Transforming Institutions to Empower the Dispossessed: World Bank Draft Strategy for Social Development

Feedback from Students at the International Development Roundtable
Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)
Friday, September 10, 2004
12:30 – 1:30 PM

Number of Participants: 61
Presenter: Robert Chase, Senior Social Development Economist, World Bank
Moderator: Professor William Douglas, SAIS
Student Discussant: Melissa Draper, SAIS
Panelist: Mojgan Sami, Operations Analyst, World Bank

After a presentation entitled "Transforming Institutions to Empower the Dispossessed: World Bank Strategy for Social Development," by Robert Chase, Professor Douglas noted that this was the largest BBL he had ever seen at SAIS, noting the importance of the topic to students.

Ms. Draper was the first discussant. What follows is a summary of her points on the draft Social Development Strategy:

This is an encouraging shift for the World Bank, especially for those who have worked on the ground. The fact that Robert's title is "Social Development Economist" shows a positive trend at the World Bank of truly integrating "economic" and "social" development. It implies that social aspects of development are taken seriously as a compliment to existing economic theories, and hopefully this trend will trickle down from policy to the ground.

However, there are obstacles to this approach by the World Bank; namely:

• Practical concerns: issues of time. Social Analysis takes time and the World Bank normally does not have the time to properly conduct social analysis and understand power dynamics in a local context.
• Efficiency and Effectiveness of scale. The successful social development projects that I've seen are those that are small scale, but the Bank deals with such large sums of money and loans that it can not be feasible to support small scale projects.
• Finding local expertise in social development.
• Promoting Social Change by the World Bank vs. Clients' Status Quo. The Bank needs to conduct social analysis and promote social change, but how will they convince governments that change is good?

Dr. Chase noted that there are indeed challenges that lie ahead for the Bank in adopting a social development strategy: scaling up successful projects (noting that the Bank loans more than $2 billion in community driven development projects), understanding our client's needs and encouraging multi-sectoral approaches internally.

Professor Douglas then noted that the following words do not appear in the Social Development Strategy: class conflict, elites, oligopoly, tax reform, education reform, peasants, cooperatives, landowners, oppression, injustice. He also noted that the word "empowerment" only appears 12 times. He suggested that the Bank add two titles to the bibliography: The Milagro Beanfield War by John Treadwell Nichols and John Nichols (published by Henry Holt and Company, 1974 & 1994), and Broad & Alien is the World by Ciro Alegria (Published by Merlin Press Ltd, 1983). Professor Douglas ended by quoting Dr. Caruthers, "This is the Walt Disney view of Development where no one gets hurt."

The floor was then open to student comments, which are summarized below:

• Why are property rights and land ownership not addressed in strategy? After all, property rights and land ownership lead to inclusion and empowerment of women.
• What about informal sector? Where is that?
• What about accountability of Governments?
• Where is the money for analysis going to come from?
• Social Change does not happen quickly, where is the Bank's flexibility?
• Concepts are great, but how you will implement them is the real issue.
• How do you find interlocutors and how do you ensure they are legitimate?

After a discussion with Robert Chase, Mojgan Sami presented the process of consultations and receiving feedback on the draft strategy. She noted that up to date, there have been 26 consultations globally, including most of the regions of the World. Civil society, governments, youth, communities and international agencies had been consulted. Most of the feedback has noted that it is about time that the World Bank is paying attention to the social dimensions of development. They were also concerned, as the students at SAIS noted, about implementation, scale, effectiveness, etc.

Upon thanking all of the panelists and participants, the BBL continued informally, giving students and panelist a chance to interact and socialize.

Attached are the PowerPoint presentation by Dr. Chase and unedited notes prepared by Melissa Draper for the discussion.