands withdrew their annual donations to Uganda to a tune of $900 million, after the Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni signed into law a Anti Homosexuality bill (Press TV, n.p.). After the signing of the Anti Homosexuality bill into law by the Ugandan President, the USA reacted by issuing a threat of withdrawal of its donor aid to Uganda, with the USA secretary of State John Kerry warning that, “Washington could cut aid to the East African nation over the discriminatory move” (Muhumuza, n.p.). Similarly, the British government reacted to the announcement that the bill has been signed, through announcing that “it had frozen £11.1 million of the £26.9 million it had allocated as total direct aid to Uganda” (Nakkazi, n.p.). The other countries which have joined in cutting aid to Uganda for the same reasons include Finland, Italy, Spain and France. In the words of the USA President, Barack Obama, the move to sign the Anti Homosexuality bill “will complicate our valued relationship with Uganda” (Holman, n.p.). The great interest in the current donor policy adapted by the World Bank and Western Donors emanates from the fact that sovereignty of nations needs to be redefined in the 21st century. During the late 19th century and the early 20th century, various tactics were applied towards subduing nations into the will and rule of the strong nations. Such methods included colonization and declaration of war, where the strong nations forcefully took over the territories of the weak nations, or declared war towards the nation that threatened their supremacy respectively (Holman, n.p.). However, after the end of colonialism and the declaration of independence for different nations in the world, nations were meant to interaction the basis of mutual respect and interests in the international front. Nevertheless, the concept of subduing and insubordination has continued to prevail up to the 21st century, where the strong nations are applying political, social and economic sanctions in order to insubordinate other countries that do not seem to be willing to trade their sovereignty for economic, social or political gains (Press TV, n.p.). Thus, the donor policy adapted by the World Bank and Western Donors becomes an issue of concern, since the policy seem to be the main tool that is left for use by the politically and economically strong nations, to dominate and insubordinate other less developed and poor countries. The effect of such donor policies is that; they support political and economic dominance of the strong countries over the underdeveloped nations, through enabling the strong nations to secure different kinds of gains from the weak nations, at the expense of their independence and sovereignty (Holman, n.p.). The benefit of changing the donor policy is that; pegging the donation and aids to the underdeveloped countries on the fulfillment of policy conditions set by the western countries serves to interfere with the internal jurisdiction of a country, through imposing into such a country some political, social and cultural policies that are not in conformity with its internal national values and culture (Nakkazi, n.p.). While the western countries are involved in donor funding for political, social and economic reasons and thus extend aids to different countries for different reasons, the World Bank is supposed to be a neutral global institution, which offers donations and aid to the poor and underdeveloped countries purely on humanitarian basis (Muhumuza, n.p.). Therefore, the World Bank donor and aid policy should change, to reflect a bipartisan interest approach, where the institution offers aid based on the needs that the poor and the underdeveloped countries have, without interfering in matters of their internal jurisdiction. The proposal to reform the World Bank and Western Donor policy from the current social-political oriented considerations into purely humanitarian basis will solve the Third World countries subordination and domination by the strong the developed countries. This is because, through the application of humanitarian basis as the only consideration when extending donor funding and aid into underdeveloped countries, the World Bank and Western Donors will help in ensuring that all countries interact on a level ground internationally (Press TV, n.p.). The counter proposal to this recommendation is that the donor policy should be pegged both on humanitarian and socio-political considerations, to enable the World Bank and Western Donors safeguard the principles and policies that reflect their values (Muhumuza, n.p.). In this respect, the counter proposal argues, it would be possible for the World Bank and Western Donors to ensure that other nations do not enact discriminatory laws, which discriminate against some sections of the society, such as the homosexuals (Holman, n.p.). Considering that the application of the economic and political sanctions would be the most effective tool for ensuring that countries are adhering to the internationally set standards of social and political policies, it serves to ensure that the sovereignty of a country is not abused through enactment of discriminatory laws (Muhumuza, n.p.). Nevertheless, the proposal to reform the donor policy holds that such argument would not work in a world full on inequality, where the strong nations are only dominating and subordinating the underdeveloped nations, while the same cannot be done to other developed nations. Thus, if such counterproposal can work, the discriminatory tendencies of the World Bank and Western Donors should be terminated, so that the interactions by nations on the global and international front will on the basis of equality and mutual respect of interests (Nakkazi, n.p.). Thus, it is vital that the World Bank and Western Donor policy is reformed, to reflect the sovereignty, equality and mutual respect for all nations. This way, the underdeveloped countries in the world will feel as equal partners on the international stage, and thus will adhere to the necessary international standards that bind all nations. Works Cited Holman, Michael. Donors should have shown a better grasp of local politics. Financial Times, March 5, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2014 from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/adc37f3e-a3c5-11e3-aa85-00144feab7de.html#axzz2vbNdPQGY Muhumuza, Rodney. US aid threat over anti-gay law in Uganda. The Scotsman, February 26, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2014 from http://www.scotsman.com/news/world/us-aid-threat-over-anti-gay-law-in-uganda-1-3320034 Nakkazi, Esther. Donors threaten aid cuts if Uganda passes harsh anti-gay Bill. The East African November 24, 2013. Retrieved March 10, 2014 from http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/Donors-threaten-aid-cuts-if-Uganda-passes-harsh-anti-gay-Bill/-/2558/1628256/-/jcbgu4z/-/index.html Press TV. World Bank and Western Donors Cut Aid to Uganda over Anti-gay Law, Mar 4, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2014 from http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/03/04/353251/world-bank-and-western-donors-cut-aid-to-uganda-over-antigay-law/ Read More