World Bank admits ignoring own rules on fighting poverty. Written by Marcel Mbamalu (with agency report) –ngrguardiannews.com

THE World Bank may have reneged on its commitment to fighting poverty when it reportedly admitted that it had failed to follow its own rules, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). In specific terms, the bank, which bankrolls dams, roads and other big projects in Africa and other developing countries admitted failure in protecting the poor people who are negatively affected by the dams. ICIJ’s Sasha Chavkin and Mike Hudson, in conjunction with The Huffington Post, reported that the World Bank’s recent announcement amounts to “a reversal of its previous efforts to downplay concerns raised by human rights activists and others working on behalf of the dispossessed –people evicted from their land, sometimes in violent ways, to make way for World Bank-financed initiatives.” Both the ICIJ and The Huffington Post had also informed bank officials that they had found “systemic gaps in the bank's protections for people who lose homes or jobs because of development projects.” The media outlets alleged that the World Bank “failed to respond to the news organisations’ repeated requests over the past several weeks for an interview with Jim Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank Group, the parent institution. The news outlets have been pressing the bank for months for answers to questions about how well it enforces its own social and environmental safeguards.” Read More