DRC and World Bank Funding

DRC and World Bank Funding



March 2007 
- Funding for water supplies and roads for the capital 
city of Kinshasa will be the first grant of a new streamlined 
funding process the World Bank has approved for the Democratic 
Republic of the Congo, DRC. 
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz and EU Development 
Commissioner Jean-Louis Michel urged the international 
community to move quickly in supporting the reconstruction 
efforts of the DRC's new government. 
At a news conference in Kinshasa Friday, Wolfowitz and Michel 
emphasized the critical importance of translating the 
dividends of peace into concrete changes in the lives of those 
who live in this resource rich but poverty stricken nation of 
66 million people. 
"We need to move fast, much faster than we normally do in 
long-term development programs," Wolfowitz said. "The people 
of this country have suffered too much; they need to see the 
results of peace. They need to see it in six months, not in 
six years." 
Wolfowitz said the World Bank's board had approved new 
procedures in order to be able to respond much more rapidly 
than in the past to countries in emergency situations. 
EU Development Commissioner Jean-Louis Michel confers with 
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz in Kinshasa, DRC. 
He said the first grant under these procedures would be one 
this month for US$180 million to build roads and provide water 
in Kinshasa, creating jobs in the process. This is part of 
what could be as much as US$380 million in grants to the DRC 
this year from the World Bank. 
"We're already beginning to plan projects for 2008 and our 
overall horizon would be $1.4 billion over the next three 
years," the World Bank president said. 
"There's a good deal of money that is committed to Congo that 
we haven't been able to disburse because in many areas there 
is weak capacity to administer programs," Wolfowitz 
acknowleged. "It's important where we have money to build 
roads or build schools or provide water to find mechanisms to 
deliver that, and if the government institutions are too weak 
to do it then sometimes we have to improvise." 
"But the important thing," he said, "is to try to speed up the 
speed with which these projects are implemented so that people 
can see real results on the ground." 
To help fight corruption, Wolfowitz said that in applying this 
new process the Bank would use "the very highest standards 
that we are able to apply to ensure that procurement is honest 
and contracting is transparent." 
During their visit, Wolfowitz and Michel met with Prime 
Minister Antoine Gizenga, and his cabinet and with President 
Joseph Kabila, the country's first democratically elected 
president in 40 years after many years of war. 
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz meets with DRC President 
Joseph Kabila. March 8, 2007. 
Kabila became president of the Democratic Republic of the 
Congo after the assassination of his father Laurent-Désiré 
Kabila in January 2001. On November 27, 2006, he was confirmed 
as the first Congolese president to be democratically elected 
by universal direct suffrage. 
During an official dinner organized by the government, 
President Kabila emphasized the importance of this high-level 
visit for Congo. 
Wolfowitz and Michel also met with Jean-Pierre Bemba, the main 
contender during the recent election. 
Wolfowitz and Michel held a meeting in Kinshasa that brought 
together the country's 15 main development partners where they 
underscored the need of coordinating assistance and moving 
with speed. The donors were from the United Nations, Belgium, 
the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Holland, Italy, Poland, 
Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United 
States. 
Commissioner Michel, representing the DRC's other major 
development donor besides the World Bank, said that the EU is 
donating 161 million euros in 2007 towards reconstruction 
across many sectors of the economy. 
"The Congo is rich with potential and human resources, and we 
are here to help the country and its new government in its 
work, and I think that other donors will follow our example, 
said Michel. 
"In order for the people of Congo to succeed in meeting the 
very daunting challenges this country faces we must work 
together like never before," said Wolfowitz. "We can only ask 
the people of Congo to do more if we the donors are ready to 
ask the same of ourselves." 
Before coming to Kinshasa, Wolfowitz visited Kisangani, scene 
of fighting between Ugandan and Rwandan forces in 1999 and 
2000 as well as more recent outbreaks of violence. 
Emery Mumbere Matembela, left, an ex-combatant who is taking 
training courses to reintegrate himself in civilian life, 
meets World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz in Kisangani. 
He met with a wide range of people including ex-combatants 
starting a new life of demobilization and reintegration, 
business leaders, and women activists. 
With fears lingering that a relapse into conflict is still a 
possibility across the country's far east, several of the 
former soldiers told their personal stories to Wolfowitz at a 
regional center of the National Commission for Disarmament, 
Demobilization and Reintegration in Kisangani. 
"None of the people I met along the way wants to go back to 
warfare," said Wolfowitz. "Each of them wants to build a 
better life for themselves and a better future for this 
country. Everyone has great hopes that the peace can be 
consolidated and the democratic process extended." 
Though the country's formal economy collapsed in the last 40 
years of fighting, the DRC is rich in fertile soils, ample 
rainfall, and mineral resources. Mining of copper, cobalt, 
diamonds, gold, zinc and other metals, as well as petroleum 
extraction, once accounted for 75 percent of its GDP. 
A major peace dividend may help to improve the sustainable 
management of and protection of the country's natural 
resources, including the forests of the Congo Basin, the 
second largest rainforest in the world. 
Surrounded by security guards, World Bank President Paul 
Wolfowitz is greeted by students at a school in Kisangani. 

Some warn, however, that peace and new roads may bring chaotic 
development to the forest belt, harm biodiversity, or lead to 
conflict over traditional rights if efforts to reform forest 
management do not take hold. 
In 2002, acting on advice from the World Bank, the DRC 
canceled illegal forest concessions affecting over 25 million 
hectares - an area as large as the United Kingdom. 
Last month at a conference in Brussels the new Kabila 
government pledged to boost the country's conservation efforts 
by maintaining a moratorium on new logging, implementing a 
legal review of existing concessions, and providing legal 
recognition for the rights of indigenous people. 
Some 40 million people rely on the Congo forest for their 
food, medicines, energy and income. Indigenous groups rely 
almost entirely on the forest. 
The World Bank, which administers the Multidonor Forest Trust 
Fund on behalf of the European Commission, Belgium, France, 
and the UK, plans to support the DRC's reform efforts with a 
new project, financed with International Development 
Association funds, to strengthen the forest department, the 
nature conservation institute, and civil society 
organizations. 
The International Development Association is the part of the 
World Bank that helps the world's poorest countries by 
providing interest-free credits and grants for programs that 
boost economic growth, reduce inequalities and improve 
people's living conditions. 
Wolfowitz said the presence of the World Bank and the European 
Union in the DRC at this critical period is both "practical 
and symbolic" and is meant to help rally the international 
community to help the people of DRC. 





 

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