The World Bank is now telling Arab governments that only by cleaning up their politics will their economies escape the rut of stagnant growth. Mohamed Darwish reports from Dubai With the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) annual meetings taking place in an Arab country for the first time, the World Bank is offering a magic recipe, harsh as usual, as a treatment to the Arab ailments. This time, the recipe is much more political than economic, and openly brusque in its tone towards the current Arab regimes. The gist of what the Bank believes is the essential solution for the economic, development and social problems of most Arab countries, including Egypt, is to improve "good governance" in accordance to WB standards. The Bank presented the political model that must be adopted by Arab regimes in a report entitled Better Governance for Development in the Middle East and North Africa, during a press conference held in Dubai in the middle of last week. It poses the issue of "good governance" that Arab countries apparently must adopt as an indispensable precondition for economic growth. The report also signals that the Bank is going to directly tie financial assistance to the particular political system's understanding of "good governance". The report blurred the lines between economics and politics, saying "the issue of good governance is not a political issue, but a development issue, because good governance has a main role in promoting economic development and in offering essential social services." The report, one of four on economic development in the region, accuses governments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region of "weakness" and blamed them for being "behind the deterioration of economic performance". It claimed that the "failure of MENA countries to ensure two values for their societies, namely: inclusiveness and accountability, has weakened their economic growth and human development." The WB further criticised the interaction between these regimes and their citizens as "weaker than [in] other developing countries with similar income levels", and blames this "governance gap" for the region's economic stagnation. According to Bank figures, since 1980 the average annual per capita economic growth in MENA was only 0.9 per cent, less than the rate in Sub-Saharan Africa. Good governance is described in the report as essential for providing more educational opportunities, adequate health care and clean water, because it ensures that state authority is exercised in ways that respect the rights and needs of everyone in the country, rather than appropriating state resources for the enrichment of a tiny elite. The report continues, "the men and women in MENA are living today at a time of rising expectations and growing economic challenges, the gap between societies' achievements and people's aspirations puts development in MENA at risk." The report further labels the MENA region as "lagging in the second core value underpinning good governance, accountability. This draws on the notion of representation, of holding public figures answerable... Accountability depends on public transparency, which requires knowledge and readily available information on what government does". It warned that "the absence of a sound governance system hinders governments' ability to meet the growing demand for more jobs and better social services," explaining, for instance, that "job creation is restrained by sluggish private investment which in turn is the result of a poor overall climate for investment. This again is caused by poor governance." "Meeting the governance challenge is no simple matter, either technically or institutionally... moving towards greater inclusiveness and accountability requires time," the report acknowledged. Noting that "although good governance does not in itself guarantee good economic development," the report insisted that "it provides the mechanisms, such as the public debate on the effect of governments' policies, that help limit the continuity of these policies." According to the authors, closing the governance gap is a challenge to the region's governments and people. Good governance does not only lie in choosing the right leaders or in establishing the suitable economic and social policies, but also in guaranteeing that free and fair elections give citizens the opportunity to reward or punish governments for their actions. The report wraps up by offering a structural reform programme which revolves around five pathways leading to better governance. These are "expanding inclusiveness, national actions to strengthen external accountabilities, national checks and balances to strengthen internal accountabilities, local actions to strengthen external accountability and administrative measures for better internal accountability".
