Paul Wolfowitz resigned as World Bank president, ending turmoil over his leadership, but the next battle loomed for the United States over how and if it should continue to appoint the head of the institution. Wolfowitz's resignation on Thursday, forced by his handling of a high-paying promotion for his companion, takes effect on June 30.

The Chinese premier has rejected accusations that his country is taking resources from Africa without considering the development of the continent's own industries. Speaking in Shanghai at the opening session of the African Development Bank's annual meeting, Wen Jiabao said China was "sincere" about its commitment to Africa.

Besieged World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz is negotiating an agreement with the bank board to resign, World Bank sources said on Wednesday. The sources said Wolfowitz, former U.S. deputy defense secretary, insisted that he will resign voluntarily and the bank should share some responsibility for his pay-and-promotion package for Shaha Riza.

The World Bank has made the entire report of this ad hoc group of its Executive Board available online. The report concludes that Mr. Wolfowitz violated World Bank rules and had a de facto conflict of interest when he directed that a salary increase be made to Ms. Riza in excess of those allowed by World Bank organizational policies.

The Bank Information Center (BIC) is seeking to fill the position of Executive Director. BIC partners with civil society in developing and transition countries to influence the World Bank and other international financial institutions (IFIs) to promote social and economic justice and ecological sustainability. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis, beginning on June 25. The job will stay open until filled.

Responding to Conflict is offering a course on Strengthening Policy and Practice. This is a one week workshop run twice a year. the aims of the workshop are to increase participants awareness of the link between policies which are made and what actually happens in practice; and to assist participants in finding constructive methods for engaging with unpredictable and changing circumstances. The course will run from 16 - 20 July 2007 and 19 - 23 November 2007.

When a headhunter phoned Tidjane Thiam, then working in Paris, to discuss a job with Britain's biggest insurer, Aviva, he laid down a condition. "I said, 'well, I am very happy to interview. But frankly, you need to tell them that you found someone who is black, African, Francophone and 6ft 4'," he laughs, his mouth shut tightly and his broad shoulders shaking at the recollection.

The Asian Political and International Studies Association (APISA), the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) and the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) are pleased to announce the Africa/Asia/Latin America Scholarly Collaborative initiative encompassing joint research, training, publishing and dissemination activities by researchers drawn from across the global South, and to call for applications to participate in the third South-South Summer Institute they are organizing within the framework of the initiative.

Despite the victory against apartheid in South Africa in 1994, millions of people still live in shacks in the townships in South Africa. The Freedom Charter which called for decent housing has been unimplemented. The award winning film "Breyani and The Councillor" made last year shows the struggle for decent housing and jobs in a township in Durban. The residents begin to struggle for justice and are met with repression.

When Paul Wolfowitz was nominated by Bush to become the president of the World Bank there was a lot of anger and opposition from both development lobbyists and economists.

What is a Wolf doing in a bank that was supposed to be ‘helping’ poorer countries of the world? What is a war-mongerer with blood of innocent Iraqis and Afghanis dripping from every pore doing in a development bank?

A man who believed in destruction as a policy of subjugation was put in charge of reconstruction of global economy.

But the appointment was not surprising. It was typical of the 'I don’t care' attitude of Bush and his fundamentalist clique. They do not give a damn about the rest of the world, not even to their allies. Before the Wolf was sent to the bank, another hawk had been sent to the UN. Do you remember Bolton? He was made US representative to the UN, an organisation he held in deepest contempt and was determined to destroy.

For Bush, might is right. The rest of the world can go hang if they cannot put up with him.

The appointment of Wolfowitz showed yet again the undemocratic power relations in most of the so-called global institutions. In theory, the IMF, World Bank, WTO and UN are global institutions to which we all belong. They are meant to serve all the members. But in reality they are controlled by powerful countries, predominantly Western Europe and the US.

In the case of the IMF and World Bank the convention is that the Europeans get to nominate who heads the former; and their American cousins choose the latter. Despite the fact that many of the European countries were politically and ideologically hostile to The Wolf they had to put up with him.

In spite of raving noises and lobbying from their INGOs, asking them to veto the appointment, they simply wrung their hands because they did not want to lose their entrenched and privileged hold of to the IMF position.

The same unprincipled lack of transparency has bedevilled UN reforms. Europe and America hold undemocratic sway in the UN security council. They are unwilling to lose or even share bits of it with the vast majority of the world.

However, with Bush in the White House, the Europeans have developed a perfect ‘blame Bush' default as a foil for their own lack of commitment to a fundamental reform of these global institutions. Self-interest is essentially what is holding them back. But they blame an uncooperative, unilateralist White House.

So despite the fact that Europe along with Japan holds majority shares and has majority voting power in the bank, they continue to blame the US for blocking reforms and policies friendlier to the poor.

Wolfowitz’s current travails offer these hypocritical countries another chance to redeem their timid liberal pastures. If Wolfowitz is heading a normal private bank his board would have sacked him by now. Since he is not unwilling to jump, he must be pushed, and very fast.

The suggestion that Wolfowitz has support from African countries or other developing countries is an unoriginal excuse. Since when has the bank listened to these poor countries?

They are saying this because they are not yet sure what the US will do. Wolfowitz has lost the confidence of his colleagues and the trust of the Bank’s customers. So what is the board waiting for? It is about integrity, credibility and legitimacy.

The bank and the IMF have made themselves the apostles of good political and economic governance, lecturing poor countries on good practice, due process and transparency, even when their policies have wrecked whole economies and destroyed many lives. They never accept responsibility because they always claim that their policy prescriptions were correct, and that country A or B did not apply them well!

In the case of Wolfowitz, he arrived with the triumphalist glee of other mass murderers of the people of Baghdad to ‘shock and awe’ the bank. He was particularly determined to ‘root out corruption’ and crossed swords with many of his senior colleagues who found his arrogant style unacceptable.

So his current problems have become music to the ears of most of his colleagues, who had become exasperated with his management style. Like Tony Blair who promised to be ‘whiter than white’, and is now to be remembered for blood of the innocent Iraqis and the stench of running a government that awarded national honours to the highest bidders, Wolfowitz is going down for not practising what he preached.

It will be correct that Wolfowitz is hung out immediately. But his pillow mortgage is just the tip of the iceberg and a symptom of allegedly technocratic global institutions whose officials are not elected, who are mostly unelectable, and not accountable to those they serve. They do not even take responsibility for the consequences of their ideologically driven policies, which hurt the poor and marginalised peoples of the world, whom they claim they are in business to serve.

It is not just the personal hypocrisy of Wolfowitz that is on display, but the hypocrisy of the powers that control these institutions.

* Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is the deputy director of the UN Millennium Campaign in Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He writes this article in his personal capacity as a concerned pan-Africanist.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Delegates began the 42nd annual meetings of the board of governors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Shanghai, China, with calls for wider and mutually beneficial cooperation between Africa and China. China is also hosting the 33rd annual meetings of the board of governors of the African Development Fund (ADF). The opening ceremony was graced by Presidents of Cape Verde, Madagascar and Rwanda – Pedro Pires, Marc Ravalomanana and Paul Kagame.

As the African Development Bank convenes in Shanghai for its annual meeting, African and international civil society groups call for greater public accountability in China’s relations with Africa. China’s expanding role in Africa may represent a great opportunity for development, but only if China is careful not to repeat the errors that Western powers made in the past.

The second Global Report on discrimination under the follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work examines emerging issues in patterns of workplace discrimination and inequalities and recent policy responses, and outlines the ILO’s experience and achievements to date and the challenges it faces.

What compromises do activists, organizers, and those actively pursuing social justice make when traveling internationally? How does the experience of living in a global super power, either "legally" or "not", affect our reception in countries that make up the global south?

The vast majority of cluster bomb casualties occur while victims are carrying out their daily livelihood activities, according to Circle of Impact: The Fatal Footprint of Cluster Munitions on People and Communities. This groundbreaking report by Handicap International documents the lasting economic and social harm these weapons bring upon communities, adversely impacting families for decades to come.

Justice Africa offers an internship programme for young professionals and those studying at, or recently graduated from University. The aims of the internships are to develop the next cohort of policy researchers and activists, and to equip them with the research and professional skills necessary to develop their careers.

Boehringer-Ingelheim is to cut the price of its antiretroviral drug nevirapine (Viramune) by 50% in low-income countries, the company’s chairman said today. However, the concessionary price offered by Boehringer will still be four times higher than the price offered by Indian generic manufacturers through the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative’s purchasing consortium.

The IGF Community Site has been built and designed to get the most possible out the Internet during its first-ever worldwide meeting. The Internet Governance Forum, or IGF, is a remarkable experiment in knowledge and experience sharing across the Internet by all the people that use it, including business, governments, organisations and you, the individual.

The Social Inclusion Specialist will join a motivated, results-orientated, multicultural team. S/he will work in a complex and demanding environment and will work closely with the Aga Khan University Institute of Muslim Civilisations, The Global Centre of Pluralism in Canada, the AKDN units in Canada, Portugal and USA and draw on experience and expertise from other organisations in Europe, including those of the European Union. Application deadline is 10 June 2007.

Access to second-line antiretroviral (ARV) therapy in developing countries could become more widely available after former US president Bill Clinton unveiled a new venture earlier this week. Clinton told a press conference in New York on Tuesday that deals to provide low-cost ARVs to 66 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean had been clinched with two Indian generic drug companies.