The Pied Piper of Hamelin: The World Bank, Poverty and Development

The World Bank integrates concepts from the Third World movement into its neoliberal discourse so that they acquire a completely different meaning. This applies to poverty, social protection, social development, culture, empowerment, etc. In this way, the Bank functions like the Pied Piper of Hamelin. It ostensibly whistles in the language of social movements, it hums the concepts of NGOs and trade unions, but its tunes belong in a completely different music. The Bank sets the tone for other international institutions, the IMF, the UNDP, etc. It also takes on the Millennium Goals, without changing anything in its neoliberal policy. But for twenty years, that policy has caused more misery and poverty than it solves. Poor people live in the vast majority in poor countries and need a development policy, not poverty reduction. Francine Mestrum searches for elements for a different policy. Because another world is indeed possible. A book about discourse as a place of power and resistance.