Amy Ekdawi and Nadia Daar of BIC’s Middle East and North Africa Program participate in four training sessions for the World Bank’s MENA staff on engaging civil society in the region. This training is part of the Bank’s Enhanced Action Plan for the MENA region which includes improved consultations, increased translation, and more engagement with civil society.
In December 2009, the World Bank held two consultative meetings on the Social Welfare Fund Institutional Support Project with Yemeni civil society. These meetings come in the context of the Bank’s MENA Management’s Enhanced Action Plan.
What was at first a seemingly simple and non-provocative Inspection Panel case, has now led the Bank to re-evaluate its relationship with civil society across the MENA region and develop an action plan for engagement. Nadia Daar of BIC’s MENA program examines the importance of this development.
BIC Executive Director Chad Dobson signed the letter to IDB president Luis Alberto Moreno after the approval of the San Francisco-Mocoa Alternate Road Construction Project. The letter notes how constructive dialogue with civil society led to many improvements in the project and encourages some of these commitments to be formalized during the general capital increase.
Saturday the 22 of August in Villa Tunari, Cochabamba, an agreement between Bolivia and Brasil was finalized to build a highway between Cochabamba (Villa Tunari) and Beni (San Ignacio de Moxos). Highway to Beni: Villa Tunari – San Ignacio de Moxos
Bolivian President Evo Morales announced the implementation of several development projects in the Amazon department of Pando in hopes of making it a center of development in the country.
The environmental license of the project was granted by MAVDT in December of 2008 and includes strict environmental standards that guarantee the protection of ecosystems affected by the highway.
Lula and Evo coordinate the return of 1,000 Brazilians located in Pando. Some call for the defense of their lands.
The Inspection Panel is to defer its recommendation to investigate into case of the World Bank’s “Institutional Reform Development Policy Grant” to Yemen, until after the implementation of Bank Management’s enhanced action plan, which seeks to address concerns raised by the Yemen Observatory for Human Rights in their Request to the Inspection Panel in April 2009.
For the first time in Inspection Panel history, an Eligibility Report is being held for board discussion. With little information, we are left wondering what is happening with the investigation into the Yemeni DPL case.