FPJ – OPED – The World Bank and Civil Society

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“Free Press Journal and Karmayog.org have entered into a collaboration to promote the involvement and empowerment of citizens and community groups in civic and social issues. We will jointly present a special column every Thursday for featuring articles on social, civic and developmental issues.  The articles carried herein will cover a diverse range of topics ranging from disaster management to public health, improving city governance to senior citizens, etc.”

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The World Bank and Civil Society

 

With the World Bank team headed by its Managing Director in Mumbai today to review Rs. 2,28,000 crores worth of projects, it is useful to review World Bank’s engagement with Civil Society to move towards the goal “to make poverty history”.

 

A World Bank paper titled “Issues and Options for Improving Engagement between the World Bank and CSOs” serves as an institutional framework and mandate for the World Bank’s relations with civil society.

 

The World Bank has admitted that it must improve its own mechanisms for civil society engagement and accountability; ensure that best practices are applied more consistently; and get member governments to enable civil society to flourish.

 

 

World Bank interested in CSOs

 

Fortunately, the Bank has realised that engaging civil society is important to development effectiveness and poverty reduction — and that often Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) can deliver services to the poor more effectively than can governments.

The Bank has also learned through two decades of interaction that CSOs can play an important role in helping to amplify the voices of the poorest people in the decisions that affect their lives, improve development effectiveness and sustainability, and hold governments and policymakers publicly accountable. 

 

The Bank agrees that the participation of CSOs in World Bank-financed projects can enhance operational performance and sustainability by contributing local knowledge, technical expertise, and social legitimacy, and that CSOs can bring innovative ideas and solutions as well as participatory approaches to solve local problems.

 

 

World Bank’s Inspection Panel

 

This is an independent unit of the World Bank that responds to complaints, known as requests for inspection, from people who believe that they have been, or are likely to be, harmed by a Bank-funded project or program. The panel is a fact-finding body that acts objectively and independently of Bank management and is a vehicle for people to bring their concerns directly to the Bank’s Board of Executive Directors. (see www.worldbank.org/countrysystems )

 

 

Country Assistance Strategy Document

 

This is the Bank’s strategic planning document to support a country’s economic growth strategy and poverty reduction goals. The Bank realizes that social accountability plays a critical role in the capacity of developing countries to strengthen governance and development effectiveness and empower stakeholders, especially poor people, to participate in government decision making. A variety of social accountability mechanisms are being implemented around the globe to hold governments accountable. These mechanisms include participatory public policy formulation, participatory budgeting, public expenditure tracking, citizen report cards to monitor public service delivery, citizen advisory boards, and lobbying and advocacy campaigns. The Bank encourages these.

 

 

Tracking Bank-Civil Society Engagement

 

The main sources of the data to do so are the Project Appraisal Documents (PADs) prepared during the initial assessment stage of the project cycle, which reflect the actual civic engagement undertaken during the identification, preparation, and appraisal of project preparation. The PADs, therefore, reflect only the intended involvement of civil society during the subsequent implementation, monitoring, and evaluation phases. Furthermore, the scoring utilized to assess civil society involvement does not take into account the quality or breadth of the actual engagement that occurred during the appraisal phase.

 

 

Disclosure and Transparency

 

In March 2005, the Bank’s information disclosure policy was improved by mandating the disclosure of operational policy and strategy papers, Board minutes, procurement plans, project completion notes, etc.

 

 

Public Information Centres

 

The Bank seeks to provide transparency, accountability, information sharing, and dissemination through its public information centres (PICs). By providing access to and proactively disseminating information on Bank projects and development in general, the services encourage public participation in dialogue and help citizens make informed decisions about issues affecting their lives. Last year, 250,000 people worldwide used the Bank’s PICs. Staff assist users in finding information, respond to public inquiries, & listen to public concerns. (See www.worldbank.org/publicinformation )

 

PIC for India

 

The Public Information Center for India is at Delhi Phone:  51479465 / 24617241. Contact Hema Balasubramanian (hbalasubramanian@worldbank.org ) or Sunita Malhotra (smalhotra@worldbank.org ). Language: English, Hindi

 

The NGO Council will also be engaging with the World Bank for Mumbai-centric issues. So you can direct your concerns and issues to the Council. (see www.karmayog.org )

 

 

Online Resource for Students

 

Youthink! is the Bank’s online resource that tackles development subjects by exploring topics, written in age-appropriate language, that young people care about and can relate to. Youthink! also invites young people to share their thoughts, opinions, and experiences by submitting material for publication. (See http://youthink.worldbank.org )

 

 

 

 

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Grants for NGOs

 

While the World Bank’s principal activity is to provide loans to governments, it has also established funding mechanisms to provide grants to Civil Society Organizatons (CSOs). Grants are provided either indirectly via government-run grant funds with World Bank financing or directly by World Bank-managed funding mechanisms. Over the past 15 years, the World Bank has financed over 100 social funds in 60 countries, for a total of nearly US $4 billion (Rs. 19000 crores) to rebuild communities, provide social services, and strengthen community organizations in a variety of areas such as environment, micro-credit, information technology, and innovative practices.

 

The Bank also supported the efforts of thousands of community groups carrying out local development and poverty reduction efforts through country-based

social funds and community-driven development (CDD) projects by funding of about Rs. 4,500 crores a year.

 

The World Bank publishes a directory of these resources called the “Resources for Mobilizing Funding for Development Projects”.

 

 

Development Marketplace Funds

 

The Development Marketplace (DM) funds innovative, small-scale development projects. The DM’s primary objective is to identify and support creative ideas that deliver results and have the potential to be expanded or replicated. In addition to supporting hundreds of grassroots initiatives, the program allows the Bank to learn and gain insight from local practitioners who have important contributions to make in the fight against poverty. DM competitions are designed to attract ideas from a range of innovators: civil society groups, social entrepreneurs, local governments, universities, and private companies.

 

 

This Year’s Grant Topic

Development Market Place announces grants for NGOs every year. This year the topic for Development Market place is Health, Population and Nutrition. The last date for submission of the proposal is 17 November, 2006. The proposal should be submitted on-line. Sample of winning proposal for last year and guidelines to submit the proposal is available at website www.developmentmarketplace.org

 

Some past projects that have received grants:

 

Same Language Sub-titling on TV for Mass Literacy

Rs. 1.2 crores to raise the literacy skills of all early literates on a large scale, through a low-cost, already entrenched, popular entertainment method-television programming with subtitles

 

Low-Cost Reading Glasses

Rs. 56 lakhs to give the gift of sight to near-sighted poor by getting low-cost reading glasses into their hands, and also to provide jobs to sellers of reading glasses

 

Affordable Hearing Aids

Rs. 47 lakhs to design, manufacture, and distribute an affordable, high-quality hearing aid for developing country markets, and to empower the disabled

 

Well Being of Disabled

Rs. 37 lakhs to provide all services for disabled persons of all age groups in Delhi

 

Tribal Rat Catchers

Rs. 45 lakhs to remove the health hazards associated with ridding farms of rats and improve the rate of extermination, by introducing an improved prototype of a traditional rat catching device at an affordable price in Tamil Nadu

 

Empowerment of Rural Communities to Export

Rs. 1.20 crores to raise incomes and create job opportunities by testing the use of Export Production Villages as a way to organize small-holder spice producers and access higher value export markets.

 

Mentoring At-risk Children

Rs. 28 lakhs to impart critical life skills to at-risk youth in Mumbai, helping them reintegrate into mainstream society.

 

BioDiesel Fueled Energy System

Rs. 1.1 crores to deliver energy and safe water supplies to remote tribal villages in Orissa using a renewable, carbon-neutral, bio-diesel energy system.

 

Village Employment & Power Partnerships

Rs. 95 lakhs to provide rural villages in India with affordable access to electricity by constructing a decentralized supply mechanism integrated with an enterprise promotion initiative and service delivery system.

 

LED Lighting for Tribal Homes

Rs. 84 lakhs to provide clean and reliable lighting to 10,000 tribal households in Orissa using LED light units and a community-based maintenance plan

 

Alternative Fuel Sources

Rs. 50 lakhs to provide an alternative fuel source and generate environmental benefits for Rajasthan villagers by implementing a comprehensive plan to utilize the Jatropha plant

 

Livelihoods by Conserving Biodiversity

Rs. 29 lakhs to enhance the incomes of forest dwelling communities and reverse destruction of wild bamboo stocks by promoting the use of the Lantana weed as a substitute for bamboo in weaving baskets and other products.

 

Ground-Source Systems for Hot Arid Regions

Rs. 66 lakhs to introduce more productive and stable agriculture in areas with harsh climatic conditions by introducing Earth Tube Heat Exchanger technology in Kutch

 

Eco-Friendly Farm Pest Management

Rs. 70 lakhs to provide farmers with a cheaper and eco-friendly pest management alternative to costly pesticides

 

Silk Production to Save Oak Trees

Rs. 80 lakhs to provide alternatives to subsistence agriculture through oak-based silk production, or sericulture, a unique enterprise that allows forest resources to be used without chopping down trees

 

Computers on Wheels

Rs. 12 lakhs to close the information gap by providing villagers in rural Mahboobnagar with expanded access to information and exposure to technology

 

Connecting India Village by Village

Rs. 32 lakhs to tap the power of the digital economy by using electronic kiosks to develop market-based solutions that benefit India’s poor

 

Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting

Rs. 93 lakhs to increase rural water access in drought-prone desert Rajasthan by introducing rooftop rainwater harvesting and encouraging the government to expand the program.

 

For details see www.worldbank.org and www.karmayog.org

 

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