World Bank President Wolfowitz and Maldives dictator Maumoon Gayyoom, 2005

For over 25 years, the World Bank has been associated with the regime of Maumoon Gayyoom in Maldives and some of the bank's most important investment projects in the fisheries sector have failed, leaving the powerless citizens of Maldives with debts that will continue for decades.

'the projects failed to meet their main objective. Maldivians are left with a long series of debt repayments and high service charges... Payments due in 2006 total nearly US$1.6 million.'

Yet in 2000, World Bank president James Wolfenshon endorsed the Gayyoom dictatorship and described it as 'a republic, with a democratic system of government'.

The latest Country Briefing for Maldives from the World Bank website is also a very misleading document that contradicts the World Bank's own findings into the success and failure of its projects in Maldives.

For example, the Country Briefing asserts that 'two fisheries projects, supported by $3.2 and $5 million credits from the International Development Association (IDA), were completed successfully. They contributed to increasing fish production, exports, and the incomes of artisan fishermen in the outer atolls.'

The World Bank's own evaluation of these projects published in 2001 states: 'As a consequence of the questionable sector strategy supported by the bank, despite a long bank presence and effective implementation of the three fisheries projects, the main objective of stimulating and sustaining growth in the fisheries sector has yet to be achieved… None of the Bank's projects contained components aimed at improving the competitive environment or liberalizing markets.'

In other words, the projects failed to meet their main objective. Maldivians are left with a long series of debt repayments and high service charges. World Bank Estimated Debt Service Payments for Maldives for the next ten years are available here. Payments due in 2006 total nearly US$1.6 million.

For women in Maldives, the World Bank fisheries projects were a complete disaster. The evaluation documents says, 'female participation in the formal labor market has declined from 60% in 1978 to 21% in 1995... and women’s employment in fisheries has declined significantly.'

Women have been excluded from the tourism industry too, according to the World Bank, 'only 100 out of 5000 Maldivian employees in the tourist sector are women.'

The 2001 evaluation document blamed the failure in part on the World Bank's relationship with Gayyoom and his ministers: 'there has been regular friction in the past between the Bank and GOM (Government Of Maldives) on the content and tone of Bank reports. GOM has argued that Bank reports have been too negative or failed to adequately recognize progress made by the government. One draft CEM (Country Economic Memorandum) in the late 1980s was dropped when GOM strenuously objected to it on these grounds. The Bank's position has been that its reports have been largely accurate and objective but that GOM has been reluctant to accept references to shortcomings in past performance or economic policy because of fears that the reports will negatively affect both internal and external confidence in the country. While these concerns are valid, OED supports the Bank's view that the value of its reports is in their objectivity and that this must be maintained.'

In other words, the World Bank was reluctant to criticise the dictator, and was prepared to let its projects unravel around Gayyoom and his failing administration.

The dictatorship in Maldives has drawn on IDA loans since 1979. The decision to make the World Bank's IDA funds available to Gayyoom is made by in-country International Financial Institution (IFI) officials. Their assessment is based in part on a Country Policy and Institutional Assessment that ensure regimes like Gayyoom's are able to score satisfactorily.

These IFI officials pride themselves on their objectivity and pragmatism, but they are treating Maldives as a public relations exercise and allowing themselves to be conned by a dictator well-practised in the art of deception.

The failure of the World Bank to mention and account for the large government expenditures on the National Security Service and its myriad sections, is particularly damning. The bankers are either blind to the realities of Maldives, or are actively colluding with a dictatorship that relies on torture and intimidation to stay in power.

When the tsunami hit Maldives in December 2004, the NSS were not used in the search and rescue capacity that the situation demanded. Gayyoom kept the NSS around Male' because they are his protectors against the people of the capital. In August 2004 Gayyoom ordered his NSS to bash Male' people on the streets and drag others from their houses, including ex attorney-general Munnavar, the present finance minister Gasim, and ex-Tourism minister Ibrahim Zaki.

That month, hundreds of people were tortured and bashed by the NSS, and the savage violence against both young and old people is still continuing, under orders from Gayyoom.

NSS 'rescue' vessels remain moored in Maldives after tsunami, December 2004

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