In collaboration with the World Bank United Nations Office in New York, on July 21, 2004, Ms. Judith Edstrom, Sector Manager of the Social Development Department of the World Bank led 2 dialogues on the social development draft strategy. The first dialogue, a technical consultation with select representatives of the United Nations, focused on the strategy and provided an update to UN partners on the progress of the strategy following up on meetings in 2003. The second dialogue was a lunch seminar held at the United Nations during the ECOSOC meeting. The summaries were prepared by Mojgan Sami, Operations Analyst, Social Development Department. The sections below outline the summaries of the dialogue. Judith Edstrom, Agenda (Word) Sections I. Bank intervention to ECOSOC II. SD Strategy Technical Consultation with UN Agencies III. SD Strategy ECOSOC consultations--lunchtime seminar (Mojgan Sami) IV. Presentation on the MDGs by Jeffrey Sachs
I. Bank intervention to ECOSOC A statement was made during the "General Segment" on social and human rights questions (Item 14 cluster: Advancement of women; Social development; Crime prevention and criminal justice; Narcotic drugs; Refugees; Third Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination; Human rights; Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.) The statement focused on the SD strategy, with additional comments on gender and indigenous peoples. Judith Edstrom, Statement on General Segment, Item 14 (Word) Back to the top
II. SD Strategy Technical Consultation with UN Agencies Judith Edstrom, Dialogue with the United Nations, ECOSOC (PowerPoint) Participants Eduardo Doryan, World Bank Special Representative to the United Nations (Chair)
Judith Edstrom, Sector Manager, World Bank Social Development Department (Presenter)
Clare Fleming, World Bank Deputy Special Representative to the United Nations
Mojgan Sami, Operations Analyst, World Bank Social Development Department
Sonia F. Elliott, Liaison Officer, UNAIDS
Kwabena Osei-Danquah, Senior External Relations Officer, UNFPA
Eva [ ?], Technical [Officer],UNFPA
Roberto P. Guimarães, Chief, Social Analysis and Policy Section, UN DESA
Florence A. Chenoweth, Director, FAO, Liaison with the UN
Philip Evans, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of the UK to the UN Synthesis of Feedback from Participants (Mojgan Sami) The general consensus from the participants is praise for the draft strategy and principles of inclusion, cohesion and accountability. Dr. Chenoweth, noted that "all of us should have a social development paper like this, particularly when we are in the field."Mr. Osei-Danquah noted that "the Social Development Strategy captures very well what many in developing countries and the UN have felt is missing from the development framework of the World Bank." The participants stressed that the challenge for the Bank is to ensure that these "words" lead to sustainable "actions." The timing of the strategy received compliments as well, noting the upcoming 10-year review of the Copenhagen Commitments in February, 2005. Although it was agreed that the positive social change being advocated in the strategy is not a change imposed from the outside, the participants also stressed the importance of focusing on the local culture. They mentioned that rather than donors instituting the "positive change" in a local community and trying to scale it up, donors need to be patient and allow local initiatives to take root and develop independently. Far too often, development workers try to impose a "system" to an existing "positive activity," and end up with negative results (example: local rural lending systems in Africa). The key question raised by Dr. Guimarães in this regard "How do you support assets of societies to enhance 'positive social change'?" Ms. Elliott noted that the concepts of inclusion and accountability are easier to understand than cohesion. The latter, she stated, is more sensitive for developing countries. For many countries, inclusion is equated with democracy, and apart from electoral processes, peoples' participation is limited. So, when we speak about the masses of people, the concepts of inclusion, cohesion and accountability are a different reality, especially with limited resources. Although the three principles can lead to positive social change, Mr. Evans noted that we should go to the next level and look at how these principles can enhance equality. For example, he asked, "how do you restructure policy to deal with inequalities?" The participants also appreciated the conceptual framework of going from assets to well-being through institutions, but stressed that this framework not add another level of complexity/conditionality to the loan process of the Bank. Some participants noted that what was missing from the framework was the role of state institutions. It was noted that improving donor coordination needs to be addressed in regards to social development policy, coordination which goes beyond the PRSP process to also include implementation and supervision. Questions raised during the discussion include: - How will the World Bank address the operational structure of lending policies which contradict Social Development goals? What institutional shifts are needed to ensure that Social Development objectives can be met? Is this operational shift even possible?
- What/Where are the incentives for Bank Task Team Leaders to use social development principles?
- How do you measure inclusion, cohesion & accountability? How do you measure equal access?
- Where are your indicators?
- How do you improve donor coordination in social development policy?
- How are we going to enhance cohesion?
- How will you operationalize the strategy?
- How will you tackle exclusion?
- How do you restructure policy to deal with inequalities?
After responding to the questions posed, Judy mentioned that the next steps are to consolidate the feedback from all of our consultations on the strategy and incorporate the key lessons learned in a redraft which would go to the Board some time in early 2005. She thanked the participants and noted that there are many incentives for the World Bank to move forward, especially in light of the positive data from the OED study and shifts in development policy with more emphasis on good diagnostic work to enhance impact on the ground. Back to the top
III. SD Strategy ECOSOC consultations--lunchtime seminar (Mojgan Sami) This lunch time session was chaired by Johann Scholvinck, Director, Division for Social Policy & Development, UN Department of Economic & Social Affairs. The session had over 80 participants at start time, an excellent turn-out considering that a presentation by Jeffrey Sachs (see item IV below) was still going on. The participants represented a wide variety of staff from UN agencies, delegates attending the ECOSOC meetings, NGOs and government missions. Those attending included the Ambassador of Tanzania. After a presentation of the Social Development Strategy (attached above for reference), Judy led a discussion and dialogue, synthesized below. Participants raised concerns in areas that appeared to be missing in the strategy, such as gender, civil society, youth, MDGs, effects of globalization, microfinance, informal sector, and HIV/AIDS. One participant asked why the Bank did not focus on wealth generation, rather than only focusing on the reduction of poverty. Participants also asked about indicators and appropriate measures for social development. Once again the question of human rights was addressed to the World Bank in the light of sometimes agencies need to forget the bottom line, and do what's right even if it is bad for investment. More specifically, the following questions were raised by participants: How are you linking with the Millennium Development Goals in the name of policy coherence? Has the World Bank reflected on how to incorporate recommendations from the Report on the Social Dimensions of Globalization by ECOSOC? If so, how? When addressing accountability, are you only referring to institutional accountability? Or does accountability affect policy and values? Would you refrain from funding a project that had negative social impacts? Are you addressing the environmental dimension of growth? In some cases, it is due to lack of resources that growth is constrained, not simply a lack of social principles. Have you taken into consideration the capacity of developing countries to absorb loans? Have you taken a look at the loan/grant dichotomy? When looking at the strategy, how much consideration is given to grants for capacity building? Have you measured the negative impacts of structural adjustment programs? Since PRSPs are moving towards MDGs (see notes from Jeff Sachs talk), how much of the strategy is based on the MDGs? Does the Bank participate in Iiteragency discussion on indicators? Where is the support for the informal sector? In some countries, the informal sector accounts for 80% of the GDP. What links to informal sector do you see in your strategy? What about NGOs? Where are they in your strategy? Is cohesion only a product of post-conflict projects? Over 1 billion people on earth are between the ages of 15-24 and young people are an integral part of development. Where is the linkages to youth strategy in the SD Strategy? What is the review process for strategy implementation? What about human rights?
Mr. Scholvinck closed the dialogue by thanking Judy and stating that indeed, social development is an arena for the World Bank . He looks forward to a time when discussion of this topic will no longer be on the Bank's draft Social Development Strategy, and will instead "we will be speaking about the Board-approved Social Development Strategy. Let's get it adopted!" he declared. Back to the top
IV. Presentation on MDGs by Jeffrey Sachs We took the opportunity to sit in on an oral interim report to ECOSOC delegates by Jeffrey Sachs on the status of the work of the Task Force on the Millenium Development Goals. The report of the task force set up in 2002 by Kofi Annan, will be given to the Secretary General in January 2005 to assist with the MDG review and implementation. Mr. Sachs noted that the international community still has enough time to meet the MDGs (11 years), but "only barely enough time." He stated that we need "less blame on poor and more partnership," that we have to "preach less and invest more." Specifically, Mr. Sachs called for three plans of action: - Investment Plan: Call for MDG-specific PRSPs
- Financial Plan: Increase financing of development (fulfill promises made in Monterrey and Johannesburg) by rich/donor countries
- Governance Plan: Ensure that recipient countries outline a Governance Plan
The critical juncture for delivering the funding (by Part I counties)and the commitments (by Part II countries) necessary achieving the MDGs will be September 2005. "If we act now," Mr. Sachs stated, "we will halve the world of poverty by 2015." There are a few pivotal upcoming global events which will impact the achievement of the MDGs: the G8 Summit meeting in the UK (under the UK leadership) and the September 2005 review of MDGs +5. Mr. Sachs noted that this will be an opportunity for the world to demonstrate that the MDGs do not just begin and end with words. Back to the top |
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