International Rivers’ new report argues that the World Bank’s top-down approach to infrastructure should be replaced by a strategy that prioritizes the needs of the poor.
In November 2011, the World Bank and G-20 presented a strategy to develop megaprojects that would transform entire regions, among them the much-touted Inga hydropower scheme on the Congo River. Yet experience shows that these types of investments have done little to address persistent energy poverty in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where 94 percent of the population lacks access to electricity.
In its new report, “Infrastructure for Whom? A Critique of the Infrastructure Strategies of the Group of 20 and the World Bank,” International Rivers calls into question the ability of these megaprojects to address the needs of the poor. The report instead offers another, more eco-friendly solution: since “most rural poor live closer to local sources of renewable energy and water than to an electric grid and centralized irrigation systems… Small- scale energy and water projects can also strengthen climate resilience, reduce the social and environmental footprint of the infrastructure sector, and strengthen democratic control over essential public services.”
Infrastructure for Whom? A Critique of the Infrastructure Strategies of the group of 20 and the World Bank, International Rivers, May 2012