Globalization

Minister Wieczorek-Zeul plays a very important role in the relationship that the World Bank enjoys with Germany. I am delighted to have had the opportunity to meet with her again. We have had, and continue to have, a deep and long-standing association, in which we both share common perspectives, and in which her department and my colleagues in the Bank work effectively together in our common fight against poverty. I am also glad to see Professor Ernst-Ulrich von Weizsдcker, Chairman of the Enquкte Commission, here today.

You have just heard my friend Horst Kцhler outline the role of the International Monetary Fund. As he mentioned, we recently returned from a joint mission to Africa. I want to join with him in saying not only that these were extremely productive discussions with 22 African heads of state, but also that Horst and I both came away from that trip with a very strong sense of how African leaders are now taking charge of their continent and their countries.

African development can only result from a partnership in which the leadership and basic responsibility must be borne by the Africans. And the role of the international institutions and bilateral donors must be to give wholehearted support, with knowledge and experience, and to give liberally in terms of material resources and access to markets.

It is a supreme irony that just at the time when African leaders are putting the right policies in place and are showing results, overseas aid to Africa has fallen from $32 per person in 1990 to $18 per person in 1998. We must reverse that trend. I join Horst in saying that it is time for a concerted appeal to the heads