Does the World Bank Really Help the Poor?

WASHINGTON – Wealthy nations and international organizations, including the World Bank, spend more than $55 billion annually to better the lot of the world’s 2.7 billion poor people. Yet they have scant evidence that the myriad projects they finance have made any real difference, many economists say.That important fact has left some critics of the World Bank, the largest financier of antipoverty programs in developing countries, dissatisfied, and they have begun throwing down an essential challenge. It is not enough, they say, just to measure how many miles of roads are built, schools constructed or microcredit loans provided. You must also measure whether those investments actually help poor people live longer, more prosperous lives.

It is a common-sense approach that is harder than it sounds, just like the question it seeks to answer: Does aid really work?

For more visit http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/28/international/28lett.html

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