Attempt to marginalise NAM under way in Rome.

The timing of the meeting is significant. As country leaders and senior foreign office staff of over 110 nations gather in Kuala Lumpur to discuss poverty and debt reduction, health and social change, the World Bank is demonstrating that it does its work its own way. WMLR has not been able to locate a representative of the World Bank at the Non Aligned Movement Summit. It does not feature in the list of dozens of invited organisations.

"Those of us in the development community must take off the national and institutional flags that are often attached to projects merely for good public relations at home," said World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn announcing the Rome meeting. "If, as a global donor community, we can get our act together, we will better serve those people in the poor countries who now want to lead their own development efforts."

His message would have been welcomed had it been given at a fringe meeting at NAM2003. Especially as he made a valuable comment as to the destination of aid funds: "Too often, the impact of foreign aid is diluted because it is delivered by multiple, high-cost aid boutiques. A vast consultancy industry has sprung up around aid delivery and is worth $4 billion a year in Africa alone." says the World Bank.

It's not just the "boutiques" - the charity organisations are as bad. With many charities using images of starving or sick children to raise funds a significant proportion of which go into administration - if there was just one nominated charity for each crisis, the proportion of directed aid would increase significantly. But the self interest of the organisers prevents such moves being taken.

The World Bank quotes startling examples of cases including a forestry project in Vietnam where it took donors 18 months and the time of 150 government workers to purchase five vehicles because of differences among the aid agencies over procurement policies.

The World Bank says "Some countries working with the World Bank and other aid groups have been able to strengthen their capacity to deal with donor requirements and better assess their own needs. A small number of countries, such as Uganda, have even begun to decline projects that do not fall within their medium-term development plans. However, most developing countries have yet to reach this kind of institutional strength and need the donor community to ease their burdens."

It's all very laudable. But the timing is dubious.