Wolfowitz visits schools, clinics in north Ethiopia

Wolfowitz visits schools, clinics in north Ethiopia
Tue Jul 11, 2006 4
By Lesley Wroughton
BAHIR DAR, Ethiopia (Reuters) - World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz toured schools and clinics on Tuesday in the lush northern Amhara region of Ethiopia where foreign donors plan to plow aid directly into local communities.
The World Bank approved the Protection of Basic Services project this year when donors said they would resume work in Ethiopia after cutting direct aid because of the government's crackdown on the opposition after post-election violence.
The project involves making aid available to local government for basic services like water, health, education and roads that benefit the poor, sidestepping political tension at the national level after last year's bitterly contested polls.
It is Wolfowitz's second visit to Africa since he took the reins of the World Bank, Africa's biggest development lender. He will break his the seven-nation tour to attend the G8 summit of rich nations at the weekend in St Petersburg, Russia.
There he plans to remind leaders of the pledges they made to Africa last year of increased aid, trade and debt relief.
Northern Ethiopia is currently in the middle of its annual rainy season that has turned markets and roads into thick mud.
Wolfowitz's visit is focused on the need to ensure that aid is delivered to Ethiopia's poorest and that local officials are held accountable through transparent budget systems.
At schools Wolfowitz visited, teachers complained of a lack of basic teaching materials, particularly books, and chronic overcrowding of classrooms. At a primary school built by the local community, Wolfowitz said he would ensure that teachers are equipped with science kits and text books.
At a nearby local clinic, women and their babies waited in line to be treated, mostly for malaria or respiratory infections. There are only nurses and no doctors.
Wolfowitz later stopped to talk to farmers and tried his hand at using a plow drawn by oxen, declaring after several tries: "I think I will stick to my day job."
"We want to work with you to help with education and health," Wolfowitz later told a group of local district councilors. "With peace and democracy and help from the World Bank this country can grow," he said.
He asked how the local budget was divided and what say local people had in decisions on where the money was spent, before discussing the prospects for local elections due next year.
Later he was briefed on a proposed new World Bank investment plan around Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile and Ethiopia's largest lake, that would develop agro-industry, tourism, fisheries and hydropower projects.

Reuters