The Devil With Many Faces: The World Bank

World Bank Managing Director Juan Jose Daboub deleted all references to family planning last week from a loan program for Madagascar, an island nation off the southeastern coast of Africa. In the loan program’s original draft, the World Bank, which is responsible for providing loans and grants for development aid in order to reduce poverty, pledged to work towards increasing contraception use in Madagascar from 14 percent to 20 percent. But Daboub ordered staff to remove family planning references and the final document contained no such goals, reports UK newspaper The Guardian. The reversal goes against language in the World Bank’s 2007 World Development Report that highlights the importance of sexual and reproductive health services for all nations.

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