NGOs

websites: Friends of Lake Turkana and Turkana Basin Institute
email: ikalangelei [at] gmail [dot] com

website
email: pai [at] loxinfo [dot] co [dot] th
cell: +66 81 422 0111

A Review of The World’s Banker, A Story of Failed States, Financial Crises, and the Wealth and Poverty of Nations by Sebastian Mallaby (Penguin Press, October 2004)

In The World’s Banker, Sebastian Mallaby presents an insightful account of the World Bank during the presidency of James Wolfensohn. The author loses his cool when he discusses the role of advocacy groups that campaign against Bank projects, substituting research with polemic and a substantive debate with catchy slogans.

Dear Messrs. Wolfowitz and de Rato,

We are writing to express our dismay at the World Bank’s and IMF’s reaction to the Singaporean government’s ban on about 20 representatives from five NGOs from attending the upcoming Annual Meetings. We are also dismayed at your institution’s reactions to the pressure exerted by Singapore on the Indonesian authorities to prevent civil society activities on Batam island.

An Interview with NAPE by Terri Hathaway, International Rivers

Background

In several recent publications, including his recently published book The World’s Banker and an article in Foreign Policy entitled "NGOs: Fighting Poverty, Hurting the Poor," author Sebastian Mallaby identified the Ugandan NGO, National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE), as an example of NGOs that do more harm than good for development. NAPE was instrumental in halting the proposed Bujagali Dam, Uganda, a project found to be an economically poor deal for the government, as well as having social and environmental costs.

Sebastian Mallaby, a columnist with the Washington Post, recently published a new book on the World Bank (The World’s Banker, Penguin Press, September 2004). In his book and in separate articles that appeared in Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, Mallaby disparages non–governmental organizations such as International Rivers, and independent bodies such as the World Commission on Dams. Below is a preliminary response from International Rivers:

A declaration and set of demands from indigenous peoples' and NGO representatives, presented to ADB President Tadao Chino at the Asian Development Bank's 34th Annual Meeting in May 2001 in Honolulu, Hawaii.