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Q&A: "Innovations Know No Borders"

Interview with Pamela Cox of the World Bank

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 19 2007 (IPS) - "I have experienced first-hand the value of cross-country learning and sharing," said Pamela Cox, World Bank regional vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean, at a meeting here commemorating U.N. Day for South-South cooperation.

Pamela Cox Credit: World Bank

Pamela Cox Credit: World Bank

Participants stressed that developing countries are a dynamic source of ideas and new knowledge which can be of benefit not only to them, but also to the wider world.

Cox highlighted the importance of "practical solutions, beyond ideologies… which go beyond traditional assistance."

"Innovations know no borders," she said.

IPS U.N. Correspondent Mithre J. Sandrasagra spoke to Cox on the sidelines of the meeting.

IPS: Many Middle Income Countries (MICs) have built valuable expertise and are better able to help low-income countries than are countries that comprise the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. How best can the World Bank broker South-South cooperation?


PC: Countries come to the World Bank not just for the money – most of our MICs have choices in terms of financing. They come to us because they are interested in the knowledge. South-South cooperation is very important for us because we would like to be seen not just as a financing bank, but as a knowledge and learning bank.

Countries are sometimes less interested in hearing about the North. For example, hospital reform in Sweden might be very different than hospital reform in Brazil because you have a very different demographic, a different society, a different culture. Countries like to look at how other countries that are more-or-less at their income level – and with some of their same issues – have solved their problems. South-South cooperation is important because the solutions are more relevant.

IPS: Can you point to any trends indicating significant growth in trade and investments in your region?

PC: In the last 20 years we have seen trade double, exports have nearly doubled, imports have nearly doubled. Latin America is becoming a region that is far more connected to the world than it used to be. It does lag some other regions, such as Asia. Trade is mostly external to the region. The big things that Latin America exports are commodity-based – either minerals, oil, or commodities such as soy beans.

IPS: Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programmes provide money to poor people conditional on them making investments in their children&#39s human capital – such as school attendance or regular use of preventive health care services. Can you point to some successful CCT programmes?

PC: Successful CCT programmes are many in Latin America – Mexico and Brazil are the two largest. We have done a lot of analytical work that shows exactly the impact these programmes are having on keeping children in school, reducing poverty, reducing inequality.

IPS: You pointed out today that developing countries are a hub for knowledge. One of the key elements of South-South cooperation is the sharing of experience and expertise. How can the Bank help to share CCT experiences across the South?

PC: We have organised three conferences on CCTs throughout the world and all our offices promote CCTs. While CCTs started in Mexico and Brazil now we see that Egypt, that Morocco, that Turkey, that several countries in Africa are all starting to look at these programmes.

IPS: The U.N. secretary-general&#39s latest report notes that MICs can be challenged to accelerate their provision of development assistance to the most vulnerable nations – including least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing states (SIDS) – without detracting from the duty of donors in the North to fulfill their own commitments. How best can this be achieved?

PC: One of the benefits that the MICs bring to the table is that they have a different development experience. Perhaps the way that Europe or the U.S. developed 100 years ago is very different than the conditions that pertain today. MICs bring not only experience in CCTs, in infrastructure, in water. Some of the issues that they are struggling with are very different from what the North struggled with. This experience is very important to the lower income countries – as important, if not more important, than financial flows from developing countries.

IPS: In 2004, South American presidents signed the Cuzco Declaration proclaiming a 10- country Community of South America, which was supposed to become a European Union- like economic bloc. Is the process still on track?

PC: You get different pushes toward regionalisation in Latin America. Central America is very interested, their finance ministers meet monthly looking toward common systems. In the Caribbean, there is a big push. In South America, MERCOSUR [the Southern Common Market] is the largest bloc. Latin America has not come as far as Europe, for example, on regional cooperation. Part of this is due to the fact that the countries in the region are not very complementary in terms of what they trade.

IPS: Could you explain how membership in the World Bank&#39s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) can promote investment and economic growth?

PC: MIGA guarantees expressly against political risk. It encourages countries to invest by helping to cover the political risk insurance. It has done a big push to encourage South- South investment. It is a tool that will help countries that do not want to take a political risk on to do the investment.

IPS: Mexico recently took steps toward MIGA membership. In this specific case, could you give an example of how MIGA will help enable Mexico to boost its neighbours&#39 development and visa-versa?

PC: We signed that in October. Mexican companies that want to invest in China or Costa Rica, for example, can now get political insurance for their investments. It provides a little bit of help for companies that want to invest in the developing world.

IPS: The World Bank&#39s Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) recently noted that clients have made clear some difficulties of working with the Bank. "There are substantial non- financial costs associated with the partnership," IEG said. Can you explain what these costs are?

PC: We call it the "hassle factor". We would like to change this. We have lowered financial costs. We cut our loan rates in September to the levels of 1997. The other part is making it easier to work with us. We are looking at how we can work faster and smarter, at new sorts of financial instruments, new sorts of lending we can do. We are trying to speed up our reviews, we are trying to be less bureaucratic.

 
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