EARTHKEEPING NEWS
A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY

Volume Three, Number Six
July/August 1994

Call to Action:

Support Women's Empowerment and Change the World Bank

There is not much time left before the 170-nation International Conference on Population and Development, to be held September 5 - 13, in Cairo, Egypt. There is increasing recognition around the world that environmental degradation is a direct result of overpopulation and over consumption. This is linked to social inequality and economic disparity, which is linked to fertility rates.

The population issue highlights the failure of the international community to meet the needs of women for high-quality family planning services, primary health care, basic education, legal rights and access to credit and jobs. The needs of women in these areas should be met, not just to lower birthrates, but because women have a right to control their own lives and reproductive choices.

Only 12% of government aid from the rich nations to developing nations, and only 10% of the budgets of Southern governments, is devoted to these human priority areas — far less than goes to the military.

Write your ideas concerning the percentage of US aid that should go to empower women through primary health care, family planning, basic education and access to credit and jobs to:

J. Brian Atwood, Administrator, Agency for International Development (AID), 2201 C Street, NW, room 5942, Washington DC 20523, (202) 647-9620; fax (202) 647-0148.

The World Bank is the world's largest and most influential development institution, lending over $23 billion a year, much of it to governments and multinational corporations for mega-projects. The Bank's emphasis on agricultural/ resettlement schemes and dam building has decimated pristine rainforest regions in Latin America and Asia and displaced large populations — 20 million people in India alone. Its emphasis on export-promotion has transformed huge stretches of land in the developing world into agribusiness cash-crop farms, taking land out of production to feed local residents. Only 20% of Bank lending goes towards basic needs of the poor — education, family planning, health, nutrition, water supply and sanitation.

Ten percent of the Bank's funding comes from the world's tax payers through government contributions, and the Bank's International Development Association (IDA), which lends to the poorest nations, is entirely funded by taxpayers.

Now is a good time to send a message to the Bank to change its priorities, before its 50th anniversary conference ("50 Years After Bretton Woods: the Future of the IMF and World Bank"), September 29-30, to be followed by their annual general assembly in Madrid, Spain.

You as a tax payer can urge the Bank to:

  • Stop funding destructive mega-projects that displace local populations and damage the environment;
  • Massively increase its lending for health and sanitation, education and family planning;
  • Use a larger proportion of its funds for small-scale lending directly to the poor, through local community foundations, with local citizen groups participating actively on their boards.

Send your views to Lloyd Bentsen, Secretary of the Treasury, 1500 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington DC 20220, (202) 622-5300; fax (202) 622-2599.

Information from EarthAction, 2-'94 and 5-'94, 30 Cottage St., Amherst MA 01002, and from Christian Science Monitor, 5/6/94.

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