World Bank Discussion Paper On Odious Debt

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From Eurodad | Jubilee USA Partner
One week before this year’s Annual Meetings, 16 civil society organisations and networks from around the world sent a joint letter to the World Bank to complain about both the content of, and consultation process around, the Bank’s recently published discussion paper on odious debt. 

• Read the joint NGO letter 
  
• Read the World Bank’s official reply
• World Bank: “Odious Debt: Some Considerations”

 

 

The letter states that the Bank’s paper entitled “The Concept of Odious Debt: Some Considerations”, published on 7 September 2007 is “missing significant sources and arguments, and is one-sided”. CSOs are also not clear on what exactly the Bank intends to do with written inputs and suggests that “the Bank spells out clearly what it intends to do with the document and the status of the final output”.

More concretely the letter proposes that the World Bank institute “a well-organised peer review process involving external experts. The Bank should actively solicit expert feedback from a range of external specialists in the fields of law, economics, and political science. These specialists should be invited not only to provide written responses but should also be invited to an expert round-table discussion to debate the substance of the paper with yourself and other relevant Bank analysts.”

During the Annual Meetings a reply was received from the Bank in relation to the letter but it is deeply unsatisfactory. The Bank argues that the paper has indeed been peer reviewed by three external experts which exceeds Bank standards in this regard. It also states that the paper is a draft and represents a work in progress. The reply does not answer to the civil society proposal suggesting an expert round-table discussion.

CSOs warmly welcome the fact that the Bank has taken-up the important issue of odious debt following pressure from civil society organisations and financing from the Norwegian Government. However both the paper itself and the process for producing and reviewing it are far below what is needed. CSOs are therefore preparing a further reply to the World Bank.