Parliamentarians can be powerful advocates for development programs in general and World Bank programs in particular. They can build public awareness and raise development issues that are important for the people that have elected them. In donor countries, they debate and approve foreign aid budgets and shape and review development policies. In developing countries they can influence their governments and hold them accountable for World Bank financed programs, among other things through debating and approving national budgets and development plans. This constituency gets all the more influential because of the increasing number of democracies, from 66 in 1987 to 121[1] in 2003. The World Bank is an important focus of parliamentary interest as it is the world’s single largest external funder of development programs as well as an important source of knowledge and advice on how to tackle global issues related to poverty reduction such as climate change, fragile states, international trade, HIV/AIDS and governance. While the representatives of the World Bank’s founding countries specified in 1944 that the organization was to deal with its member states through Executive Directors, parliamentarians remain an influential constituency that the World Bank engages with on critical development issues. Among other things, the Bank supports parliamentary development though a number of capacity-building initiatives and partners with parliamentary groups to raise awareness about development. Interlocutors within the World Bank include a Parliamentary team, the World Bank Institute and field officers. The Parliamentary Network on the World Bank (PNoWB) The Parliamentary Network on the World Bank (PNoWB), an independent association of some 1,000 members of parliament, is a key parliamentary interlocutor for the World Bank Group. Established in 2000, governed by a nine-member board of parliamentarians representing different regions and political affiliations, PNoWB mobilizes parliamentarians in the fight against poverty, promotes transparency and accountability in international development and offers a platform for policy dialogue between the Bank and parliamentarians. PNoWB’s activities are supported by donor governments and international institutions. PNoWB seeks to be an action-oriented network of parliamentarians and organizes events through its secretariat in Paris , or through its chapters around the world. Its flagship event, the PNoWB Annual Conference, has brought parliamentarians together with the leaders of the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO and the African Development Bank as well as with heads of state. The next annual meeting will be held in Paris in November 2008. PNoWB and the World Bank also organize field visits to developing countries for parliamentarians to inspect World Bank field programs and to consult with a range of stakeholders, from Bank staff to civil society representatives, ministers and heads of state. The latest countries visited are Mozambique , Haiti , Cambodia and Niger . For details about these and other PNoWB activities, including videoconferences and working groups, see http://www.pnowb.org/ The World Bank also reaches out to other parliamentary networks like GLOBE, for example, on climate issues. Strengthening the Way Parliaments Work The World Bank Institute (WBI), the Bank’s knowledge-sharing arm, works in partnership with parliamentary organizations to develop the capacity of parliaments in developing countries around the globe. WBI undertakes multi-year programs to enhance the capacity of parliaments as an institution of governance. These include action-oriented research, providing support to parliamentary networks such as PNoWB and the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption (GOPAC), learning programs for Members of Parliament, and parliamentary staff training. Over the past ten years, WBI has delivered learning programs to more than 6,000 parliamentarians and parliamentary staff to enhance parliaments’ capacity to deliver on their responsibilities, particularly on oversight of the budget, and implementation and performance of government policies and programs. WBI also promotes applied research in this area, and publishes books and working papers, all of which available through the WBI Parliamentary Strengthening Program’s website. In some cases governments themselves seek and get the World Bank’s financial support to strengthen their parliaments. Examples include Institutional Development Fund grants to Chad , El Salvador and Guatemala to facilitate among other things technical assistance, study tours and the installation of knowledge systems. In addition, in Indonesia and Sri Lanka for example, the World Bank invests in better parliamentary libraries and better communication networks (computers, software, databases). For more information see: - The World Bank’s website for parliamentarians, which includes an online Question-and-Answer system.
- WBI Parliamentary Strengthening Program website
- A Parliamentarian’s Guide to the World Bank: PNoWB and the World Bank have jointly developed a handbook to provide an overview of the Bank’s governance structure, policies, evaluation and review mechanisms. The guide is available on request or for download on the World Bank Parliamentary website in 4 languages (English, French, Spanish and Arabic).
- EXT Parliamentary team
o Jakob Kopperud +33 1 40 69 30 30, jkopperud@worldbank.org o Esther van Damme +33 1 40 69 30 24, evandamme@worldbank.org - WBI Parliamentary Strengthening Program
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