GUYANA’S historic hosting of the fourth annual Summit of the Heads of States and Governments of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), is monumental in that it proves that UNASUR is grounded in the framework of integration through unity, and incorporates equally, all member nations, regardless of size or economic standing.

Of particular interest to me, as should be to all Guyanese, as well as South Americans in general, is the establishment of ‘el Banco del Sur’, the Bank of the South, headquartered in Caracas, Venezuela.

The formation of this bank creates a means of financing regional development, through which South American countries will eventually be able to disregard the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), whose policies have inadvertently aided in stagnating development throughout the South American region. The Bank of the South will provide an alternate lending institution to the region.

The cruel joke of the IMF and the World Bank’s policies is that the debt bailouts and loans that they offer are usually attached to harsh ‘Structural Adjustments’ like privatization of state enterprises, unrestricted free market access for foreign corporations, government deregulation, deep cuts in social spending, and wage freezes and cuts,   that dictate the ways in which the receiving country can and should use that money, and ends up being just a ‘one-way street of gain’, paved only to the front doors of the developed countries.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was instrumental in the formation of ‘el Banco del Sur’, as it was his brilliant idea to establish this South American bank as part of his vision to make South America ‘a force to reckon with’ in the international community by first and foremost eradicating debt from the region.

Drawing from David Mitrany’s theory of functionalism, which holds that in an extensively globalized world, integration is imperative because it allows for international agencies to functionally meet human needs and render benefits which would attract the loyalty of the population and stimulate their participation, thereby expanding and improving the process of integration.

Unlike the IMF and the World Bank, the two dominant lending institutions of the Washington Consensus, the Bank of the South will give priority to, and be more sensitized to the needs of economic growth and development of the individual countries and region of South America that the corporate goals of the Washington Consensus cannot deliver.