The Inspection Panel is investigating claims by former Gecamines' staff, who were made redundant in 2003- 2004 under the Departs Volontaires Programme that the World Bank had contravened Congolese Labour laws and deprived them of their entitlements to back pay and other benefits. The Requesters, former miners from the district of Likasi in Katanga, further allege that the economic reintegration programme was poorly conceived, limited and ineffectual. As a result their standard of living has sharply declined and they have been left impoverished; their family units have been destroyed; there have been negative impacts on their children with young girls slipping into prostitution and juvenile deliquency among boys; school enrollment rates have fallen; famine and malnutrition is widespread because most families can only afford to eat one meal a day; there has also been an increase in morbidity and mortality rates due to the withdrawal of the medical care formally provided by Gecamines.
See http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTINSPECTIONPANEL/0,,contentMDK:22100547~menuPK:64129250~pagePK:64129751~piPK:64128378~theSitePK:380794~isCURL:Y,00.html
1 comment:
Thanks for pointing this out. Really intersting.
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