O P I N I O N
Banking on NGOs
Has the World Bank created a cosy box for environmental civil society?
By Robert Atkinson
It is always a promising move when governmental or international organisations begin to address issues of involvement of the wider community. The willingness of the World Bank as a development agency to embark on dialogue with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is therefore a welcome event.This April, nine NGO representatives from Central and Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States were invited by the World Bank and the NGO Working Group (NGOWG) on the World Bank (see box) to meetings of the NGO-World Bank Committee in Washington D.C. Invitees, who included this correspondent, came from different sectors including gender, poverty, environment and advocacy. The purpose behind the meetings was to instigate a process for a NGO Regional Assembly for Europe and Central Asia (ECA) - one of six regions for the Bank's activities. This assembly would be the last such regional assembly to be formed following the recent regionalization of the NGOWG and the Bank itself.
The nine NGO representatives were asked to devise a way to set up the assembly (the results of which are now available through the ECA Secretariat). It was hoped that this would lead to an open and effective process for NGOs to become involved in approaching the Bank.
To this observer, however, it seems that the Bank wants to deal with only one group of NGOs, and have one mechanism for this. It would imply that such a group would be representative of the region and the only conduit at the regional level to the Bank. But this would be an artificial filter for NGOs and not truly pluralistic, requiring all regional NGOs to first go through the Bank's "approved" regional assembly.
Sadly, this is the usual way that governments and international organisations approach working with NGOs - keeping them in a cosy box they can deal with and comprehend. Of course that misses the point that the strength and utility of NGOs - their essence - is in their diversity.
Although the idea for a new regional assembly is welcome, the Bank should really look towards an effective mechanism to accept a diversity of NGOs rather than just confining dialogue through a "Bank-defined" instrument.
Several recommendations were made by regional NGOs to the Bank back in May 1997 during the NGOs and the Future workshop held at the Regional Environmental Center's head office in Szentendre, Hungary. These included designating NGO liaison staff in each World Bank mission and offering training and management courses to NGOs though the Bank's Educational and Development Institute.
Ensuring that NGOs are involved in Bank projects and programmes that directly finance NGOs, such as the Global Environment Facility, was suggested. And researching tax laws in each country to determine whether they encourage or discourage philanthropy seemed like a good idea.
The workshop partially led to the placement of NGO liaison officers in missions, with mixed results according to NGOs. And it is only now that regional dialogue is being continued within the process of forming the regional assembly. It remains to be seen whether the other recommendations will be picked up along with new issues that could now be introduced by other non-environmental NGOs. And much of that will mean a change in culture and responsibility across the 12,000-strong Bank staff. (For info from the ECA Secretariat: Tomasz Terlecki, CEE Bankwatch Network, e-mail: ngowbwg@bankwatch.org)
The NGOWG and how it works
The NGO Working Group on the World Bank (NGOWG) was created in 1984 and is one of the oldest forums for advocacy building among worldwide NGOs and multi-lateral banks. The NGOWG has been reorganised since 1997 into five regional assemblies - Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, and OECD countries, with the sixth, the ECA (Europe and Central Asia), now being formed. These assemblies, which correspond to the Bank's operational regions, are supposed to discuss regional issues related to activities of the World Bank and to elect delegates for the Global Steering Committee of the NGOWG.
The NGOWG mission is to ensure that the viewpoints of southern and transitional country NGOs are incorporated through a global NGO forum into the Bank's deliberative process, particularly on policy issues of relevance to NGOs.
Necessary linkages and fora should be developed for the above, including identifying appropriate national, regional and global mechanisms for debate and for identifying regional similarities and differences. The NGOWG should monitor and guide the overall Bank-NGO dialogue, particularly from a southern and transitional country NGO perspective. And it should identify important new issues for Bank-NGO debate and advise on appropriate fora for this.
The World Bank-NGO Committee, created in 1982, is a dialogue mechanism between worldwide NGOs and the World Bank regarding development issues. It is a joint forum comprised of NGOWG members and World Bank staff that provides an overview of Bank-NGO relations and advises on and monitors performance of Bank-NGO strategies, policies and practices. (For more info: Secretariat: IDR, 44 Farnsworth Street, Boston, MA 0222210-1211, USA. Tel: (1-617) 422-0422, e-mail: ngowg@jsi.com.)
