Briefing Session and Reception for CSOs with President Paul Wolfowitz
and World Bank Senior Managers Sunday, April 22, 2006 / 4:00 – 5:00 pm MEETING SUMMARY
A briefing session on the results of the Spring Meetings was held for accredited CSOs. The briefing was provided by a panel composed of several Vice Presidents: Ian Goldin (External Affairs), Jim Adams (Operations Policy and Country Services), Kathy Sierra (Infrastructure), and Steen Jorgensen (Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development). The briefing was followed by a reception with President Wolfowitz who made informal remarks and mingled with the CSO representatives. Some 40 CSO representatives participated in both the briefing session and reception. BRIEFING SESSION The session began with Ian Goldin commenting on the decisions taken by the Development Committee, particularly on debt relief, education, and corruption. This was followed by a question and answer session which focused on the following issues: the Chad-Cameroon pipeline, human rights, education, debt, corruption, human resources, and annual meetings in Singapore. Several CSO representatives from Chad commented on the Bank suspension of disbursements for the pipeline project in response to the government’s decision to rescind the oil revenue allocation and transparency agreement with the Bank. While expressing agreement with the Bank’s decision, they also shared their concerns about recent steps taken by the Chadian government to move forward with spending oil revenues without international oversight and silencing civil society. Other CSOs commented that these problems in Chad point to the larger problem that revenues from extractive industry projects in Africa have rarely gone to fight poverty, but have instead led to wide-scale corruption and have even fueled conflicts. The Bank managers replied that this problem is recognized and the Bank Group is taking steps to introduce greater transparency and more accountable management approaches in the extractive projects it finances. The Bank also agreed that CSOs need to play an increasingly important role in monitoring government actions in this area. On Chad, the Bank has not only exercised its option under the loan agreement to freeze the disbursement of funds, but it has undertaken two missions, held talks with the Chadian government, and intends to stay in close contact with the local CSOs throughout this process. CSOs commented on the recent announcement by the UK government of a $15 billion dollar commitment to the Education for All program, and asked whether this would encourage the Bank to also scale up its efforts to implement the EFA Fast Track Initiative. The Bank responded by saying that it welcomes the UK’s generous offer and hopes that other G7 governments will follow suit, and that the Bank’s education staff is gearing up to work with the recipient governments to effectively absorb these increased funds. A CSO participant asked about the rumors that the ESSD network was going to be dismantled in a possible re-organization of the Bank. The Bank replied that no decisions have been made in this regard and that ESSD staff are continuing with their important work on the environmental, social, and rural agendas. On the issue of corruption, several CSOs stated that while they commend the Bank’s more proactive stance on fighting corruption in developing countries, they also want to know what steps the Bank will take to reduce corruption in developed countries. The Bank managers referred to the speech given recently by Mr. Wolfowitz in Indonesia in which he highlighted the Bank’s commitment to actively fight the sources of corruption in both developing and developed countries. They noted that the Bank has already done a great deal of analytical work on corruption and that numerous country-based programs are being undertaken, and that now a more comprehensive approach is being developed and will be reflected in a plan of action to be presented by the Annual Meetings in Singapore. On the debt relief issue, while recognizing that the Multilateral Debt Reduction Initiative (MDRI) was a positive step forward, several CSO representatives asked about the existence of “odious debt” in many low and middle-income countries and asked for clarification on the Bank’s position. The Bank responded that governments, CSOs, and donors should be pleased with the debt relief levels achieved thus far under both the HIPC program and now the MDRI agreement, but that much more needs to be done to ensure debt sustainability. On the issue of odious debt, some of this has been addressed by HIPC and MDRI and there is recognition by the Bank that mistakes were indeed made in the past, but that it would be quite difficult to go back in time to assess responsibility. The best approach is to focus on continuing to reduce debt and ensure that developing countries do not assume unsustainable debt. A participant asked about human rights and whether the Bank was going to take a more explicit position on this. The Bank replied that it already works on many human rights issues, for example when it carries out judicial reform, promotes good governance, supports efforts to fight discrimination related to HIV/AIDS, and supports girl’s education. The Bank’s former general counsel published an important article on the Bank’s evolving interpretation of human rights and several units are now working on a paper to further clarify and move the Bank’s agenda in this area forward. On the issue of whether CSOs will be allowed to conduct peaceful demonstrations in Singapore during the Annual Meetings, the Bank responded that it has raised this issue with the Singapore government. The Bank is taking steps together with the host government to ensure meaningful civil society participation at the Annual Meetings activities. The Bank’s Civil Society Team has already held a planning meeting with a group of about 20 Asian CSO representatives in this regard to ensure that diverse voices in civil society are represented in the Annual Meetings program of dialogues. RECEPTION The main purpose of the reception was for Mr. Wolfowitz to introduce the new Bank Managing Directors to the CSOs, Graeme Wheeler of New Zealand and Juan Jose Daboub of El Salvador, as well as to meet and share with them his thoughts on the challenges for the Bank coming out of the Meetings. Mr. Wolfowitz remarked to the group about the Bank’s evolving strategy on prmoting good governance and fighting corruption. On fighting corruption, he echoed the main messages contained in the April 11 speech he made in Indonesia, focusing on the need to build transparent and accountable institutions that help governments function effectively and achieve economic growth. He said that this requires strengthening all the many Bank instruments at the country level, including enhancing the Bank’s cooperation with CSOs to enable then to hold their own governments accountable. He also said this strategy entails minimizing the risk of corruption in Bank-funded projects, strengthening the Bank’s internal investigation unit, and changing the way we design our projects so that the incentives and opportunities to fight corruption are there from the start. On human rights, Mr. Wolfowitz commented that the Bank already does a good deal of work in the areas of economic and social rights. He said that the Bank’s growing emphasis on good governance will entail taking into account other non-economic issues that were previously seen by the Bank as too political, including freedom of the press and more broadly, human rights. He highlighted the importance of expanding the Bank’s cooperation with civil society as a key part of this strategy, and said he looked forward to consulting with CSOs in this regard. Photos More Information:
2006 Spring Meetings Civil Society Dialogues Program - main page
2006 Spring Meetings - general information for CSOs |
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