Memorandum submitted by One World Trust
1. The World Bank is being invested with
increasing power both as a global decision maker and service provider;
yet often exercises this power in the absence of adequate accountability
mechanisms. The accountability of the World Bank is skewed towards
the needs and interests of its most powerful member states, the
US in particular; it needs to put in place more balanced accountability
mechanisms where the voices of the most powerful are just one
among many and where those most affected by its decisions—oftentimes
the most disadvantaged—have a say in the decisions that
impact them.
2. Good governance and institutional reforms
have been core elements of the World Bank's recent lending programs.
Yet a global institution like the World Bank is proving unable
and unwilling to implement the very reforms on its own institutional
structures that it expects from Southern governments and other
organisations with which it interacts.
3. The World Bank must recognise that it
will only be able to deliver against its mission and increase
effectiveness through strengthening its accountability to the
individuals and communities it affects. Below are a few practical
recommendations as to how this can be achieved and a set of questions
that need to be addressed.
4. Given the World Bank's current objectives
around the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), senior management
must ensure the organisation has tracking capabilities and performance
evaluation systems in place to achieve the MDGs.
4.1 What practical recommendations will
the UK government make to the World Bank to ensure that the premier
multilateral institution whose mission is to work for a world
free of poverty, will deliver against the MDGs?
5. As one of the world's largest multilateral
institutions, the World Bank has 184 member countries. However,
based on the arrangements made in 1944, only one of its members,
the United States, selects the President. Global governance has
been evolving yet, six decades later, the US is still the largest
single member with 16.4% of the votes and the job of the President
of the World Bank remains the gift of the US President. This job
deserves a genuinely competitive process among qualified candidates
of any nationality.
6. The governance structures of the World
Bank are unaccountable and un-transparent and this undermines
the institution's legitimacy. Even the Africa commission noted
that the "appointments of the heads of international institutions
should be decided upon by open competition which looks for the
best candidate rather than by traditions which limit these appointments
by nationality." A fair, open and meritocratic recruitment
process is the most basic principle of good organizational governance.
The anachronistic practice that currently exists of the US hand
picking the candidate hugely undermines the legitimacy of the
Bank.
6.1 How will the UK Government ensure
that European countries adopt a more merit-based system to appoint
the head of the IMF?
6.2 Will the UK Government actively promote
an open and transparent appointment process at the end of Paul
Wolfowitz's term at the World Bank?
7. INCREASED
TRANSPARENCY AT
THE WORLD
BANK
Citizens in borrowing and donor countries have
a right to information about Bank-financed operations being implemented
in their own countries—yet the Bank's Board of Directors
operates behind closed doors. Citizens must have access to information
from these deliberations to understand the position of their government
representatives and be able to hold these representatives to account
that they deliver against the promises made at national level.
Recognising and supporting issues of confidentiality, we ask:
7.1 How will the UK government show its
support for disclosure of public interest documents and its support
for democratic accountability at national level in relation to
the World Bank?
8. ENGAGEMENT
WITH CIVIL
SOCIETY AT
COUNTRY LEVEL
Develop a tool through which Bank country officers
can identify the key stakeholders that they need to engage with
on specific issues.
9. IMPROVE EVALUATION
AND LEARNING
The World Bank must introduce a coherent and
comprehensive mechanism to evaluate its engagement with civil
society groups. The scope and quality of engagement with civil
society representatives at different levels must be assessed;
this mechanism could be integrated with current monitoring and
evaluation processes. Results of this assessment should be widely
disseminated within the Bank at all levels, to the engaged CSOs
and general public. (Please see appendix for guidelines on operationalising
evaluation, an extract from the Global Accountability Project
Framework. Not printed. Copy placed in the Library.)
10. INCREASED
TRANSPARENCY OF
THE ICSID
The World Bank's International Centre for the
Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) resolves disputes between
foreign investors and the countries in which they invest. ICSID
proceedings are secret, despite the Centre's power to make decisions
that significantly influence developing countries. There is no
possibility of participation by any other interested party and
hearings are often held at locations convenient for northern investors,
but remote from where the affected communities are located. This
practice encourages a culture of secrecy and mechanisms to which
affected citizens have no access.
11. In October 2004, the ICSID secretariat
prepared a discussion paper entitled Possible improvements
of the framework for ICSID arbitration. Among the improvements
considered in the paper are changes to the Arbitration Rules to
introduce procedures for the expedited consideration of requests
for provisional measures and objections to unmeritorious claims;
to increase transparency and public access to the proceedings;
and to expand disclosure requirements for arbitrators.
11.1 Will the UK Government give support
to ensure that the reforms proposed in the paper "Possible
improvements of the framework for ICSID arbitration" will
be implemented?
12. DEMOCRATIC
OVERSIGHT OF
THE WORLD
BANK BY
PARLIAMENTS IN
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
The "International parliamentarians' petition
for greater democratic oversight of the World Bank and IMF"[89]
has had a huge success in the UK parliament with over 280 current
MPs and Peers from all parties supporting the principle of national
control of economic policies. DFID has also been broadly supportive
of the issue with Hilary Benn making a statement on the issue
saying:
"I agree that developing countries, and
their parliaments, need to take their own decisions on economic
policies for poverty reduction . . . . The UK Government is also
committed to strengthening ownership by developing countries of
the PRS process. Although civil society is involved in public
consultations on PRS plans, it is true that parliamentary involvement
has often been weak. This is unfortunate, as parliamentarians
have close links with their constituents and can reinforce political
commitment to poverty reduction by helping to represent the public's
views. Furthermore, their participation strengthens democratic
institutions within a country." [90]
13. Internationally over 1,000 parliamentarians
have signed the petition. However, reforms in this still need
to be made at the World Bank and in countries, for both multilateral
and bilateral programmes.
13.1 With the government recognising in
principle the role of parliamentarians, what is it doing to address
this issue at the World Bank?
13.2 Will the government use its own bilateral
development programmes to promote best practice in recognising
the role of parliamentarians to oversee national policy and development?
14. DFID TRANSPARENCY
DFID should increase its own transparency in
terms of providing more information on its activities at the World
Bank than in the first annual report that covered the Financial
Year 2004. [91]Such
an annual report should be comprehensive, accessible and provide
a context to decisions made as well as details of progress on
issues advocated.
The Accountability Programme at the One World
Trust aims to generate wider commitment to the principles and
values of accountability; increase the accountability of global
organisations to those they affect; and strengthen the capacity
of civil society to better engage in decision making processes.
October 2005
89 The full text of the petition and a list of all
signatories are available at: www.ippinfo.org. Back
90
Benn, Hilary, "Response to the International Parliamentarians'
Petition for Democratic Oversight of the IMF and World Bank"",
Department for International Development, January 2005, http://www.dfid.gov.uk/aboutdfid/ippdemimfwb-response.asp. Back
91
http://www.dfid.gov.uk/pubs/files/uk-worldbank-2004.pdf. Back
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