By Emma Kakololo
WINDHOEK
Namibia has been elected to chair “The Small States Forum” a World Bank body that meets once a year in the wings of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
During the meeting of the Forum, small states voice their concerns relating to the special characteristics that constrain their development options.
The most important constraint stems from their small economic size, limiting their ability to reap economies of scale and to diversify their economies.
Small size also leads to a high degree of economic openness, rendering such states very vulnerable to external shocks – a reality exacerbated by the globalisation process.
This year, the Forum met on Sunday to discuss their developmental challenges especially those related to climate change, including drought and floods.
Permanent Secretary of the National Planning Commission Mocks Shivute yesterday said Namibia was nominated during the meeting and unanimously elected to the chair.
“Namibia takes over from Vanuatu, which chaired on behalf of the Pacific region.”
The meeting was attended by governors and ministers from the participating small states such as the Bahamas, Cape Verde, Fiji, Kiribati, Lesostho, Malta, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Montenegro, Palau, Tonga, Grenada, Equatorial Guinea, Philippines, Barbados and Timor-Lest, amongst others.
According to Shivute, it is a big privilege for the country to chair such an international body: “We will gain some experience for being a chair.”
Helmut Angula, the Director General of the National Planning Commission, is serving as one of the governors of the World Bank, while Finance Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila is one of the governors of the IMF.
Among the issues highlighted by the World Bank and IMF annual meeting were the “need to sharpen the focus of poverty reduction strategies on stronger, shared, private sector-led growth, to link these strategies better to budgetary frameworks, and to implement them effectively.”
The meeting also emphasised the importance of relying on country-based models and strong country ownership for improving aid effectiveness and harmonization, and called on donors to meet their respective commitments to scale up aid for development, improve aid predictability and address financing gaps for meeting the MDGs.
The World Bank was urged to increase its support for access to modern, cost-effective, clean energy, especially among the poorest and in Sub-Saharan Africa, and to develop a strategic framework for the Bank’s engagement in climate change, including support for developing countries’ efforts to adapt to climate change and to achieve low-carbon growth while reducing poverty.