World Bank Partners in Latvia

The World Bank works in close coordination with members of the government, civil society, community leaders, and other international donor organizations for providing the most effective assistance to the country. 

The following chart highlights some of the priority areas and the organizations the World Bank coordinates with to improve development in the country.

Who are the World Bank's partners in development ?

Donors governments and official bilateral organizations such as:

• JEXIM and OECF (Japan), USAID (US), KfW and GTZ (Germany), CIDA (Canada), SIDA (Sweden), etc.
• multilateral organizations, such as the international financial institutions (IFIs)
• European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London
• European Investment Bank (EIB) in Luxembourg
• Nordic Investment Bank and Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO), both in Helsinki

Other multilateral organization, such as:

• European Commission (EC) in Brussels
• Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) in Paris

National and international foundations, such as:

• Soros Foundation's Open Society Institute
• Bertelsmann Foundation (Germany)
• NGOs, both international and national
• Religious organizations, private sector firms, etc..
  

Why partnership ?

At a time of dwindling public resources, partnership is a must. However, it represents a number of challenges:

• The recipient country has to be in the driver's seat and "own" the process
• Partners have to subscribe to the general principles of a country's development strategy
• The country's development strategy has to be owned by the country and discussed with broad segments of civil society
• Partners need to agree with the recipient country as to who will do what
  

Addressing the challenges of partnerships:

Partner organizations often have different project implementation procedures, including those related to procurement, audit and disbursement. This can  slow down the implementation of the project.

The Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF) tries to address these and other partnership related issues. 

Examples of Partnerships

Existing fora for partnership

Over the years, there have been three traditional types of forums for "official partners" to come together with recipient governments:

• Consultative Groups (CG) have traditionally been chaired by the World Bank and held at the Bank's European office in Paris.
• The World Bank's structural adjustment programs.
• The Group of 24 (G24) meeting (co-chaired by the the World Bank).

New partnerships forged as a result of EU Accession

The enlargement of the European Union (EU) by the accession of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)- Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia - has given rise to a new type of partnership between the European Commission, the World Bank, IFC, EBRD, EIB, NIB, NEFCO, and SDFCE.

The partners have concluded a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which will govern cooperation around three EU financial instruments totaling, as of 1/1/2000, Euro 3 billion in grants, which the European Commission(EC) would like to cofinance with the IFIs. Experience to date has shown that for every 1 Euro mobilized by the EC, 4-5 additional Euros have been mobilized by IFIs.

EU enlargement cooperation also consists of establishing partnerships/networks among EU candidate countries and with EU member countries to learn from each others' experiences. The World Bank, via its cross country work, is playing a key role in fostering these partnerships. The EC and the World Bank co-chair the respective coordinating mechanisms.

Partnership with the Bertelsmann Foundation

A new type of partnership has been launched between the World Bank and the Bertelsmann Foundation (BF) of Germany. It will be matched by initial contributions of US$500,000, each. The partnership focuses on two programs in the CEE countries:

Cities of Change Program

The "Cities of Change program" is designed to expose Central and Eastern European  cities, especially secondary ones, to the new challenges of:

• Decentralized government, where municipalities assume greater direct responsibility for the management of municipal affairs and fiscal revenues. The program has also prepared cities for EU membership.
• Partnerships are created between CEE cities and EU cities. The World Bank Institute's (WBI) "Global Distance Learning Network" plays a major role in facilitating communications amongst the partners. The program also builds upon the highly successful world-wide Bertelsmann Foundation "Cities of Tomorrow" network.

Towards EU Integration Program

The "Towards EU Integration program" program consists of the establishment of a network of economic, social and political research institutes and think tanks in the EU accession countries. Based, among others, on the cross-country studies prepared by the World Bank, the network has become a forum for a discussion with civil society about the challenges of EU accession. The network also links up with similar institutes in EU member countries.