For example, the World Bank is to the trustee of a climate fund (if such a thing emerges in these stressful financial times). But the World Bank just loaned billions to South Africa for the world’s 3rd and 4th largest coal-fired power plants.

Hear a devastating critique, and some hope from the outside, from the climate justice movement, in this 23 minute Radio Ecoshock interview.

http://www.ecoshock.org/downloads/climate2011/ES_Patrick_Bond_LoFi.mp3

For example while women are at the front line in firefighting this phenomenon in many communities in East Africa, where adaptive capacity is woefully low or totally non-existent. Drought conditions resulting in water scarcity and high food prices end up scaling down meals at the household level affecting the vulnerable persons like pregnant women, children, the sick
and aged. Unfortunately, the NAPAs for many countries remain weak in addressing this pressing and urgent development challenge. In East Africa, Burundi’s NAPA is the only one that is geared at delivering for specific project for women (1 out of 5) while Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania have nothing to offer (Global Gender and Climate Alliance, 2009).

I completely agree with what you are saying. The World Bank should publish a true World Bank Development report on Gender Equality. But, to be able to do so, the World bank should change its language about development, it should understand that development is not only economic, it is also and mainly human and environmental. It must remenber that nowadays we are talking about development in the context of sustainability which means , as you have said, low-carbon, climate -resilient, livelihood focused, gender equitable development. A development that respects human being’s rights, without discrimination, a development that allows equitable and sustainable use of the world’s natural resources, which acknowledges both the human rights of individuals as well as collective, common rights. I love the way you summarize it. But this seems to be very hard for the world bank.

In fact, after contributing to making nearly 1 billion people to remain food-insecure because the structural adjustment policies it pushed in the poorest developing countries since the 1980s, and without the many basic and social services: water, energy, education, health care because of the privatization of public services, after doing all that and many other cruel actions for the sake of business and economic growth, after doing all these terrible things that deny people and mainly women their fundamental rights, the Bank continues, even today where gender equality is seen as very critical for the achievement of the millenium development Goals, to think only business and profit, business and growth, without questioning this type of development it is pursuing and that is resulting in human rights violation. The violation of women’s rights, their discrimination and invisibility of their contribution to the economy because of existing societal and gender power as you have said seems not to be a problem for the World Bank, and that is very very serious. Many things are wrong in this institution and this is a good opportunity for us to help them to realize it and take measures to correct it. The problem is structural and even if there is a political will in the bank to mainstream gender, they are not doing so, as this Independent Evaluation Group had highlighted in their report. It is a shame and we should help the Bank to really mainstream gender at all level, in all its strategic and operational tools, it must trained all its personel and the gender issue should not be the business of anly few persons or the gender action unity.

Thanks for this ypur very good contribution, Liane. It had open my eyes and taught me a lot. THANKS. I will like to continue this convermuch like to come to your place and meet you.
sation with you and even meet you to have more discussions. I am planing to travel to the USA in June for almost three months. I would very much
Lovely night,

As to your insistence that direct budget contributions is the way to go: I really wonder if this position is going to be helpful for the cause of financing the transition to a greener, more climate resilient economy. Have a look at the recent IMF fiscal monitor and the prospects for developed world budgets (http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fm/2010/02/fmindex.htm ). These budgets are deep in the red for many years to come. I doubt that in such a situation it is useful to bang our heads against the walls, finding out again and again that the money ist not flowing out of this pretty dry well.
Which will, by the way, probably be to a lesser degree also the case in a next German government with significant green participation. The pressures of fiscal consolidation especially in the developed world are very real, and any realistic political strategy must take them into account if we want go beyond denouncing the bad state of global affairs, and make international climate finance actually work, here and now.

I am sure we’ll have this debate in Cancun as well – I am looking forward to seeing you there.