The World Bank's managing director, who is said to have links to the Catholic organisation Opus Dei, has been accused of undermining the bank's commitment to women's health by ordering the deletion of policies relating to family planning.Juan Jose Daboub ordered staff to remove all references to family planning from its country assistance program document for Madagascar.
Mr Daboub, a Catholic from El Salvador, was appointed by the World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz, and has been a focus of opposition from bank staff.
Specific targets relating to contraception were also deleted from the document. The original draft committed the bank to work to increase contraception uptake from 14 per cent in 2004 to 20 per cent; the final document contained no goal.
In the past, the World Bank has championed the sexual and reproductive rights of women.
Mr Daboub's intervention was revealed through a leaked email from the country program co-ordinator at the bank, Lilia Burunciuc, who warned that the absence of family planning policies would be a problem because Madagascar had specifically asked for them.
Mr Daboub said yesterday that the bank's policies had not changed, and Mr Wolfowitz also said there was no change.
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