Working with the World Bank, IMF

The World Bank is often seen as an 'enemy' of developing countries, along with its cousin the International Monetary Fund. Many political parties in developing countries say Governments should not bow down to the dictates of these two institutions. This sounds easy, but is rather difficult in practical terms because they are the biggest multilateral lenders in the world.

They do impose certain conditions on the aid provided, which are necessary in our view given the levels of corruption and lethargy in the Third World.

Rather than casting them as villains, we should pause for a moment to examine some of the projects that they implement worldwide. In Sri Lanka itself, they are engaged in a variety of development projects, including tsunami reconstruction activities.

Apart from development projects per se, the World Bank assesses each country's progress in a variety of spheres including health and education.

For example, the World Bank recently released 'Treasures of the Education System in Sri Lanka', a report which some Leftist parties wrongly interpreted as a blueprint for privatisation of free education.

Now the Bank is planning to hold a competition to award US$ 4 million to the best ideas to provide clean water, sanitation, and energy to local communities in developing countries lacking these basic services.

Entitled, "Innovation in Water, Sanitation, and Energy Services for Poor People," this year's Development Marketplace competition seeks proposals for local, small-scale projects with the potential to be scaled up.

The winners will be selected by an international jury of World Bank and independent development experts at the Development Marketplace event on May 9, 2006 in Washington DC, USA.

This is a worthy project that deserves plaudits for the World Bank. Water, sanitation and energy are three areas where Third World countries fare poorly for want of funds and infrastructure. More than a billion people in developing countries don't have access to clean water, 2.6 billion people don't have access to hygienic facilities and nearly three billion people don't have reliable energy services.

Authorities in the Third World often look to the First World for solving such problems without looking for home-grown solutions. They often ignore their own scientists, innovators and companies and buy technology from abroad, spending huge amounts of foreign exchange.

But solutions to these problems by locals are often very simple and cheap. Previous winning projects include building children's merry-go-rounds that doubled as village water-pumps in South Africa, re using mosque water to irrigate dry fields in Yemen and constructing portable solar energy generators for remote Laotian households to rent.

Sri Lanka is somewhat ahead in this respect, as innovators are actively encouraged. A couple of exhibitions are held per year to showcase new ideas and innovations. Many inventions useful for a variety of fields, including agriculture, have been revealed at these events.

But we hear very little of these innovators and their products afterwards. The snag seems to be that no companies come forward to commercialise these products. The innovators have no funds to commercialise them. This is where the Government and the private sector must step in. It must not be forgotten that a good product has export potential as well.

The Science and Technology Ministry, the National Science Foundation and other relevant organisations must encourage innovators to apply for the World Bank programme and similar international events.