WB calls to improve security in poor countries

PanARMENIAN.Net - The World Bank is calling for development organizations to place a new emphasis on improving police protection to halt the violence gripping dozens of poor nations.

The bank calls for international groups to build institutions for "citizen security, justice and jobs" as a first step to pulling nations out of poverty. "Conflict and violence have a major impact on economic and social development," said Sarah Cliffe, co-director of the bank's World Development Report.

The World Bank found that 1.5 billion people - more than a fifth of the world's population - live in countries hit by repeated cycles of violence, pushing their poverty rates up by more than 20 percentage points compared with other nations. Those countries tend to have high unemployment, which surveys found to be "overwhelmingly the most important factor" leading to the recruitment of people into gangs and rebel movements.

The resulting instability in one country can have regional and global effects, such as holding back neighboring countries' growth and pushing up oil prices by disrupting production.

Bank officials said their new focus on security concerns reflects a shift in the nature of violence in poor nations. Deaths from civil war are now a quarter of what they were in the 1980s, replaced in many countries by other forms of organized crime and political violence that hold back development.

The report's focus on police forces could raise eyebrows, coming as government security forces across North Africa and the Middle East are countering civilian protests, in many cases violently. Ms. Cliffe said the bank stresses the need for "legitimate" institutions to root out corruption and provide policing so people can to get to schools and workplaces safely, with security "as a service to citizens, not as control of subjects."

The World Bank doesn't see itself getting in the business of training police forces, or having police units in reserve for dispatch overseas, but suggests that might be a job for the United Nations. The report recommends a role for the United Nations to support building up new institutions, such as an international agency for justice systems akin to those for education and other typical development concerns, the WSJ reported.