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NGOs upset over outcome of meeting
NGOs have expressed disappointment in the result of the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) 42nd annual meeting, saying it did not do enough to reduce poverty or mitigate climate change
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GOs have expressed disappointment in the result of the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) 42nd annual meeting, saying it did not do enough to reduce poverty or mitigate climate change.
"No solutions to the financialor climate crisis have been placed on the table," Red Constantino, executive director of the NGO Forum on the ADB, said in a statement Tuesday.
"It began with calls that business-as-usual is no longer acceptable. Ironically, the proposals remain just that - recycled approaches that did not work in the past and which can only exacerbate the region's problems at present."
The meeting ended Tuesday, with Asian countries agreeing to triple the ADB's capital from US$165 billion to cushion the impact of the crisis.The group said it was "a cynical attempt by the ADB to use the current crisis to re-promote discredited large-scale infrastructure-biased development".
"Throwing money indiscriminately will solve neither the financial nor climate crises. What the region needs are enduring solutions in which the poor and ecosystems are at the center," Joanna Levitt of the International Accountability Project said.
"Having secured its general capital increase, the burden now is entirely on the bank to show that its promises of climate protection and inclusive growth will truly have a lasting and sustainable impact of the region's economies," Levitt added.
NGOs were blocked by the police while rallying at the ADB's meeting, a move they characterized as harassment.
"If things are bad in Indonesia, try to imagine what the situation will be like when the ADB holds its 43rd annual meeting in Uzbekistan, which is ruled by an avowed dictatorship," Tea Soentoro, of the NGO Forum on the ADB, said.
The Asian People's Movement Against the ADB said it would cooperate with communities suffering from the fallout from ADB projects to push for fair-and-continuing alternative means of financing.Building economies that are not focusing on growth only, but fairness; using energy efficiently and achieving food sufficiency in rural areas are proposed alternatives.
