This week, Jordan took a bold step toward self-reliance (in policy-making more than
anything) by securing funding for a strategic food-security project from three
international financial institutions other than the World Bank, a promising
move that could expedite the country’s emancipation from the bank’s invasive
policies.
اضافة اعلان
Minister of
Planning and International Cooperation Nasser Al-Shraideh responded Sunday to a
scoop by Al Ghad News about the World Bank having suspended funding to the
country’s “emergency food security” project (at around $480 million), with an
announcement that signals a significant shift in leadership and policy.
The government,
which in other areas has been known for its significant lethargy and needless
dependence on donor institutions to draw up some of its strategies, seems to
have had a hand in the World Bank’s reported decision. It was immediately clear
that the planning ministry had other plans in mind, seeing how it has already
secured preliminary agreements with three different financing bodies to the
tune of $430 million.
Although the
project is focused on securing the Kingdom’s strategic grain reserve, the
government’s decision to look for alternative streams of financing could signal
the beginning of the end for the World Bank’s involvement in Jordan’s overall
food-security projects.
The three financiers
that will be offering Jordan a breather from the World Bank’s invasive policies
are: The Islamic Development Bank , the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the
OPEC Fund for International Development.
According to
Shraideh, these institutions have offered Jordan “more favorable terms” than
the World Bank, which could mean that the bank’s suspension of funding was
largely driven by Jordan.
In the bigger
picture, EIB’s involvement in the project is reassuring. Late last year, the EU
unveiled its “Global Gateway” initiative, a multi-billion-euro strategy to
reshape the bloc’s foreign policy through “fair” infrastructure projects
offered to partner countries outside of the EU.
The initiative
came shortly after the Biden administration introduced its ambitious “Build
Back Better” bill to compete with China’s “Belt and Road Initiative”, which
analysts say has facilitated the communist regime’s world economic domination,
with help from the now weak World Trade Organization.
The Global
Gateway is also closely linked to Europe’s daring “Strategic Compass”, a vision
led by French President Emmanuel Macron with the aim of weaning European
foreign policy off the US. It comes as a reaction to Trump’s show of animosity
throughout his time in office, followed by the Biden administration’s AUKUS
deal, which alienated the EU (and France, specifically).
Even with the
ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war, the EU seems to have kept its focus on its
strategic objectives to strengthen its economic and political presence in the
world, even though some local observers have interpreted the war as an attempt
by the US to weaken the bloc and keep it in its debt for its crucial role in
World War II.
At local level,
these world developments have given Jordan plenty of wiggle room to start the
process of emancipating itself from old economic and political entanglements,
giving it the opportunity to form new alliances based on a renewed
understanding that the Jordanians, like any other nation in the world, are
entitled to their own water autonomy and food security — and on their own
terms.
Over the span of
almost three decades, the World Bank has failed Jordan through its egregious
mishandling of the water dossier. It has shown in clear terms that it cannot be
trusted as a developmental “visionary” and partner. The strategies it keeps on
proposing to Jordan, which become inescapable once the government accepts the
bank’s funding (including its loans), are not truly in the best interest of the
Jordanian people.
This week’s
developments show that self-reliance starts with cementing the country’s
independence in policy making, first and foremost.
Although on
several fronts the government is still unable to live up to the country’s best
expectations, two ministries have shown strength of vision and will: the
Foreign Ministry and, more recently, the Ministry of Planning. This goes to
show that Jordan does have what it takes to fight the public sector’s state of
rut.
To achieve the Kingdom’s food security, the Planning Ministry is right to learn from the past and choose an alternative route that sidesteps the World Bank.
Technically,
these two ministries answer to the Cabinet and the sitting prime minister, but
as sovereignty institutions, they are directly guided by the vision of His
Majesty King Abdullah, which gives them a special place in the overall makeup
of the Jordanian government.
Today, Jordan
seems to have reached a new level in its strategic thinking, especially having
learnt its lesson from the World Bank’s culpability in denying the country its
legitimate right to a stand-alone water resource (that steers away from giving
Israel an unjustifiable strategic advantage). A case in point: Israel has six
major seawater desalination plants along its Mediterranean and Red Sea shores,
with two more on the way by 2025, while Jordan still has no desalination plant.
But Jordan’s
first step toward emancipation from the World Bank’s tight grip started before
this week’s announcement. In May last year, the World Bank Group took the
decision to remove the Red Sea-Dead Sea project from its list of financed
projects for Jordan. In response, the Kingdom became more assertive about its
right to water independence, culminating in the Planning Ministry’s successful
round of negotiations with several financing establishments to fund the
upcoming Aqaba-based “National Water Carrier Project”, an undertaking that has
faced many hurdles over the span of almost 30 years.
The World Bank’s
damaging policies in different parts of the world have been well-documented by
researchers, civil society institutions and coalitions, and anti-globalization
activists of various nationalities and backgrounds. An elaborate catalogue of
evidence shows that its policies have ulterior motives that are mostly unfair
to the nations the bank offers loans to.
In India, the
World Bank financed the construction of mega-dams on historically agricultural
lands, resulting in the migration of millions of farmers to urban centers.
Those rural communities now live as beggars in environmentally hazardous slums,
having lost their livelihoods and their agricultural inheritance from
generations past.
During the
pandemic, the bank attempted to rebrand its image as a food security expert and
has been working hard to position itself as Jordan’s primary food security
partner, which will bear huge risks for the country, judging from the bank’s
lengthy history in destroying people-centric agriculture.
To achieve the
Kingdom’s food security, the Planning Ministry is right to learn from the past
and choose an alternative route that sidesteps the World Bank. This promises to
usher in a new dawn for Jordan’s development as a nation, especially in areas
relating to policy making in water and agriculture.
Ruba Saqr has reported on the environment, worked in the
public sector as a communications officer, and served as managing editor of a
business magazine, spokesperson for a humanitarian INGO, and as head of a PR
agency.
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