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Contributions from
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Monitor
USA undermining generic pharma production
Germa-Russian President’s Programme extended
KfW Bank Group promotes good governance
Oil: World Bank and Chad reach agreement
Dispute over World Bank malaria programme
United Nations: Stalled reforms
International peacebuilding efforts inadequate
Liberia: UN negotiates timber embargo
Aid for more trade
06/2006
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[ Malaria ]
Dispute over World Bank programme
An international group of scientists has levelled accusations against the World Bank’s anti-malaria programme in the medical journal The Lancet. The scholars maintain that the Bank has only spent around $ 150 million worldwide for fighting malaria since the end of the 1990s, whereas it had pledged $ 300 to $ 500 million for Africa alone. Furthermore, the researchers, led by Amir Attaran from the University of Ottawa, accused the Bank of having embellished the results of its programme in India. According to governmental data, the number of malaria cases increased significantly in the three states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan in 2002/2003 and did not sink as claimed by the World Bank.
The World Bank repudiated the accusations in the same edition of The Lancet. The Bank expects to spend $ 500 million to combat malaria in Africa and Asia from 2006 to 2008. Moreover, World Bank employees Jean-Louis Sarbib, Gobind Nankani and Praful Patel point out in their counter-statement that the sum spent on fighting malaria in recent years cannot be determined accurately. Aid is increasingly given in the form of sector programmes, which involve multiple donors. This is also the case for the health sector. Therefore, it is difficult to state exactly which donors contributed how much money for what purpose.
The World Bank also repudiates the accusation of having embellished results of its programme in India. Attaran and his colleagues base their assertion on aggregate data for the states. However, the Bank asserts that data from the district-level show clear successes where the World Bank programme was implemented.
It is also denied that the Bank wasted money by using an anti-malarial treatment, to which the virus prevalent in India has long been resistant. Rather, chloroquine is only used in areas where no resistance has developed yet, the World Bank employees stress.
The group headed by Attaran suggests that the World Bank should leave the fight against malaria to other organisations and just contribute the necessary funding. But the bank rejects the proposal, stating in its reply: “World Bank Group President, Paul Wolfowitz, has put the full weight of his leadership behind the Bank’s renewed commitment to malaria, with a strong emphasis on results.” (ell)
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