Editorial Comment: Welcome flexibility from World Bank

The World Bank’s decision to support Zimbabwe’s efforts in fighting coronavirus is significant for recognising that it is a crisis requiring extraordinary responses.

Zimbabwe will get US$7 million to fight the pandemic.

Of the total figure, US$5 million is from the World Bank’s Global Financing Facility Trust Fund, while the remainder will be redirected from the ongoing Zimbabwe Idai Recovery Project, which was set up to assist communities affected by Cyclone Idai.

Cyclone Idai hit Zimbabwe in March last year and affected 270 000 people. An estimated 340 people died as a result, with many others missing. Many people lost their homes with the districts of Chimanimani and Chipinge being the hardest hit.

Schools, infrastructure and agriculture suffered heavily.

The World Bank decision trashes the argument that Zimbabwe was on its own in the fight against Covid-19 because it owed the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Bank.

Just over two weeks ago, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) used the argument of Zimbabwe’s arrears to the World Bank and AfDB as a pretext for refusing to extend relief to Harare.

This was after the executive board of the IMF had announced a US$500 million package in grant-based debt service relief to 25 countries under the IMF’s revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) as part of the fund’s response to help address the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The IMF said then that the relief would help the countries benefiting to channel more of their “scarce financial resources towards vital emergency medical and other relief efforts”.

Countries benefiting under the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust are Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, The Gambia, Guinea (Conakry), Guinea (Bissau), Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, the Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Togo and Yemen.

Zimbabwe was a noticeable absentee from the list of beneficiaries, even though the country had launched an international appeal for a US$2,2 billion humanitarian aid because of inadequate resources to mount an effective campaign and offensive against coronavirus.

In contrast, AfDB continues to support Zimbabwe even though the country is in arrears.

In fact, it is AfDB that continues to demonstrate remarkable visionary leadership in the way it is shepherding the continent’s economies towards Agenda 2063, a credible platform on which Africa can build its future development.

Agenda 2063 takes full account of the policy difficulties and pitfalls of the past, including civil strife and poor governance.

Crucially, it proposes strategies to overcome the challenges African economies confront.

Agenda 2063 also seeks to inspire African countries to soldier on the basis of historical collaboration and solidarity that were crucial in helping the countries to emerge victorious from their colonial past.

So the World Bank’s support is significant because it demonstrates flexibility in responding to unforeseen crises.

It is an important decision informed by profound considerations.

The World Bank has been established in Zimbabwe longer than the other international financial institutions represented in the country. Whereas, the IMF at one stage closed offices in Zimbabwe, the World Bank remained behind and on the ground, conducting considerable technical and analytical work.

During that period it has been able to identify small projects that benefited from its support, examples being the on-going Zimbabwe Idai Recovery Fund and before that the Zimbabwe Reconstruction Fund (ZIMREF) and the relaying of the network of pipes for treated water in the capital following the worst cholera outbreak in the country.

A total of 98 596 cases of cholera were recorded during the outbreak while 4 369 people died during the outbreak.

Cognisant of the extraordinary circumstances, the World Bank supported the replacement of the capital’s network of pipes for delivering treated water.

In fact, the World Bank often came in for criticism for too much focus on technical and analytical work, even in the face of health and natural disasters, simply because of the arrears.   

For once, the World Bank has demonstrated flexibility in the way it deals with Zimbabwe.

That is what the country asks for — that issues affecting it be assessed on their own merit, and that it should not be made to suffer further because of arrears to international financial institutions.

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