The World Bank came under fire last week for actions taken by managing director, Juan José Daboub, to remove references to family planning from a Madagascar grant and more broadly from the new health, nutrition, and population strategy. Daboub, a former member of the ruling conservative party of El Salvador, was an appointee of current World Bank head, Paul Wolfowitz. Wolfowitz (who has his own issues due to controversy around his role in securing a hefty pay raise for his girlfriend) and Daboub were scrutinized at last weekend's spring meetings of the World Bank and IMF where Board members expressed outrage over Daboub's actions.

We obtained this confidential letter that Daboub sent to the World Bank board members where he denies any wrong doing. Sorry Daboub, but we're not buying it!

Dear Executive Directors,

In the same spirit with which I have maintained communication with you on matters of mutual interest, I am writing to set the record straight following various press reports regarding the Bank's new health, nutrition and population strategy as well as the contents of the Madagascar CAS, which the Board endorsed on April 3.

Regarding the Madagascar CAS, none of the editorial changes that were made at my direction changed, or intended to change, the Bank Group's program in the area of family planning. These changes were simply intended to clarify what I understood to be the Bank's role in this area, given the roles of other donors. A review of the document shows clearly that family planning continues to feature in the CAS. In particular, paragraph 104 of the document continues to state that "In health, [the Bank] will help the government make further progress on reducing child and maternal mortality by offering access to reproductive services …". By the same token, the CAS continues to include a Bank-supported health project (see the results matrix on page 47) that supports Government activities in the areas of child immunization, malaria control, and population and family planning, and that management expects to distribute to the Board in late April, as originally planned. Moreover, the Board has already approved over US$625 million for population and reproductive health for FY07 and the final number is expected to be close to US$750 million; these figures represent the highest ticket item in our Health portfolio.

There also has been no change to the Bank's policy on family planning. The health, nutrition and population strategy document that is currently before you for discussion has a results framework (Annex J) which includes an outcome (IV) entitled "Improved maternal, reproductive and sexual health". That results framework also explicitly references multisectoral contributions to intermediate outcomes/outputs that include "improve family planning and sexual health", where the relevant measures are identified as "contraceptive prevalence rate among women of reproductive age", "unmet need for contraception", and "prevalence rate of STIs [sexually transmitted infections] among adults and young people (15-24 years)".

I am here to carry out professionally and faithfully the Bank's policies. The policy on Reproductive Health is clear, had been endorsed by the Board and in place for many years; it has been followed by the President, the Staff and me, as reflected in projects and programs brought and to be brought to the Board. We understand and respect our partner countries' decision on this subject.

Juan José Daboub