Max Lawson Quotations

On aid, things look really bad, the Americans seem completely unconvinced about the need to increase aid.

Rich country leaders stood up and said they wanted to put children in school and save people from preventable diseases. What is the World Bank going to do to systematically embarrass donor governments that do not improve the quality of their aid in coming years?

Unless we keep the scrutiny up, there's nothing to suggest this case will be any different.

It appears that he is committed to health and education, which are nearly all of the millennium development goals. We'll be watching him very closely over the next few months to see whether he follows up on that.

We are really depressed. We are left clawing our way back to commitments made three years ago. When we start defining success as simply standing still, that's a terrible situation to be in.

We are really concerned that we're a long, long way away from any kind of breakthrough on tackling poverty in Africa.

We're keeping up the pressure on the Bank, Fund and rich country donors. The story of 2005 was promises from rich countries to increase their aid. The story of 2006 is whether these promises will result in real money to fight poverty and not aid increases based on clever accounting, politics and naked self interest.

The deal that has been sealed by the Fund this weekend will provide urgently needed money for education and health care,

The stage is now set for the World Bank shareholders to fulfill their part of the bargain tomorrow.

Compared to the momentum last year and the real changes in terms of increase in aid and debt cancellation, the spring meetings were a real disappointment.

It seems unbelievable that the IMF is now boldly undoing the debt dealagreed at its own annual meetings in September.

It's good that the IMF realized that they couldn't wriggle out of promised debt cancellation. The IMF must now deliver the funding quickly and without any further delay.

The next step is for the IMF to cancel the debts of over 60 countries that urgently need the funds to help end poverty.

It seems all he wants to talk about is corruption.

The new corruption drive is all well and fine but we have to deal with the supply side. Where the bank can really deliver is by naming and shaming big companies that pay bribes.

By their next meeting, we want to see real change -- not just pocket change -- for the 100 million poor children out of school.

The IMF realized that the world was watching and they couldn't deny millions of people the promised debt cancellation.

The IMF realized that the world was watching, and they couldn't deny millions of people the promised debt cancellation.