Release of "The Inspection Panel at 15 Years: Accountability at the World Bank"

September 30, 2009

 

The Inspection Panel is pleased to announce the release of its new publication entitled:

" Accountability at the World Bank: The Inspection Panel at 15 Years".

 

The new publication provides a retrospective on the Panel's work and experience over the past 15 years, along with an update on recent activities and developments. Chapters 1-3 describe the historical foundations of the Panel, its basic characteristics, and how it works. Chapters 4 and 5 review new developments, ongoing challenges, key findings over the years, and ultimate outcomes of the Panel process.  Chapter 6 and annexes contain reflections and remarks on the Panel's work and themes of accountability by some very distinguished contributors (see below),while appendices to the text report  on the

Panel's activities in Fiscal Year 2009, and include summaries of recent Inspection Panel cases and investigations as well as related information and statistical data.

 

The Panel expresses its deepest thanks and appreciation to all those who have been involved in and supported the Panel's work over the past 15 years, and to the trust placed in the Panel by members of civil society and affected communities who have come to the Panel to seek accountability and recourse.  We hope this publication provides a helpful view of this work and ongoing effort. Our thanks go also to the Bank's Board and its Chairpersons, present and past, for their unwavering support of the Panel's independence, and to Bank staff and management for their efforts and professionalism in interacting with the Panel.

 

The Panel also would like to express a special appreciation to the many people who have made contributions to this publication, including: World Bank President Robert Zoellick for contributing the Foreword; former Panel Chairperson and Member Edith Brown Weiss, for her remarks on "Criteria for Evaluating Accountability Institutions in MDBs" delivered to the 4th Meeting on Accountability Mechanisms in London, England, June 21, 2007 (in annex); Michael Cernea for the detailed, hands-on description of the methodology used by the Panel as a fact-finding body (in Chapter 3); Eduardo Abbott, founding Executive Secretary of the Panel, for his "Reflections" on the Panel, including on key events in the Panel's early years (in Chapter 6); Lori Udall, who played a key role in promoting the design and establishment of the Panel, for her "Reflections on the History and Role of the Inspection Panel at 15 years" (in Chapter 6); and to all the many persons interviewed for this publication - - requesters, former Panel members, members of the Bank's Board and Management, officials and members of governments, members of civil society and academia, and others - - the remarks of whom are excerpted throughout the text.

 

To receive a hardcopy please contact: