A recent AFP article reports that Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus criticized the World Bank for its failure to cut poverty.
On Sunday, Yunus told Bank President Robert Zoellick that the bank’s failure to modernize anti-poverty lending programs has made its work ineffective. Additionally, Yunus says that the bank needs to include input from the people that need help.
I have posted blogs about Muhammad Yunus for over a year, and before he won the Nobel Peace Prize. The man strikes me as a genius, and impresses me over and over again. His successful method for fighting poverty consists of giving micro-loans to poor people to help them start their own businesses. Muhammad Yunus has successfully empowered poor people and helped them get back on their own two feet.
Personally, I doubt the World Bank really wants to fight poverty. It seems to me like a corrupt organization that, if anything, works to help the rich and not the poor. The poor and oppressed of the world just do not have enough resources to lobby and gain the favor of powerful organizations like the World Bank.