World Bank Forecasts and Planning in the Third World

1989 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Cole
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Third World ◽  
Peer Group ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Long Term Trends ◽  
The Third World ◽  
Economic Growth Rates

The growth forecasts of the World Bank have become increasingly influential for the planning efforts of developing countries. However, after reviewing these forecasts this author concludes that the projections of the Bank for the economic growth rates both of the industrial and of the developing countries are systematically biased, and its estimates of the locomotive effect for developing countries are ambiguous. A similar pattern is reflected in the forecasts of the major United Nations agencies, in particular the Secretariat and UNCTAD. These forecasts are not readily explained by the data presented or by the forecasting methods used by the agencies. Rather, the explanation appears to lie in the need to rationalize forecasts within the context of a particular institutional imperative. An alternative model of forecasting is suggested which shows how peer group and pressures within the interagency system have resulted in a misplaced consensus about long-term trends, changed the methods used, undermined the potential benefits of the forecasting exercise, and ultimately harmed the situation of many people in the developing countries.

Natural Resources and Problems of Development

1974 ◽  
Vol 9 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 179-184
Author(s):  
Per Antonsen
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Third World ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Mineral Resources ◽  
World Market ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Industrial Enterprises ◽  
The Third World

The author focuses on problems in the economy of the developing countries likely to arise as a consequence of mineral exploitation in the new territories. A general shortage of mineral resources, although predicted, should not uncritically be adopted as a sufficient explanation of the demonstrated interest of industrial enterprises in undertaking heavy investments in the new territories. The economic security claimed by institutions financing large-scale investments, may just as likely force the companies to seek options for long-term supplies from these areas, unhampered by the politically caused instabilities perceived in the Third World. This development may tend to push the developing countries into the role of subsidiary suppliers in the world market. The committees preparing the UN Conference on the Law of the Sea have so far taken no realistic measures to counteract this possibility, which may prove detrimental to the economies of several developing countries. The Conference will, in the opinion of the author, provide little but a settlement of disputed interests among the coastal states.

The Deterioration of the Food Situation in the Third World and the Capitalist System

1981 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-262
Author(s):  
Ernest Feder
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Third World ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Green Revolution ◽  
Capitalist System ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Staple Foods ◽  
The Third World

Hunger and malnutrition are today associated with the capitalist system. The evidence points to a further deterioration of the food situation in the Third World in the foreseeable future, as a result of massive capital and technology transfers from the rich capitalist countries to the underdeveloped agricultures operated by transnational concerns or private investors, with the active support of development assistance agencies such as the World Bank. Contrary to the superficial predictions of the World Bank, for example, poverty is bound to increase and the purchasing power of the masses must decline. Particular attention must be paid to the supply of staple foods and the proletariat. This is threatened by a variety of factors, attributable to the operation of the capitalist system. Among them are the senseless waste of Third World resources caused by the foreign investors' insatiable thirst for the quick repatriation of super-profits and the increasing orientation of Third World agricultures toward high-value or export crops (which are usually the same), an orientation which is imposed upon them by the industrial countries' agricultural development strategies. Even self-sufficiency programs for more staple foods, such as the ill-reputed Green Revolution, predictably cannot be of long duration.

Plundering the Poor: The Role of the World Bank in the Third World

1983 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 649-660
Author(s):  
Ernest Feder
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Third World ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Industrial Countries ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
The World ◽  
The Third World

The World Bank, the most important so-called development assistance agency, annually dispenses billions of dollars to Third World governments, ostensibly to “develop” their economies through a variety of loan projects. But even a superficial analysis reveals that the Bank is the perfect mechanism to help (i.e., subsidize) the large transnational corporations from the industrial countries to expand their industrial, commercial, and financial activities in the Third World, at the expense of the latter and particularly at the expense of the rural and urban proletariat. This article discusses Cheryl Payer's recent book, The World Bank: A Critical Analysis, in which she analyzes the Bank's role in the Third World and sets forth the major reasons why poverty, hunger, and malnutrition, as well as unemployment, and all the adverse social phenomena associated with them, are on the increase.

The Debt Tables of the World Bank

1994 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 693-697
Author(s):  
Martin Dent
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Third World ◽  
Debt Crisis ◽  
Great Care ◽  
Major Area ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Income Groups ◽  
The World

As members of the Debt Crisis Network of Charities and Non-Governmental Organisations, my colleague, Bill Peters, and I, Co-Chairmen of the Campaign for Jubilee 2000, were invited to the annual presentation in London of the World Bank's very detailed Debt Tables that are prepared with great care each year by Malvina Pollock and her team in Washington. They draw on statistics from 129 (116 in 1992–3) third-world governments, which are dealt with country by country in four pages of analysis in Volume 2, having been aggregated in Volume 1 to give totals for each major area, and for different income groups. Both sets of figures include lengthy and informative introductions analysing the changes and structures in debt and finance for developing countries during the last year.

Development and the Environment—A Third World Perspective

1988 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 464-468
Author(s):  
Prem Kumar ◽  
K. K. Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Third World ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
The Third ◽  
Sustainable Economic Development ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
The Third World

Sustainable economic development and the environment are the two sides of a coin. The World Bank as the largest financier of the Third World development must seek not only a decent return on its investment, but it must also ensure that development projects are appropriate and in the best interests of developing countries. To achieve these goals, the Third World must be allowed to make its own decisions on development issues. This requires the substantial dilution of the World Bank's power and an enhanced role for the Third World technical manpower to act as catalysts for development and technology transfer. Sustainable economic development will remain as a theoretical concept unless this orientation is brought about in the World Bank. Without changes, the World Bank has the potential of becoming the largest agent of environmental degradation in the world.

The World Bank and the Third World: Reflections of a sceptic

Prospects ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 294-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milagros Fernández
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Third World ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
The Third World
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