DEVELOPMENT
REPORT - World Bank Calls for Better Public Services
By Jill Moss
This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English
Development Report.
The World Bank says the poor quality of public
services in developing countries is hurting world economic growth. This
finding is based on a year of study of successes and failures involving
services in different countries.
The World Bank says better services would reduce
the divide between rich and poor people. This means better health care,
education, electricity, water and waste treatment（废物处理）services.
The main message of the World Bank report is
"Making Services Work for the Poor." The report proposes three
steps to improve public services.
First is the suggestion that poor people be
given more choice and involvement in the services provided. The report
says poor people should be empowered to demand better services by putting
pressure on elected politicians.
And the report calls for a system to reward
or punish service providers. The World Bank says that through this system,
service providers would have to answer to the government and to the
public.
The report was released last week before the
yearly meeting of the World Bank and International
Monetary Fund（国际货币基金组织）. Officials from more than one-hundred-eighty
nations gathered in Dubai（迪拜）. The delegates
discussed a number of issues during the two-day meeting.
These included efforts to reach the
Millennium Development Goals（新千年发展目标）. One goal is to cut world
poverty in half by 2015. That is the same goal for the number of people
who cannot read or write.
In addition to improving services, many people
believe an important way to help developing nations is to increase trade
with richer ones. Two years ago, in Doha（多哈）,
Qatar（卡塔尔）, the World Trade Organization
agreed to begin a new series of negotiations to reduce trade barriers.
Member nations agreed to work for completion by 2005.
The latest talks, however, ended in disagreement
earlier this month in Cancun, Mexico. Delegates argued over aid to farmers
in wealthy countries.
Some delegates walked out of the meetings. They
said wealthy counties were not making enough compromises to help poor
nations. They say development problems in the poorest countries are
likely to continue until the issue of trade barriers is solved. A high-level
WTO meeting is planned in Geneva（日内瓦）by
December fifteenth.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss.
I'm Robert Cohen.
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