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Former PNoWB Chair, Bert Koenders, Minister for Development Cooperation sent a message of congratulations and support to newly elected PNoWB Chair Betty McCollum saying "I am very pleased that Betty McCollum will succeed me as Chair of the PNoWB. I know Betty as a highly qualified parliamentarian, who made history by being only the second Minnesota woman elected to Congress since statehood in 1858. She is the right person to chair the PNoWB and I am convinced she will be very successful in strengthening the role of Parliament and increasing the collective accountability of the World Bank."
His sentiments were echoed by another former member of the PNoWB Board, Chairman Norbert Mao, of Gulu District Council in Northern Uganda and one of the key founding members of PNoWB who said, "Betty McCollum's election as PNoWB chair shows that our trans-Atlantic outreach has now come of age. Her energy, commitment and resourcefulness as a member of the board was clear in our missions to Washington DC and also during the G8 Edinburgh meeting. She certainly knows a lot about PNoWB - its many levers and the sometimes turbulent seas we confront. I have no doubt that she will provide a steady hand on PNoWB's rudder. For those of us who were midwives at PNoWB's birth in the Hague in 2000, all we can do is to pledge our continued support to Betty and the rest of the Board. Remember, you are not alone. You have friends all over the world. The network is alive and well globally. PNoWB is needed now more than ever".
Betty McCollum’s message to PNoWB Membership
PNoWB Chair Betty McCollum pays tribute to her predecessor Minister Koenders and pledges to preserve PNoWB's ideals. In her first letter to the membership, Betty McCollum also stressed the importance of working with PNoWB members to strengthen the voice of parliamentarians in development.
Click here for the full message
PNoWB Board members at the Board Retreat, June 8-9th 2007, Chantilly
PNoWB elects Congresswoman Betty McCollum as its new Chair
The PNoWB Board met on the 8-9th of June 2007, in Chantilly France and elected Congresswoman McCollum as the new Chair of the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank. Monica Frassoni, MEP, Italy and Yunus Carrim, MP South Africa, were also appointed as the new Vice-Chairs of the PNoWB.
Read more on PNoWB Strategy Retreat
Read Betty McCollum biography
Read letter from PNoWB Chair Betty McCollum to World Bank President Nominee Robert Zoellick
PNoWB Board writes to the World Bank Executive Directors regarding leadership crisis.
The nine-member PNoWB Board wrote to World Bank Executive Directors last month to urge them to take swift action to bring to an end the ongoing crisis surrounding World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz's leadership of the Bank. The Board, represented by Dr Janette Garin, MP, Philippines, and Kimmo Kiljunen, MP, Finland, Hugh Bayley MP, UK , Monica Frassoni, MEP, Italy, Congresswoman Betty McCollum, USA, Hideki Wakabayashi, MP, Japan, Yunus Carrim, MP, South Africa, Santiago Castro, MP, Colombia and Suresh Prabhu, MP, India made their position very clear, that clearly, there have been errors of judgment exposing an inadequate system to address conflicts of interest. This has led inevitably to the undermining of the Bank’s capacity to carry out its mandate; that of effective poverty reduction. However they argue that the problem goes beyond this and is instead a reflection of a deeper institutional problem; the selection process for the heads of the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWIs) as a whole. What is needed is a more open debate, more accountability, transparency and capacity to create a consensus around a program and not only a person, when the heads of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are selected.
Click here to read the letter by the PNoWB Board to the World Bank.
The 7th PNoWB Annual Conference was held on March 15-17, 2007 in Cape Town, South Africa. The conference, hosted by the Government and Parliament of South Africa brought together 200 parliamentarians with civil society organisations, multilateral and bilateral agencies as well as World Bank and IMF representatives. Parliamentarians had the opportunity to address questions to the World Bank President Paul D. Wolfowitz, the Managing Director of IMF Rodrigo De Rato, and the President of the African Development Bank Donald Kaberuka, during a question and answer session.
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The conference also doubled as the PNoWB General Assembly with the election of two new board members, Hugh Bayley, United Kingdom and Yunus Carrim, South Africa and the reelection of Kimmo Kiljunen, Finland and Monica Frassoni, European Parliament (Italy).
Click here to view the list of new board members
PNoWB congratulates Dr Bert Koenders, PNoWB Board Chair on his recent appointment as Minister for Development Cooperation of the
As part of PNoWB's evolving plans to launch a Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Chapter, a presentation of PNoWB was made at the plenary session of the Central American Parliament on January 28, 2007 in Guatemala City, which resulted in the commitment of more than thirty parliamentarians. PNoWB board member Santiago Castro is also coordinating further involvement of MPs from Guatemala and Mexico in the LAC Chapter.
A field visit scheduled on December 10-15, 2006 in Chad has temporarily been postponed because of security concerns. It is hoped that the visit will be rescheduled soon, as the situation changes.
A meeting gathering around 40 parliamentarians took place in the Andean Parliament (AP) in Bogotá, on November 28, 2006 under the leadership of Santiago Castro, PNoWB Board member and MP at the Colombian House of Representatives, who presented the Network. Key outcome is that twenty parliamentarians of the AP have already become members, in addition to the existing PNoWB members in the LAC region.
PNoWB recently launched the Balkans Chapter in a meeting held in Athens on September 29-30, 2006.
A delegation of fourteen parliamentarians participated in a field visit
to Kenya organised on September 10-14, 2006 by the PNoWB, the World Bank and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).
(Photo Source:CGIAR)
Senator Michel Guerry from France represented PNoWB at the XVIth AIDS Conference in Toronto, on August 13-18, 2006. Senator Guerry delivered his thoughts in an inspiring and lively report, where he emphasized his concerns over the lack of address of Tuberculosis and Malaria diseases during the conference and the inappropriateness of western-oriented solutions to tackle AIDS plight in the South.
As part of PNoWB members’ ongoing campaign for a successful Doha outcome, co-Chairs of the PNoWB Committee on International Trade wrote on behalf of their members, to Peter Mandelson, European Commissioner for External Trade and Competitiveness. Members voiced their concerns over the lack of action and urged European Union to take the lead on achieving a pro-poor outcome of the Doha Trade Round.
A Video Conference is scheduled early in the New Year, to follow-up on the dialogue with Peter Mandelson.