Breaking the Banks: the Impact of the Asian Development Bank and Australia's Role in the Mekong Region
By Jonathan Cornford and Michael Simon
CAA-Oxfam Australia, 2001
$17.95
REVIEW BY MELANIE GILLBANK
Breaking the Banks is a timely publication from Community Aid Abroad. It gives a rich insight into the perils of mal-development that the poorest communities in the Asia-Pacific region are facing. While many complex forces shape the "development", or perhaps more accurately, the "trajectory of change", of these countries, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a particularly powerful player.
Breaking the Banks was produced as a part of the CAA-Oxfam Australia's ADB and Mekong campaign. Their campaign is based on the first-hand experience that the organisation has had in the region. They have seen small-scale, culturally appropriate development initiatives undermined by the insidious and often devastating impact of the ADB.
Why has CAA invested so much time in campaigns around an institution which claims that "poverty alleviation" in the region is its overarching goal?
Like the World Bank, the ADB focuses almost singularly on fostering economic growth based on the mainstream model of Western "development". Jonathan Cornford and Michael Simon discuss the Greater Mekong sub-region (GMS) initiative of the ADB. The GMS is the most ambitious plan of the ADB and exemplifies its approach to "development". The GMS aims to link the region as an economic unit through transport corridors that link the larger economic centres, by opening formerly closed economies, the privatisation of resource management and forcing subsistence and semi-subsistence communities into the cash economy.
"Where decisions are allowed to be made by formula or template and do not take account of local people's rights, needs and diversity of practices and relationships, there will inevitably be problems in the outcomes", they write.
Breaking the Banks is a compilation of case studies and articles. It is divided into three main sections. The first looks at the overall relationship between the ADB and the Mekong region. The ADB is an active proponent of economic globalisation. Its programs and projects force rural communities into competition with large-scale industrial interests for resources in the Mekong. "Poverty in the Mekong is now about the struggle between two (rural/subsistence and industrial/international markets) economies, however the power is all on one side", the authors state.
The first section also addresses the question of why Australia has an interest in the area. It points to the ties of history, diplomacy, geographical proximity and trade.
In the second section, the reader is taken into the villages of Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam to explore the relationships between the "poor" and the natural resources that they rely on for cultural, economic and nutrient sustenance.
The book makes clear the disproportionate impact that the ADB's style of development has on women. The authors state that through the push to commodify the relationships of local communities with the natural environment, power is taken from women, many of whom head households, and placed in the hands of the men. The model of development pushed by the ADB "further dispossesses and impoverishes the women, ethnic minorities and communities who have customary relationships to land", they point out.
Local stories illustrate not only the devastating impacts of projects that are aimed principally at economic growth but also demonstrate the abilities of local communities to develop and implement home-grown solutions to resource management issues. Included are examples of grassroots cultural and environmental conservation initiatives that allow the continued utilisation of natural resources in a manner that is truly sustainable. Cornford and Simon emphasise the need for community control of natural resources, such as forests and rivers, and ultimately of land, as being the only truly "sustainable development".
The final section of the book looks at Australia's relationship with the ADB. Cornford and Simon emphasise the fact that the Australian government is a key player in the region and in the decision-making structures of ADB. They explain carefully the different ways in which the Australian government and big business interact with the ADB.
This section outlines the demands that the CAA's campaign has been making on the Australian government. For better or for worse, the bulk of our aid flows into these countries. The Australian government is comfortable that its two-pronged approach to aid giving, which is geared towards "advancing Australia's national interest internationally" and to "poverty alleviation" is not contradictory. This is due to the fact that its neo-liberal ideology is in line with that of the ADB's.
Quite frankly, giving money to the ADB is a great investment, with returns of 120%. The money ends up in the hands of Australian construction, project management and engineering companies: Advance Australia unfair. The overall thrust of the book and the campaign is that as taxpayers' money continues to pour into the coffers of the ADB, Canberra must be held accountable for the way it is spent.
Breaking the Banks is a must-read for anyone interested in, or campaigning on, development issues and the impact on Third World countries by multilateral institutions like the Asian Development Bank. Affected communities and non-government organisations around the world are increasingly raising their voices against the onslaught of inappropriate development.
The book also provides activists with a clear and well-researched critique of the ADB in the lead up to the bank's annual general meeting in Hawaii on May 7-11. While Breaking the Banks is an invaluable campaign tool, it is also an accessible primer on the ADB and development issues in the Mekong region.
[Melanie Gillbank is a campaigner for Aid Watch and coordinates Aid Watch's Mekong campaign.]