Donor conference likely in 2005, says World Bank

Angola will hold a donor conference within the next year but should fulfil certain conditions to ensure its success, a senior World Bank official said this week. The government should provide the international community with its medium-term plan for combating poverty in its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), said Michael Baxter, the World Bank's country director for Angola and Mozambique. It should also achieve a programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Baxter said, adding that a PRSP would probably be ready by the end of 2004 and an IMF programme could be available at the start of next year. "The World Bank and the other donors very strongly support [a conference]. It will happen certainly within the next year, but we're not quite sure when," he said at the end of a two-week visit to the country. Since Angola's 27-year civil war ended in April 2002, the government has repeatedly said it would like a donor conference to raise funds to rebuild its infrastructure, but the international community has remained lukewarm on the issue. Donors say that in a country producing one million barrels of oil per day, the government should do more to help its own people, most of whom live in dire poverty. Maputo-based Baxter said it was still not clear exactly what kind of donor conference Angola would hold. "If one were talking about a conference merely to observe the situation, it could have happened some time ago," he said. "If one is talking about a conference at which the government can report on its medium and longer term programmes, and its achievements to date ... that makes more sense. That's why we think the conditions will be right for this in the coming year," Baxter explained. He noted that Angola, which has been plagued by allegations of mismanagement and corruption, had improved its track record on transparency. "I think in any situation - such as Angola coming out of a war and having a heavy reliance on natural resources - there are concerns," he said. "But it's our impression, over the last year or two, that in fact a number of steps have been taken in order to improve this, and a lot of it is just the government ... taking the decision to ... become more transparent and taking slow steps to do it," he added. Baxter said the World Bank's current 18-month $125 million programme for Angola would come to an end in December, but an agreement was being finalised that would allow Angola to access a fresh $200 million credit facility for the next 18 months. Known as the Emergency Multisectoral Reconstruction Programme, it will initially target at least eight of the 18 provinces, with the focus on reconstructing infrastructure - roads, bridges, water supplies and electricity - and building up social services and agriculture, Baxter said. "The government has requested more resources and we are able to do it," he confirmed. "We have additional resources in principle for post-conflict countries, which obviously Angola falls into."