OTTAWA (CUP)—International Monetary Fund and World Bank officials reiterated their commitment to alleviating poverty at last weekend’s summit in Ottawa, although activists in the capital to protest the event remained skeptical.

The bank is still pursuing the same policies they always have, according to Pamela Foster, coordinator of the Halifax Initiative, a Canadian group lobbying for the fundamental reform of global financial institutions.

She defends the need for public protest, saying her group has engaged in public consultations with the bank since 1997 to no avail.

“We consistently participate in dialogue to be able to in good faith say that we have been ignored,” said Foster.

Inside the conference centre, officials said the events of Sept. 11 had affected their work.

“There’s almost a uniform recognition that poverty and distress in one part of the world is poverty in another,” said James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank.

“The notion of two worlds, of a rich and poor or developed and underdeveloped, was collapsed at the time of the World Trade Centre.”

The communique released by the development committee reiterated its commitment to debt relief for the most heavily indebted countries, as well as achieving the Millennium Development Goals passed by the UN General Assembly last September, which include a pledge to halve the incidence of world-wide poverty by 2015.

In spite of the officials’ pledges, protesters said they weren’t convinced.

“The World Bank is supposed to eliminate poverty and the IMF is supposed to stabilize the international monetary system, yet for 55 years they’ve been doing the opposite,” said Jamie Kneen, an organizer of the protests.

“They’ve been shifting the economies of developing countries to the benefit of what were once colonial powers and are now corporate powers.”

WHAT THEY ARE:

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund give loans to developing countries; however, the countries must abide by strict conditions. This usually includes changing agriculture to grow more crops for export (instead of for local use), opening the country unconditionally to foreign competition and keeping interest rates high to keep their currency stable.

THE CONCERNS:

Activists say the high interest rates scare people from borrowing, discouraging local investment and growth, while opening the country to foreign competition often means local organizations are destroyed by large companies. They also say the policy of growing cash crops for export creates famine at home.