September 2014 A group of Egyptian Civil Society Organizations (CSO)s participated in an event on the Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) held at the World Bank office in Cairo in September 2014. An SCD is currently being prepared for Egypt as part of the World Bank’s process of developing a new Country Partnership Framework (CPF) to …
As part of its new corporate strategy, the World Bank has put together a new strategy for “Citizen Engagement” that aims to engage citizens throughout the development process and across Bank operations. Civic engagement is defined by the Bank as being a set of interrelated conditions that impact on the capacity of citizens and civil society organizations …
CSOs from the Middle East and North Africa participated in several statements, workshops, demonstrations and consultations on the World Bank draft Environmental and Social Safeguards.
Photo: Wasted development aid in the DRC. (Julien Harnels CC BY-SA 2.0) By Vince McElhinny, Senior Policy Advisor The credibility of President Kim’s Corporate Strategy is clearly designed to restore the World Bank’s financial relevance, and reversing a downward trend in project quality is one strategy for achieving that goal. Currently, over one third of …
Photo: Mark Garten/UN (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) En español | En français Nominations for UNREDD and FCPF Civil Society Observers The Bank Information Center is pleased to announce the nomination lists for the Civil Society Observer positions at the UNREDD Programme and the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility. Civil Society Observers attend the meetings of the UNREDD …
ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow has urged World Bank President Jim Yong Kim to ensure that the institution he leads adopts a labor standard lending requirement that is as comprehensive as those adopted by other multilateral development banks, and to correct the major weaknesses in the draft “labor safeguard” that was recently issued for consultation.
This study provides some critical evidence on the risks of moving to greater use of frameworks and country or borrower systems without robust safeguards.
by Vince McElhinny, Senior Policy Advisor at the Bank Information Center The World Bank management claims that the proposed revision to its safeguard policies, now called Environmental and Social Standards and Policy (ESS/ESP) will “update, strengthen and broaden” the protections to people from risks associated with Bank investments. However, by excluding two of the Bank’s …
See a collection of letters from Civil Society, news articles and more capturing reactions to the draft Environmental and Social Framework policy.
As the World Bank prepares to gut its safeguard policies and budget cuts are suspended over the heads of an anxious staff, a leaked assessment of the Bank’s safeguard system by the Bank’s internal audit department (IAD) describes an alarming state of disarray.