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The World Bank Group is currently rolling out their new Country Engagement Approach, moving towards engagement based on rigorous analysis and the inclusion of citizens as active stakeholders. As input to this process, civil society groups who work to monitor and engage with the World Bank recently presented recommendations to the Bank as it refines its Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) Guidelines.
With the right analysis, SCD documents can be a reference guide for identifying projects or sectors of focus, assessing their risks, and planning accordingly. This is because the SCD – a new analytical study that is completed by the Bank leading up to the development of its strategic program for a country – aims to take a view of the country broader than the World Bank’s own involvement in a country. Because the SCD is meant to be developed as unbiased analysis, and is conducted early in the development process, its recommendations have the potential to guide the World Bank to more effective and sustainable development lending.
To ensure that SCDs function as effectively as possible, BIC, Oxfam, and the Center for International Environmental Law recommend that the World Bank Group:
- Utilize the SCD guidelines to set minimum standards, both in terms of process and substance, for conducting the SCD.
- Standardize the use of assessments conducted by teams in creating the SCD.
- Conduct Strategic and Environmental and Social Assessments consistently to ensure that environmental and social considerations are taken into account and addressed.
- Assess, articulate and address the enabling environment for civil society participation as part of the environmental and social assessment in the SCD.
- Systematically include analysis of land and climate risks.
- Conduct strong inequality analysis that looks at the income extremes at the top and the bottom.
- Consistently look at access to, and quality of, essential public services such as health and education.
- Ensure that stakeholders and citizens have systematic and consistent access to information on the SCD preparation process and to all relevant documents.
- Clarify SCD disclosure requirements according to the Access to Information Policy and ensure public disclosure prior to the start of CPF consultation process.
- Stress that consultations at the SCD phase are mandatory, clarify purpose of stakeholder consultations on the SCD, and set clear minimum standards for consultation.
- Clarify sole World Bank ownership of the SCD, and clarify the role of the borrowing governments.
The SCD presents an opportunity to take a step back and do country-wide analyses on issues such as climate or forests, or doing sector-wide risk and opportunity analysis on sectors such as energy or transportation. Incorporating the recommendations from Oxfam, BIC, and CIEL will help ensure that SCDs will lead to effective, holistic programming.