Polonoroeste Program Case Study

WORLD BANK: governments play an important role in development, but there is no simple set of rules telling them what to do.

In the case of the proposal to fund Brazil with dams, irrigation, power, roads, and funds to develop crops the World Bank has those funds. As a representative of the World Bank, this proposal is currently not very wise and the impact it will have on the people of Brazil will not be a positive one, and that it will not yield a great return to the World Bank unless some adjustments to the proposal are made.

One of the major problem in this project is that it threats the social and economic life of the indigenous community. In the beginning, they were told their community will be demarcated so that no one will disturbed their life style. But due to the misinformation unprecedented number of immigrants came to the area. Then the indigenous community lands are taken away, their way of life disturbed. Then these people start fighting with the immigrants. Second, deforestation in the amazon rainforest has been taken place because the area has become over populated. Nearly 150 thousand population immigrants came to the area which is 30 times higher than the initial plan.

The World Bank, created in 1944, was made to provide assistance to poverty-stricken or financially unstable countries around the world. Although it originated as an amazing idea, today the World Bank sometimes causes more harm than benefit in the countries that it intends to assist ("International Monetary Fund and World Bank," n.d.). One example of this is the Chixoy Power Project the World Bank funded in Guatemala. In 1978, the project was started " with the intent of “bringing development” to Guatemala" (Russell, 2015). However, this project leads to one of the most horrific genocides in Guatemalan history.

One example is where they tried to stop child labor. Children worked with their parents in these plants. The children would work in the ovens and would get hurt or die. Well the news about the children’s condition got out to the world through a BBC documentary and New York Times article and it made many people upset. So the charcoal plants band women and children from working in the plants. So one way the reforms started was companies refused to invest in Mato Grosso, a city in Brazil, until the labor laws were changed and improved conditions were put into place. Of course the camps are still pretty bad. There is one camp that shows good conditions and is pretty much a fake charcoal plant to show that change was

Research and find one project of the World Bank or the IMF that created problems for the nation that received its assistance. Describe the project and what the negative outcomes were.

In Brazil, too, “environmental problems gained new urgency”, and “authorities tried to cover up the disaster”. Moreover, Brazilian news coverage, resembling the Soviet one back when the Chernobyl disaster happened, are also attempting to suggest that the situation is not so awful. The dam disasters in Minas can also be compared to the Aral Sea (“[…] once one of the largest lakes in the world […] shrank to less than 10 percent of its original size, due to the aggressive Soviet construction […]”, and to Lake Baikal “[…] the largest fresh body of water, and once among the cleanest, suffered the construction of factories on its perimeter […]”. Regardless of whether those three incidents were intentional or not, it is clear that they only occurred thanks to

The World Bank is known to fund many infrastructure projects in developing countries, presumably as a means to achieve their goals of increasing development in those countries. Hydroelectric dams are some of the much-maligned infrastructure projects funded by the World Bank. In a report authored by employees of the World Bank itself, the authors themselves highlight the “adverse environmental and related social impacts” of large dams, while attempting to draw a distinction between “relatively good dams and bad dams”. (Ledec & Quintero, 2003)

2. International Actors International actors have made their presence felt in Cambodia through influencing legislation and providing monetary aid. The World Bank began its involvement in Cambodia's forestry policy in 1995 when it conducted a Forest Policy Assessment in Cambodia in collaboration with the FAO and UNDP (World Bank 2003). Cambodia has reached a level of debt with the World Bank that has resulted in the implementation of their Structural Adjustment Credit in 2000 for $30 million (World Bank 2003). This program could potentially include changes such as land redistribution and privatization of resources like water and electricity (World Bank 2003). All of these changes have environmental implications such as land degradation and also the potential to negatively effect the population by excluding them from necessary resources (Thyl De Lopez 2003). This is noteworthy because the Cardamom region is threatened by resource extraction by local populations and studies have shown that local communities will be the most negatively impacted by protecting the land (Thyl De Lopez 2003).

Brazil’s modern history includes 300 plus years of colonization by Portugal form 1500 to 1800, to the establishment of its independent status in 1822. (2) Today, Brazil in its association with BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) bloc partnership, Brazil now distributes close to 4 billion dollars in annual global aid to less developed nations around the world, especially in sub Saharan Africa. (4)

The World Bank was founded at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944. The bank was first known as the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development. Their founding mission was to help countries during a post-war World War II era rebuild and reconstruct. They did this by providing loans to countries who had been destroyed during wars. Their first loan was made in 1947 to France to rebuild following World War II ("World Bank Group"). The World Banks’s mission eventually evolved to eliminating poverty globally. The social component of their new mission is was sets them apart from the International Monetary Fund. With the change of their mission the objectives of their loan also changed. “Development projects reflected people-oriented objectives rather than exclusively the construction of material structures. Projects related to food production, rural and urban development, and population, health and nutrition were designed to reach the poor directly.” ("World Bank Group"). These loans have low interest rates and were made to facilitate social development in third world countries and help them succeed in the long run. The Bank is headquartered in Washington D.C and has always had an American serve as president of the bank (Iyer). Major decisions for the Bank are made by the Board of Governors and the Board of Executives ("World Bank Group").

is accomplished through loans to struggling countries. In addition to the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation was annexed to provide loans to corporations who are seen to help aide in poor countries’ development. These three organizations

Geographical considerations. Brazil was once an earthly “eden,” heralds the authors in “Brazil, the collapsed Eden: Natural disasters in contemporary Brazil.” Years ago, as European explorers and treasure hunters came to the South American beaches, the land of present-day Brazil was teeming with natural resources. While the article referenced indulges in some ethnic religious connotations that the Brazilians are interconnected with their land, the mythos is still palpable today for most Brazilians (Mello, Papali, & Zanetti, 2014). The authors conclude that the idyllic pictures of a lush and bountiful land have been dashed by the mismanagement of the Amazonian areas, the poor infrastructure, and rampant misuse of land in environmentally endangering

This is what a researcher could say about this program to paint the big picture for readers, “Clearly, the World Bank’s structural adjustment of Ghana is a textbook example of how to ruin a country. The ruthless denial of mineral wealth, food, medical care, education and even water has made the population destitute spectators to the plunder of Ghana by foreigners.” (Ismi. July, 2004).

2. A project of the IMF that created problems for Africa after they received it?