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World Bank OKs Polio Eradication Campaign

Posted on: Tuesday, 29 April 2003, 06:00 CDT

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The World Bank on Tuesday launched a new campaign to wipe out polio worldwide with the approval of an innovative $28 million loan to Nigeria to finance the purchase of polio vaccine.

The loan marks the first time that the World Bank's International Development Association, which extends interest-free loans to the world's poorest countries, has sought out private donors to repay the loans instead of poor countries, turning the loan into a grant.

The private money will be used to pay off the loans as long as the private nation is fulfilling the terms of the loans, said World Bank President James Wolfensohn.

He predicted that Pakistan will likely be the next country receiving assistance in the program, a $20 million loan that the World Bank board is expected to approve in May.

Wolfensohn called the new program "an exciting mechanism to unite the World Bank and public and private partners in a common cause. ... The financial innovation is bringing the goal of a polio-free world one large step closer to becoming a reality."

The foundations that are supporting the effort are the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is contributing $25 million, and Rotary International, which has a long history of working to eradicate polio, and the United Nations Foundation, supported by Ted Turner, the founder of CNN. Together Rotary and the UN Foundation will contribute $25 million, officials said.

The Bush administration won a key victory last year when the World Bank agreed to greatly expand the amount of grants it provides to poor nations, which don't have to repaid, rather than its traditional loans.

Over heavy opposition from European countries, the United States won a compromise that will require 21 percent of new assistance to poor countries to be in the form of loans that will not have to be repaid.

While the administration argued that this approach would mean that poor nations will not be saddled with extra debt, opponents argued that it would limit the resources the World Bank has to make new loans.

Getting private foundations to pay back the loans will transform more of the World Bank assistance into grants, Wolfensohn told reporters.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta reported earlier this month that the global campaign to eradicate polio received a setback last year with the number of cases of the disease jumping to 1,920, a fourfold increase from the 483 cases reported in 2001.

Much of that increase was attributed to India. Other countries reporting cases last year were Nigeria, Pakistan, Egypt, Somalia, Niger and Afghanistan.

Officials said even with this setback the goal of eradicating polio within the next few years is still within reach, marking only the second disease ever eradicated worldwide. Smallpox was the first.

"With polio eradication within reach, it's critical to increase funding now to ensure that we finish the job we've started," said Patty Stonesifer, president of the Gates Foundation.

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On the Net:

World Bank site on communicable diseases

World Health Organization

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