The Deputies have asked IDA to continue to make special efforts in Sub-Saharan Africa. Many countries in the region are now pursuing sound policies, opening up a window of opportunity to improve the lives of their poorest citizens. Yet investment levels in these countries are too low to sustain and accelerate this growth. IDA aims to provide 50 percent of IDA12 resources to African countries that are committed to poverty reduction, economic reform, and sustainable, broad-based growth as long as the policy performance of individual countries justifies these allocations. Deputies expressed the hope that poor countries still enduring the effects of armed conflict would soon be able to benefit from IDA by returning to a poverty-focused development path.
Donors also recognize that the greatest concentration of poor people in the world is in Asia.
In several large Asian countries IDA will concentrate its support on priority social sector and environmental programs. At the same time, Deputies recognized that the economic crisis that began in East Asia has put at risk one of the most remarkable achievements in poverty reduction. IDA will carefully monitor the continuing impact of the crisis on poor countries in all regions and will adjust its lending to respond to emerging needs within the agreed IDA12 criteria. Subscriptions by donors are made in their own currencies at a conversion rate which is the average exchange rate between their currencies and SDRs between March 1 and August 31, 1998.