Wednesday, March 7, 2018

On The World Bank's "Climate Investment Opportunities in South Asia: Nepal" Paper

Paper can be found here: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/342611515582029095/Climate-investment-opportunities-in-South-Asia-Nepal

What happens to the investment fund amount if it is suddenly found to be insufficient? While we can expect the World Bank's projections of investment amounts (totaling $46 billion in Nepal regarding climate-related projects) to be the result of careful study and testing, it does not play the role first of a developer and then of a financial “bank.” As a bank, its resources are spent on obtaining accurate numbers for the funds. But it does not recognize that a degree of inaccuracy features in all calculations.

The World Bank is precisely a stabilizing entity when it comes to investment in the poor world. That means that it is first a bank oriented towards financial stability; by firmly listing the precise amounts of investment in Nepal, it decides the amount of funds that will be spent in Nepal. But even its second goal is not development for the communities in Nepal, but rather a modification to societal entities depending on how firmly it wishes to align itself with its initial projections of investment funds. Perhaps the World Bank's help is not always certain, while the amount of funds spent on investment is fully certain to the World Bank, and a significant part of its power is oriented towards not changing that projected amount at any cost.

Why haven't the funds listed in this report also contained a margin for times of emergency, or an affirmation of miscalculation in the modeling used? Perhaps because the World Bank does not decide the amount based on what is needed in Nepal, but what funds have arrived to it, what money it can make available for Nepal with absolute 100% certainty. There is another “space,” perhaps even outside the World Bank offices, where the numbers are discussed along with the margin for error and such.

It is important to decide which “layer” of calculations is fully accurate and which isn't. Perhaps $46 billion will certainly arrive to Nepal, but that the $10 billion spent on electric vehicles/transport is a more inaccurate figure? Where in its work as a bank that manages funds is the World Bank autonomous from its sources of funding?

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