Is world bank ignoring the environment?

• Position: YOUR LIFE

Concern about the World Bank's recent merger of its environment and infrastructure units is being expressed by the World Resources Institute, Washington, D.C. "The question is whether the Bank will implement its new approach in a way consistent with its promises;' states WRI President Jonathan Lash.

In its restructuring, the World Bank integrated its vice president of Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development and its vice president of Infrastructure into one position: vice president of Sustainable Development. "This reorganization raises a number of questions regarding how the Bank's safeguards framework will function without an independent vice presidency for the environment," stresses WRI representative Smita Nakhooda.

"For the Bank to realize its potential to help client countries integrate environmental considerations into development projects and policies, and to exercise global leadership on environmental challenges, it must do more than design appropriate organizational structures. Success is at least as dependent on getting the concepts, incentives, and politics right."

A WRI policy paper details how the evidence never has been stronger that protecting the environment is compatible with the World Bank's development objectives, as well as essential to achieving them...