Electing To Work Together – Parliamentarians and The World Bank

Since the late eighties, a wave of democratization has swept the world.

The number of elected democracies has almost doubled, from 66 in 1987 to 121 in 2003, according to Freedom House, a non-profit advocacy organization.

With that dramatic rise comes a marked increase in the number of elected officials, who represent the needs and views of their constituencies. Along with that, they have a marked impact on the style and substance of development. It’s an impact that has not been overlooked by the World Bank.

“Development clearly works best when the process is country-led and based on partnerships," says World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn. “The World Bank strongly encourages parliamentary involvement in the development process.”

In a progressively borderless world, parliamentarians are using their role to explore matters handled by multilateral organizations like the Bank, the world’s single largest external financier of development programs.

In many countries, World Bank projects are subject to parliamentary approval directly through ratification or indirectly through budget approval. And in some cases, parliamentarians create debate and pass new legislation linked to World Bank-supported reform programs.

In keeping with this global expansion of parliamentarians, the World Bank has stepped up the ways in which the members of parliament and Bank staff can exchange information and gain greater understanding of the impact of development – both at a local and global level.  Key initiatives to support exchanges between parliamentarians and development professionals include:

Parliamentary Network on the World Bank (PNoWB)

Created five years ago, the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank, or PNOWB, is an independent international network aiming to encourage policy dialogue between legislators and the World Bank and the IMF, and to mobilize parliamentarians in the fight against poverty.

PNoWB Chair Bert Koenders, a member of parliament from the Netherlands, says: “We share the World Bank’s view that participation is central to lasting economic and social development. What we hope to contribute to the process is the missing parliamentary component to the ‘participatory boom’ which civil society organizations have experienced since the nineties.”

The Parliamentary Network now has more than 700 members from over 110 countries, and is led by a nine member Board of Directors.

Members of PNoWB and other inter-parliamentary initiatives regularly engage the Bank on development issues such as HIV/AIDS, economic reform, international trade and fighting corruption.

During the 5th annual PNoWB conference, hosted by the French government in February 2004, 190 parliamentarians from 75 countries met with not only the World Bank president but also representatives of other multilateral organizations, civil society groups and parliamentary assemblies.

This new team is the principal point of contact for parliamentarians and parliamentary organizations at the World Bank.  In addition to facilitating policy dialogue with elected officials worldwide, it acts as a matchmaker – connecting  parliamentarians with relevant Bank units and Bank country offices and with other constituencies such as academics and youth.

“As elected representatives and as legislators, parliamentarians are crucial agents of change and advocates for development. Parliamentarians can champion social and economic reforms,” says Jean Christophe Bas, manager of the Development Policy Dialogue team.

 “Information and knowledge sharing is at the heart of our engagement with parliamentarians. To make contacts possible and ease the information flow, we have created a new website for parliamentarians, www.worldbank.org/parliamentarians.”

The Development Dialogue Team works in partnership with PNoWB as well as with some 20 inter-parliamentary organizations and assemblies. The new parliamentary website will map inter-parliamentary development work around the world, and the Bank has included elected officials representing inter-parliamentary organizations as observers in the World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings.

Parliamentary Capacity Building Programs

The World Bank Institute, the Bank’s knowledge sharing arm,  offers the Parliamentary Strengthening Program, which aims to enhance parliaments’ capacity to effectively fulfill their responsibilities.

Over the past ten years, the World Bank Institute has trained more than 5,000 parliamentarians and parliamentary staff in public expenditure management, poverty reduction and public participation.  

“The World Bank Institute currently runs parliamentary capacity building programs in Ghana, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Thailand and is planning programs in Kenya, Bangladesh, Mexico and Pakistan,” says Rick Stapenhurst, sr. public sector management specialist.

In addition, World Bank projects fund programs to revamp parliamentary libraries, install information technology, and undertake study tours. Projects with components to strengthen parliamentary capacity are currently being implemented in Malawi, Ghana, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

Parliaments and Poverty Reduction

The World Bank is building working relationships with parliaments through regional Poverty Reduction forums, where Bank staff, parliamentarians and government representatives jointly consider ways to strengthening parliamentary oversight of countries’ Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS).

"There are indications that parliamentary involvement is beginning to influence the prioritization, costing and oversight of the Poverty Reduction Strategies," says Katrina Sharkey, sr. operations officer with the Bank’s Poverty Group.

The 2005 Review of the Poverty Reduction Strategy initiative will include an analysis of stakeholder participation inspired by the PRS process. In this context, the World Bank will remain engaged in facilitating parliamentary oversight of the PRS process. A PRSP Trust Fund supports capacity building in low income countries undertaking poverty reduction strategies, and parliaments are among the stakeholders eligible to apply.

Think Global, Act Local

A legislator once observed that “all politics is local.”

It’s at the local level where perhaps the most concrete interaction takes place between parliamentarians and World Bank staff. 

In a recent survey of staff, 85 percent of the respondents (representing 60 percent of World Bank offices in client countries) reported their staff interacted with parliamentarians either “several times a year,” “monthly” or “weekly.”

Interaction ranged from informal meetings with individual parliamentarians to more structured consultations on the World Bank’s projects or the country’s three-year business plan, or the Country Assistance Strategy. The World Bank also promotes parliamentary involvement in the country’s Poverty Reduction Strategy, which describe a country's macroeconomic, structural and social policies and programs to promote growth and reduce poverty.

Public Information Centers (PICs)

The Bank’s Public Information Centers disseminate development-related information and documentation on World Bank operations and research to the public.

The Bank’s global network of PICs  operating in about 70 capital cities, with more than 60 satellite centers in some 80 countries, have proved to be a draw card for parliamentarians seeking information on development issues.