China and the World Bank Join Forces

In Mauritania and Liberia, the Chinese government for the first time joined the World Bank-sponsored donor meetings which coordinate aid to developing countries. China’s participation reflects a gradually increasing cooperation between Beijing and the Washington-based financial institution. From a civil society perspective, this is a mixed bag.

In November 2007, Congo’s Minister of Mines promised the DRC’s donor meeting (or consultative group) to publish a critical report by a high-ranking government commission which reviewed the country’s mining contracts. The report was an important effort to create more accountability regarding the use of the country’s mineral wealth. Yet at the end of January, the DRC government awarded two mining concessions to Sinohydro and China Railway Engineering Corporation as part of a $5 billion agreement which was financed by China Exim Bank. The concession was awarded without any transparency, and without the commission’s report having been published. Given the DRC’s history of corruption in the mining sector, it would have been essential for the Chinese investors to insist that the government fulfill its commitment regarding accountability in the sector before awarding new concessions.

Yet donor meetings are not all about fighting corruption and protecting the environment. They usually take place in Northern capitals, and reflect the interests of Northern donors in pushing certain economic policies and investment programs. In a well-researched study about China’s aid policy in Africa, Penny Davies of the Swedish aid agency Diakonia found that the Chinese government stayed away from donor meetings because it perceived their agenda to be driven by Northern donors rather than the interests of the recipient governments. The Chinese government pursues its own interests in its aid policy, but has always encouraged recipient governments to adopt economic policies which reflect their own interests and experiences.

Coordination is welcome, but monopolies are not. As Chris Alden, a lecturer at the London School of Economics, writes in his new book, China in Africa, China has effectively broken the Western monopoly over development. From a civil society perspective, we will support any steps by the Chinese authorities to adopt international commitments on fighting corruption and protecting the environment. At the same time, we will deplore if the space for Southern governments to follow their own economic policies is closed by a new monopoly of aid donors.

Peter Bosshard is the policy director of International Rivers. His blog appears at www.internationalrivers.org/en/blog/227