Religious leaders urge World Bank president to support Extractive Industries Review

Over 100 Jewish and Christian leaders sent a letter to World Bank President James Wolfensohn today urging him to support full implementation of recommendations in the recently released report Striking a Better Balance: The Extractive Industries Review.

“We hold the World Bank Group as a global financial institution accountable for serving the common good, alleviating poverty and preserving the natural environment. This report identifies essential steps in that direction that must be taken by the World Bank,” said Marie Dennis, director of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns.

Signers of the letter, including Alan Whaites (World Vision), Rabbi Jaqueline Tabick (World Congress of Faiths) and Jim Winkler (United Methodist Church), emphasized to President Wolfensohn that just economic policies and programs must 1) respect and enhance human dignity, gender equity and the integrity of creation; 2) be flexibly designed and implemented with the consent of the people expressed through authentically participatory and democratic processes; and 3) be held accountable to international human rights standards and treaties.

Striking a Better Balance: The Extractive Industries Review is a bold statement coming at a time in the life of the global community when a dramatic shift in business as usual is urgently needed, and social, economic, and environmental priorities must be re-visioned.

Dr. Emil Salim, leader of the review process, has said, “Since the WBG is committed to alleviating poverty through sustainable development, it has a moral obligation to change its priorities, working arrangements, and internal incentive systems and to use all the power it possesses, including convening power, to meet the challenge of leadership to reach for a new global balance.”

The Review’s final recommendations are derived from extensive field study and skilled research and reflect the sound judgment of a partnership of stakeholders, including most especially the voice of the poor. The Review team was willing to listen to and hear the many witnesses of grave human and ecological consequences of misguided World Bank Group projects, programs, and activities. These consequences are also understood by religious congregations and missioners around the world, whose leaders wrote todays letter to Wolfensohn.

“In today’s letter”, the leaders write, “We urge President James Wolfensohn and the World Bank management to adopt the recommendations of the Review, to embrace the challenge of radically impacting the Earth’s carrying capacity for the peoples of today and tomorrow.”

Download the letter here (pdf).