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Civil Society Policy Forum

September 27-October 08, 2021

Virtual

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Starting on September 27 and through October 8, you will be able to follow the sessions virtually. Sessions hosted by the World Bank Group will be livestreamed here. Sessions hosted by the International Monetary Fund will be livestreamed on their website: https://www.imf.org/cso

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  • The Civil Society Policy Forum (CSPF) has become an integral part of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group Spring and Annual Meetings, providing an open space for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to dialogue and exchange views with World Bank Group and IMF staff, their peers, government delegations, and other stakeholders on a wide range of topics.

    Find a tentative schedule for the CSPF.

    To attend the CSPF, we invite civil society organizations to register for the Annual Meetings.

    CSOs include non-governmental organizations, community groups, labor unions, indigenous peoples movements, faith-based organizations, professional associations, foundations, think tanks, charitable organizations, and other not-for-profit organizations.  Representatives from the private sector, academia or governmental bodies must apply for accreditation through the "Guests" or other respective registration category as clarified on the main 2021 Spring Meetings website.

  • MULTIMEDIA

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    VIDEO Sep 27, 2021

    An introduction to the World Bank Group (WBG) for civil society

    Join experts from World Bank and IFC as they run you through an introduction for civil society organizations on the World Bank Group, its structure, mandate, how it works and how it is helping countries in the context of the current pandemic.

    MULTIMEDIA

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    Sep 28, 2021

    Getting all children back into better schools: The essential role of public education in the COVID-19 era

    With 24 million children expected to drop out of school and two-thirds of countries cutting budgets for education, public education systems are facing intense pressure in many countries. Concurrently, the inability of many low-fee private schools to support children during COVID19 points to deep flaws in this model. This event profiles the new report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, discusses the World Bank’s COVID-era education approach, and presents new research that examines success stories in public education, with lessons for countries and the Bank as they seek to build better and more equitable education systems.

    MULTIMEDIA

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    Sep 29, 2021

    The World Bank’s Development Policy Financing: implications for a just, green and feminist recovery

    Development Policy Finance (DPF) is being widely used for purposes of Covid-19 response and recovery. By conditioning general budget support on the implementation of prior actions, DPF aims to nudge countries towards policy reforms. The nature of the instrument and the opacity around how reforms are agreed risks undermining countries’ democratic ownership in policy reforms. It also shows shortcomings in supporting a just recovery from Covid-19, by promoting reforms that can have adverse social and gender impacts. This panel discusses these shortcomings, including drawing from country case studies, and suggest ways to deal with them.

    MULTIMEDIA

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    Sep 30, 2021

    The Cascade/MFD and a just and sustainable recovery: A first review in the pandemic context

    The Covid-19 health, economic and social crises have created an unprecedented global shock. In April 2021, the WBG released a framework for supporting green, resilient and inclusive development (GRID), which emphasizes ‘private sector solutions’, given public debt burdens and constrained fiscal space. This session builds on the discussion opened last year on the WBG’s response to the pandemic between civil society and the institution. It aims at facilitating a dialogue on first lessons learned from the implementation of country-level private finance driven interventions in the context of the pandemic, and discussing its potential implications and alternatives for just and sustainable recovery.

    MULTIMEDIA

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    Oct 01, 2021

    Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) Implementation in Latin America: Main challenges and lessons to be learned

    The ESF developed a new set of requirements to ensure that development projects financed by the World Bank do not harm people or the environment or discriminate against marginalized groups. Civil society has been tracking and monitoring World Bank projects in the region to look at ESF implementation, focusing on the assessment and management of environmental and social risks and impacts, indigenous peoples, and stakeholder engagement and information disclosure, with the main of strengthening ESF implementation on the ground and to identify, and address implementation gaps that could be addressed to improve project design and implementation.

    MULTIMEDIA

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    Oct 04, 2021

    Strengthening Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Developing Countries: Opportunities for Financing Social Innovation and Climate Change Resilience

    Of the 2,000 technology incubators and 150 accelerators that exist worldwide, fewer than 70 are climate technology incubators and accelerators, and only 25 of these are located in developing countries. The expansion of these business support structures remains limited in developing countries due to a number of deeply entrenched constraints. This panel examines strategies to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem in developing countries with a focus on the stakes and opportunities for financing social innovation and climate change resilience. It also examines how to increase public and private sector funding towards creation of green jobs.

    MULTIMEDIA

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    Oct 06, 2021

    Digital ID for Inclusive Development? Emerging evidence on social exclusion and its broader implications

    National scale digital ID systems are increasingly relevant to the operation of public and private service delivery – from the delivery of COVID-19 emergency cash transfer to access to public health care and SIM-cards. While digital ID systems are introduced with the promise of better access to public and private services, panel members present research in countries like Uganda, Kenya and India which shows emerging evidence of exclusion from such services that are tied to digital ID. This panel presents some of this research and how it may undermine the proposed benefits of digital ID systems for inclusive development. The discussion focuses on how to prevent and address such exclusion and the role of stakeholders, including the Bank, UN system, other development partners and CSOs.

    MULTIMEDIA

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    Oct 06, 2021

    Building back better health systems: lessons from the WBG's Covid-19 response and recovery plans

    The WB financed developing countries’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic and is working to boost access to vaccines. In this context, recent WB publications highlight the centrality of public finance for healthcare systems. This panel facilitates a dialogue on reimagining health care systems, central to a just and equitable recovery.

    MULTIMEDIA

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    Oct 07, 2021

    Building Back Better through IDA-20: Public Investment as a tool for Socio-Economic Transformation in Africa

    The International Development Association (IDA) is part of the World Bank and one of the largest sources of assistance to poor countries. The three-year IDA-20 replenishment has been launched early to address the urgency of development needs under the on-going pandemic. The term ‘Economic Transformation’ has received central attention within the broader theme of Building Back Better from the Crisis: Towards a Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Future’’. This panel sought to expand and deepen the focus of economic transformation by combining the social and economic tools of transformation. Focusing on the term ‘socio-economic transformation’, they explored IDA-20’s role in strengthening the essential linkages between growth-enhancing strategies such as sustainable industrialization and increased employment combined with the supporting and essential role of public services.

    MULTIMEDIA

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    Oct 07, 2021

    The role of the World Bank in combatting economic gender inequality in conflict affected countries

    Gender equality has been hit hard by Covid-19. The pandemic deepened pre-existing gender inequalities as well as conflict and insecurity. Despite this, women in conflict-affected contexts continue to find innovative ways to advance economic gender equality. They need support. Covid-19 response must include a gender lens and consult with women.

    MULTIMEDIA

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    Oct 08, 2021

    World Bank fossil fuel finance in the context of Covid-19 recovery, CCAP and COP26

    This roundtable discusses WBG financing of fossil fuels and present recommendations for ending all fossil fuel finance and accelerating the shift to sustainable, renewable energy in the context of COVID recovery, SDG7, the new WBG Climate Change Action Plan and expectations for public finance at COP26.

    MULTIMEDIA

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    Oct 08, 2021

    Faith & Moral Agency in building resilience and human capital in the wake of COVID-19

    The pandemic has underscored the critical role played by faith communities in protecting both people and planet during a crisis. This panel discusses the challenges, opportunities, and complex arrangements between faith and asset building. The impacts of COVID-19 have been compounded with increasing challenges from climate change; this dialogue also highlights faith as a critical part of the solution to building human capital and supporting green, resilient, and inclusive development.

  • Ensuring that civil society can continue to engage and dialogue with World Bank and IMF remains a priority for the two institutions. Thus, in cooperation with the Civil Society Policy Forum (CSPF) Working Group, we launched the call for proposals for a virtual CSPF to take place over the course of the weeks (September 27 - October 8, 2021) directly preceding the Annual Meetings (October 15 - 17, 2021) in the morning in Washington D.C (ET)

    The call for proposals closed on July 26 at 9:00 am Eastern Time. To attend the CSPF, we invite civil society to register for the Annual Meetings. 

    Session organizers will be notified if their session has been selected for inclusion in the CSPF, prior to posting the preliminary CSPF program schedule online.

    Due to the virtual nature of this year’s CSPF and the need to organize sessions at a reasonable time for participants in several time zones, the number of sessions we are able to accommodate will be limited. We will have space for roughly 10-18 sessions, and thus cannot guarantee that every proposal will be accepted. For this reason, we ask that each organization sponsor only one session. Proposals jointly sponsored with other CSOs – especially from different regions of the world – are highly encouraged.

    Last Updated: Aug 30, 2021

  • CSPF WORKING GROUP SELECTION
    In July of 2019, we announced the opening of the Civil Society Policy Forum (CSPF) Working Group Election. The call for candidates to become members of the working group was held from August 22 to September 30, 2019. The voting process was open from October 18 through the 31.
    SELECTION CRITERIA 
    VOTING RESULTS

    WORKING GROUP MEMBERS
    The CSPF Working Group members will serve two-year terms, starting on January 1, 2020. You can find their biographies and terms of reference below. 
    CSPF WORKING GROUP 2020-2022 
    TERMS OF REFERENCE

CONTACT

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