The civil society representatives at the meeting stressed that their participation did not represent all the world’s civil society organizations. Their presence, though, was meant to reflect the diversity of those groups and to provide critical perspectives. The participants intend to reach out to additional civil society networks going forward, in particular Southern-based groups.

“We've come a long way in creating this global platform for dialogue. The Bank is trying to do more listening, to learn from both positive and critical feedback,” said World Bank Managing Director Mamphela Ramphele, who co-chaired the October 27-28 JFC session. “We hope to forge a stronger alliance with civil society organizations in support of important issues like multilateralism and the Millennium Development Goals.”

Civicus, the World Alliance for Citizen Participation, has coordinated the civil society participants of the JFC working group and hosts the committee’s secretariat. Groups participating in the JFC thus far include such organizations as the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), Amnesty International, Interaction, and the YWCA  (for a full list  click here).

The Oct. 27-28 working session focused on a draft paper prepared by the Bank, Issues and Options for Improving Engagement Between the World Bank and Civil Society Organizations. At the meeting, the Bank agreed to make the paper public and solicit feedback from civil society.

Though the Bank’s ties to CSOs date back to the 1970s, engagement began in earnest in the 1980s. It was then that the World Bank began learning how to promote civil society participation—the process was most notably driven by the advocacy of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on environmental issues.  In the 1990s, the Bank focused on expanding and mainstreaming civil society participation into its projects and policy dialogue with member governments. During this period, NGOs notably pushed to the fore the issue of debt relief for highly indebted poor countries, which resulted in the  HIPC initiative.

Over the past few years, street protests during the semiannual meetings of the World Bank and IMF have pushed civil society further into the spotlight. The antagonism has generated attention, but relations between civil society and the Bank are more complex—alongside the protests, there has been growing and substantive dialogue inside the meetings. At the recent Annual Meetings in Dubai, for example, 90 CSO representatives from MENA and throughout the world participated in dialogues.  The Bank also has an array of  funds which support civil society initiatives.

Today, civil society interacts with the World Bank in a variety of ways—be it carrying out components of projects, holding policy dialogues and debates, or conducting global advocacy campaigns on issues such as improving  market access for developing countries and  Education for All.

“I have found in the last two years that the interchange that we have with civil society is at a much higher level,” World Bank President James Wolfensohn told reporters last week. “It does not mean they're not critical, it does not mean that we agree on everything, but it does mean that we are working to find common ground around shared development concerns.”

The JFC working group was formed to forge the next steps in World Bank-civil society relations. Members at the working session last week agreed to conduct a joint assessment of what has worked so far and what has not in those relations.

The committee also agreed to strengthen advocacy and engagement capacity for CSOs, particularly in developing and transition countries, vis-à-vis the World Bank and national governments. A series of policy dialogues will also focus on contested development issues as well as areas of common interest.

“The CSOs involved in the JFC see this meeting as part of a process with significant challenges ahead, one needing much more dialogue and consultation with civil society,” said Kumi Naidoo, Secretary-General and CEO of Civicus and co-chair of the meeting. Naidoo also noted that the JFC initiative should be seen as complementary to the many existing venues of World Bank-civil society engagement.

“We’re on the right track,” World Bank External Affairs Vice President Ian Goldin said of the JFC meeting. “But we at the Bank can do much better at strengthening our consultations and collaboration with civil society,” he added. “Civil society is an essential partner in tackling the global development challenges ahead.”

For more on the JFC meeting, (including the  final communiqué) please visit the  website on the World Bank’s engagement with civil society.
 

l to r, civil society colleagues from Interaction and ICFTU 

Representatives of YWCA International with Bank staffers Sergio Jellineck and William Rubin, both of ESSD