Trump’s return may spell disaster for UN agency finances

In October, as part of its preparation for the Cop29 UN climate summit in Azerbaijan, a team from Oxfam released a meticulously researched report on unsatisfactory World Bank accounting standards which made it virtually impossible to discover with confidence the total finance spent on climate-related projects. According to the report, this had created a “crisis of trust and a spate of doubts” about the true value of the finance raised.

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The complaint was well-justified and critically important. The World Bank is responsible for around 800 climate-related projects which are worth hundreds of billions of dollars in hundreds of countries across the world, carried out in collaboration with dozens of other agencies and governments.

Accurate monitoring of what is being spent, and how effectively, is essential if we are to track reliably our progress in protecting thousands of vulnerable communities across the world’s poorest nations.

Sadly, the Oxfam report has opened a Pandora’s box and backfired badly on their efforts to improve the World Bank’s reporting transparency. Inaccurate media coverage of the report has led to false suggestions that the World Bank has systematically misdirected or squandered up to US$41 billion and has triggered demands in the United States for World Bank funding to be withdrawn.

For the Make America Great Again (Maga) movement, impatient for US president-elect Donald Trump to assume power, the report provided a golden opportunity to call for the immediate US withdrawal not just from the World Bank but from a host of other UN and multilateral agencies.

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Trump has long expressed dislike or disdain for most multilateral organisations, and frequently threatened withdrawal. During his first term, he cut funding for the UN Population Fund because of its support for abortion. He cut 30 per cent of US funding for the UNAids and 20 per cent of funds for the World Health Organization. As far back as 2017, he complained that “the WTO was set up for the benefit of everybody but us… They have taken advantage of this country like you wouldn’t believe.”

World Bank President Ajay Banga attends the “1+10” Dialogue on Building Consensus on Development to Promote Global Common Prosperity in Beijing on December 9, 2024. Photo: AP
World Bank President Ajay Banga attends the “1+10” Dialogue on Building Consensus on Development to Promote Global Common Prosperity in Beijing on December 9, 2024. Photo: AP

  

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