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July 6, 1999
World Bank Opens Online Discussion
on Environment
Public participation welcome in evaluation
of Bank performance
Over the next several weeks, hundreds of people across the world are expected to participate in an open discussion sponsored by the World Bank's Operations Evaluation Department (OED) on how the Bank has performed in the promotion of environmental sustainability.
The online forum, which begins July 6 and will run four to six weeks, is part of the ongoing series on the Bank's online Development Forum.
The widest possible participation is being sought for the forum, particularly from NGOs, others in the environmental community, and civil society, said Muthukumara Mani, online discussion organizer: "Bank staff are strongly encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity to offer constructive criticism."
OED Environmental Coordinator Andres Liebenthal said the evaluation department hopes this forum will enable the most comprehensive evaluation of the Bank's environmental performance.
"This forum offers a very efficient way to communicate with a large group of stakeholders represented by NGOs," said Liebenthal. "First, we want to inform them on what OED's planning to do, namely to review the Bank's performance following their feedback. Second, it's a channel for NGOs to share knowledge, anecdotes, and so on, all of which can be a critical source of information for us. Third, we are laying the groundwork for the eventual dissemination of the findings and conclusion of this evaluation."
Environmental issues became mainstreamed into Bank developmental policymaking in the late 1980s, with both the design of environmental projects and the formulation of guidelines on environmental matters. But, considering the magnitude of environmental issues, the impact of the Bank's programs on environmental trends in the developing world has been limited and success of various programs mixed.
OED's only other major environmental evaluation, done three years ago, evaluated effectiveness of environmental assessments and national action plans. The present evaluation is much more wide-ranging in that it will look at the impact the Bank has had through many of its activities, said Liebenthal. The Bank is also preparing an environmental strategy paper which will take into account the OED evaluation.
The OED is an independent evaluation unit reporting to the World Bank's executive directors. It is mandated to rate the development impact and performance of all the Bank's completed lending operations, for incorporation into the design and implementation of new policies and projects.
Helpful links: To participate in the forum, click here:
Click here for more information on OED.
Other current and previous Development Forum discussions have included the Comprehensive Development Framework, attacking poverty (on the outline of the WDR2001), premature pregnancy and girls' education in Africa, and facilitating foreign direct investment. For more information on current and previous Forum discussions, visit http://www.worldbank.org/devforum/current.html..
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July 7, 1999
Spirituality Key to Successful Development
Religious leaders visit Bank to advise on upcoming
poverty report
Recognizing the spiritual and cultural aspects of life is key to making economic development work well for the world's poorest people, a diverse group of religious leaders told World Bank officials in Washington last week.
"The bottom line for the world's religions is that the poor should be the first priority in development," said Wendy Tynedale, of the Oxford-based World Faiths Development Dialogue (WFDD). "Economic growth is a pre-requisite for eliminating hunger. But we want to look very carefully at what kind of growth that is, who benefits from the growth, and what institutions are necessary to ensure the right growth is being carried out."
The WFDD is a dialogue between nine of the world's major religions and the World Bank on poverty and criteria for development policy and practice. It was first launched in February 1998 under the chairmanship of the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, and World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn. At a conference that month in London, the faiths presented their ideas on the nature of economics and criteria for development.
Last week, several of the WFDD religious leaders visited the Bank to expand on that dialogue and give their advice on how the Bank should shape its approach to poverty reduction as presented in its upcoming World Development Report (WDR) 2000. The WDR, which focuses on a different theme each year, will concentrate on poverty when it is published next year.
Swami Agnivesh, who came from India for the meeting, said religious leaders felt the world should integrate more of the "family" mentality into the way it operates. "Just as the youngest ones in the family get most of the care and understanding, the strongest one eats the bread last," he said.
Ravi Kanbur, who is heading the Bank's WDR team, welcomed the group's advice, saying it represented a "coherent synthesis" of the faiths-based perspective on development.
One main point of agreement was that "structural inequalities"—or unequal access to markets, services for the poor—can lead to worsening poverty. Also, the religious leaders' emphasis on the social aspects of development parallel the Bank's Comprehensive Development Framework, which focuses on a holistic approach to development.
The WFDD's Tynedale said the leaders came to the Bank to promote a greater understanding of the role of spirituality in development and also to learn more about the challenges the Bank faces in its development work.
In its 29-page "Comment," the group pointed to five main issues they say are critical for the upcoming Bank poverty report:
- The focus of development must be on people rather than on economic processes, and, specifically, on the poorest and most marginalized. Putting people at the center of development means that any development process which creates or perpetuates poverty is illegitimate.
- Poverty is not the same everywhere and cannot successfully be tackled by applying a uniform set of policies across different countries or even across the communities within them.
- A failure to take people's values and beliefs into account will lead to their being either alienated from their own roots or excluded from the development process. Changes must come about within cultures, and according to their own contexts.
- Full and fulfilling employment or engagement in society—including voluntary work—should be the aim of any development strategy.
- The WDR should make the environment a stronger focus of the report and address the issues of what kinds of growth and consumption and what mix of institutions, are needed to protect the environment.
Helpful links: To learn more about the WDR and to read the full text of the World Faiths Development Dialogue's Comment, click here.
For more on the WFDD, email wfdd@btinternet.com or write to World Faiths Devleopment Dialogue, 33-37 Stockmore Street, Oxford, OX4 1JT, United Kingdom.
For more on the Comprehensive Development Framework,
click here.
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July 8, 1999
Progress Made in Rwanda's Economic Reform
Bank jump-starts human resource and agricultural sectors
Less than a half decade ago, genocide and civil war ripped apart Rwanda, displacing half of its estimated population of 8 million, claiming up to 800,000 lives, and causing economic output to decline by 50 percent.
Today, with determined government leadership and the assistance of the international community, Rwanda is putting the pieces back together.
"Rwanda has come a long way since the tragic events of 1994," said Country Director Emmanuel Mbi. "It has achieved a measure of peace and economic recovery that is remarkable given the difficult circumstances in the Great Lakes region."
Mbi emphasized that economic activity in Rwanda is vulnerable to the fragile peace and reductions in external aid, and is constrained by weak human capacity, onerous security-related expenditures, and a huge external debt burden.
The World Bank's support to the country has targeted key issues: an initial grant in 1994 helped to resettle displaced people and provide valuable health and sanitation services. Two subsequent emergency credits helped to stabilize the economy, raised spending for the social sectors, revived the private sector and created jobs in a dormant employment sector.
The Bank's existing country assistance strategy (CAS) for Rwanda includes a portfolio of projects providing other badly needed services. Through an education credit, Rwanda built and equipped 1,600 new classrooms, and rehabilitated 4,200 classrooms and seven secondary schools.
The proposed reform program for the next Rwanda CAS, agreed to last week by the Bank and Rwanda, recognizes that the process of laying the foundation of peace and long-term sustainable development involves:
- Continued resettlement and reintegration of displaced persons, households and demobilized ex-combatants, and institutional reform of justice and governance.
- Sustained economic recovery through accelerated economic reform, revitalization of the rural economy and reinforced public sector capacity.
- Deeper structural policy and institutional reforms, reoriented government expenditures, human resources development and capacity building, and protection of natural resources.
- Lending in the range of $120-$160 million has been proposed for the next two years.
"The chief contributions of the CAS will be to human resources and to reviving the agricultural sector," said World Bank country economist Chukwuma Obidegwu. "This is in direct support of the rural economy where the vast majority of poor Rwandans live."
Editors' note: To access more information about Bank projects in Rwanda, click here.
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July 9, 1999
Comprehensive Development Framework Online Dialogue Wraps Up
Global discussion informs implementation
During the past seven weeks, more than 700 subscribers from almost 100 countries took part in the Bank's online Development Forum discussion on the Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF)—generating a lively virtual dialogue that reflected a wide diversity of views and countries of origins.
"Over the last few weeks my colleagues and I have been rewarded by the well-informed discussion," said head of the CDF secretariat Pablo Guerrero, commenting on the early discussion. "It has helped inform our views and thinking. We'll be passing on key points and issues raised by the discussants to the World Bank country directors responsible for supporting the CDF pilot countries, President James D. Wolfensohn, and senior managers."
The CDF draws on development experience from the Bank and the broader development community, and is essentially a process—not a blueprint to be applied to all countries in a uniform manner. It is a work-in-progress, and, applied as envisaged, represents a substantially different way for the Bank to fulfill its development mandate.
At its core, the framework, applied over a 10-15 year time-frame, focuses on development results, with the country in the driver's seat and with strong partnerships among donors, the private sector and civil society.
The CDF seeks a holistic approach to development, putting structural, social and human aspects on a par with the more traditional macroeconomic concerns that have all too often dominated the development agenda. Its premise: unless the two wheels of the cart move together in the same direction, development progress will not be achieved.
Discussion moderators for the CDF dialogue posted questions and then a summary of the discussion on these key topics during the life of the dialogue:
- Country ownership
- Partnership
- Holistic approach
- Civil society involvement
- Capacity and implementation
Ravi Pradhan of Nepal, who took part in the virtual discussion, asked whether the World Bank was willing to construct a shared meaning around the concept of holistic development. "The meaning of ‘holistic,' like partnership, participation and ownership, depends on which community of practitioners are involved."
"I find it refreshing to see from the World Bank a conceptualization of development in which the macroeconomic balances have become a necessary condition for development, and are no longer regarded as the only key to development," wrote Chilean Alfredo del Valle. "Acknowledging that development policy is more than economic policy is a big step forward."
"The current partnership paradigm practiced by most donor agencies is more akin to cruising bars for the best one-night stand, with little understanding of the other's needs, no long-term commitment and a focus on self-interest only," added Kerry Max of Canada.
Another in the Bank's online Development Forum series—an open discussion sponsored by the World Bank's Operations Evaluation Department on how the Bank has performed in the promotion of environmental sustainability—is expected to draw in hundreds of participants. The series was launched July 6 and will run for four to six weeks.
Editors' note: To access the Development Forum's discussion on the Comprehensive Development Framework, visit http://www.worldbank.org/devforum/current-cdf.html. To learn more about the CDF, click here. Click here to visit the OED forum.
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