WB Chief, BCE stress on long-term funding to primary education

Singapore, Sep 18 (UNI) World Bank (WB) President Paul Wolfowitz and British Chancellor of the Exchequer (BCE) Gordon Brown today called for long-term sustainable funding from donor countries to help achieve universal free primary school education.

''Without an increase in predictable long-term funding, developing countries will fall short in their efforts to hire and train new teachers, build schools, to improve the quality of education,'' Mr Wolfowitz said.

Mr Brown added that 50 billion dollars of the 80 billion dollars needed for primary education, would have to come from the fund and financers of the countries themselves.

This would put an extra responsibility on the World Bank to raise the additional money for implementing the global free primary education, Mr Brown said.

Wolfowitz has also highlighted the plight of the poors, pointing out that they can not be abandoned just because their governments are weak. This would result in penalising the poors twice.

Mr Wolfowitz disclosed that the World Bank would work with institutions outside the Central Government in tackling corruption in developing countries.

An IMF/World Bank report has recommended that if help is not feasible at the country level, then it would be offered through projects on the ground.

It also recommended deploying anti-corruption teams and field-based advisors to tackle the corruption problems in high-risk countries.

Noting lack of political will in some cases, he said, ''Trying to force countries to do something they are unwilling to do is about as productive as pushing on a locked door.'' But he observed that majority of African countries have given priority to governance improvement over the 15 months he has been in the World Bank job.

Mr Wolfowitz also urged the developing countries to work closely with donor countries, banks and international organisations in wiping out corruption.

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