91405 DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE (Joint Ministerial Committee of the Boards of Governors of the Bank and the Fund on the Transfer of Real Resources to Developing Countries) NINETIETH MEETING WASHINGTON, D.C. – OCTOBER 11, 2014 DC/S/2014-0063 October 11, 2014 Statement by Lilianne Ploumen Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Kingdom of the Netherlands Representing the Constituency of Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, The Netherlands, Romania and Ukraine Statement by Lilianne Ploumen Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Kingdom of the Netherlands Representing the constituency of Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Romania and Ukraine 90th Meeting of the Development Committee October 11, 2014 Washington, D.C. The Development Committee meets (DC) today after several DCs during which we discussed the change process at length. – Our constituency reiterates its support and welcomes the creation of the Global Practices per July 1. In this phase of the reorganization, we wish to call on management to maintain the momentum on the expenditure review’s measures of austerity, while at the same time providing WBG staff – the real capital of the organization – with much-needed and much-deserved clarity. Nevertheless, while this internal housekeeping needs to continue, our focus should turn ever more toward the outside world, where disease, war and poverty demand our attention. First of all there is the alarming evidence of the spread of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Our Constituency is deeply concerned about this growing humanitarian crisis with large socioeconomic consequences. We welcome the swift and strong response by the World Bank Group (WBG). In the coming period, the World Bank Group shall concentrate especially on measures to boost the economies of the most affected countries. Of course, close collaboration with the IMF, World Health Organization, and other UN agencies and international partners is imperative. Secondly, the situation in South Sudan and the Central African Republic is still fragile, and conflicts in Iraq and Syria have been affecting millions of people. Also our constituency has been affected by fragility. We welcome the continued support of both the World Bank Group and the IMF in helping Ukraine addressing its economic challenges. In these times of crises, we urge the WBG to stand by its client countries, help them absorb the economic shocks, while building resilience and laying the foundations for medium-term growth. It is our duty as governors to make sure that the WBG continues to play this role while sticking to its mandate and maintaining focus on its central mission of achieving the twin goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity. Promoting Shared Prosperity Although the global economy is still recovering, the recovery is vulnerable and uneven. Inequality has risen in recent years in a number of countries, both advanced and emerging, which is a worrisome trend. Our constituency therefore welcomes the fact that this DC agenda revolves around the goal of promoting shared prosperity. Promoting shared prosperity at country level involves different country-specific challenges and trade- offs. We encourage the WBG to apply a tailor-made approach using all knowledge and expertise across the Group. A One World Bank Group approach is key to delivering and implementing this new vision of shared prosperity. With the Global Practices, lessons learned on one side of the world can become lessons applied on the other side of the world – nevertheless, we should acknowledge that every country is different and therefore methods to boost shared prosperity that have worked in one country might not work in the next. Country-level expertise should remain the bedrock of any country-level program. Our constituency would like to highlight in particular the importance of infrastructure, often the way to provide more people with access to the growth process and to thus boost shared prosperity. In that context, my constituency supports the current Global Infrastructure Facility proposal. The GIF aims at playing a useful role through leveraging public capital with private sector funds to finance the infrastructure gap. It can help build pipelines of well-prepared and efficiently financed bankable projects. With this instrument, the WBG can be of added value in addressing the challenges of infrastructure finance and development. Gender Equality Agenda at the World Bank Group Our constituency reiterates the importance of gender equality both intrinsically and as a means of pursuing the Bank Group’s goals of reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity. We therefore welcome that this development committee will be used to discuss the review of the progress in the implementation of the WBG Gender Equality Agenda. Our constituency supports the recommendations stemming from ‘The Update on the Implementation of the Gender Equality Agenda’. Firstly, the level of ambition needs to be raised in line with the WBG strategy that has been endorsed by the Governors last October, in order to achieve the goal of ending poverty by 2030. Secondly, the reorganized structure of the Bank around Global Practices (GPs) should enhance the capacity of the WBG to assist client countries with improving gender outcomes. Our constituency shares the analysis of the WBG that it is insufficient to solely work on the economic empowerment of women, but that we also need to strengthen political participation, eradicate violence against women (including early- and forced marriages) en bolster sexual and reproductive rights and health, also in conflict situations. Macro-Economic Developments in Low-Income Developing Countries Our constituency welcomes the discussion on the Macro-Economic Developments in Low-Income Developing Countries (LIDCs). As LIDCs have distinctive economic and social performance aspects, it makes sense to treat them as a separate subgroup within the wider category of developing countries. This nonetheless heterogeneous group contains large exporters, frontier market economies, and fragile/conflict-affected states (FCSs). We call upon the WBG to ensure that the reorganisation and budget cuts will not affect the Bank's potential for working in fragile and conflict affected states. Having high quality staff closer to host countries through the hub in Nairobi as well as in country offices has made a substantial difference which enables important further work. We underline the effort of the WBG to reaching the vision of shared prosperity in fragile states. After all, a disproportionate part of the poorest people in the world lives there. Moreover, as FCSs will form IDA’s main client base in the future, we need to strengthen our engagement in these countries to be successful. Our constituency reiterates that this requires a less risk-averse management framework. Reform of the Safeguard policy We welcome the ongoing review of the safeguard policy and encourage the Bank to aim for a new safeguard policy that receives broad support. Our constituency therefore invites all CSOs working on strong safeguards to engage constructively in the consultations with the WBG that have recently been opened. 2 Our constituency reiterates its view that effective safeguards are core contributors to achieving development impact. Safeguards allow the WBG to maximise the positive impacts of its activities, and minimise the potential harm to the environment and communities affected. 3