By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, April 24 -- When UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres addressed the UN Security Council on April 24, most media attention was on the speaker after him: Angelina Jolie.
But Guterres in his speech picked up where he left on of February 26, speaking about the World Bank not aiding Lebanon and Jordan due to classifying them as middle income countries. He said, "The World Bank is now exploring various possibilities of making large-scale concessional financing available to Lebanon and Jordan, combining bilateral grants with its own usual loans."
But when might this actually happen? Inner City Press has been asking.
(Guterres was to appear later on April 24 at en event co-sponsored by Sweden's Mission to the UN. After finding that their outreach through the so-called UN Correspondents Association resulted in reaching only those who pay money to UNCA, now the UN's Censorship Alliance, the flier was appropriate distributed more widely, which the Free UN Coalition for Access recommends to all missions and wanna-be speakers.)
Back on February 26 Guterres said, “It is absurd that Lebanon has no access to World Bank grants because it is considered a middle-income country."
On April 9 at IPI (which also had an event scheduled on April 24, on how to select the next Secretary General), Inner City Press asked Amin Awad, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Bureau of the UNHCR, what the agency and rest of the UN have been doing to bring about a change at the World Bank on this.
Amin Awad replied to Inner City Press that “on the World Bank, I think there is a conviction at the Bank, at the high level, the management” for a “special provision or at least a suspension of the rule” that middle income countries are not eligible. “We are pushing in that direction,” he said, and “there is traction among donors.” He said the realities in Jordan and Lebanon are different now, on income, growth rate, the support they need. “The World Bank is a leading institution and has to be involved with Jordan and Lebanon” and other countries.
But will they? We'll stay on this. Watch this site.
Back on February 26 Inner City Press, when Guterres came to the Security Council stakeout after the meeting, asked him about this addition, and if he -- and UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Kyung-wha Kang beside him -- would be pushing for a change at the World Bank, which is official a part of the UN “family.”
Guterres replied that development assistance should taken into account this new world, where Lebanon and Jordan but also Chad, Niger and Cameroon with respect to Nigeria, and Ethiopia and Kenya with respect to Somalia, are the “first line of defense for global collective security.”Video here. 