Cooperative or Inoperative? Accountability and Transparency at the World Bank’s Inspection Panel

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Sovacool
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Financial Institution ◽  
International Financial Institution ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The One

The World Bank remains the largest international financial institution in the world. This case study examines the effectiveness of the World Bank’s Inspection Panel. The Inspection Panel makes it possible for citizens and communities to challenge World Bank projects through an independently administered accountability process. Between 1994 and 2016, the World Bank Inspection Panel has received 112 requests for inspection across more than 50 countries. This case study analyzes the history, dynamics, benefits, and barriers to the Inspection Panel, including an assessment of World Bank projects spread across Albania, Argentina, Bangladesh, Benin, Brazil, Cameroon, Chad, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Nepal, Nigeria, Romania, Tibet, Togo, and Uzbekistan. On doing so, this case study highlights how Inspection Panels like the one operating at the World Bank can improve and enhance governance outcomes and result in more equitable decision-making processes. Yet there are also limits to what such independent accountability mechanisms can accomplish.

Part III Human Health and Human Rights, 15 Our Oceans, Our Livelihoods: The World Bank and Oceans Governance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wong Meagan ◽  
Elias Olufemi
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Financial Institution ◽  
Marine Biodiversity ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
International Financial Institution ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Ocean Governance ◽  
The World

This chapter focuses on the role of the World Bank in ocean governance. Created in 1944, the World Bank is an international financial institution belonging to the United Nations (UN) system. It comprises two institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA). The chapter first provides an institutional overview and structure of the World Bank before discussing its position in the UN system as well as its mission. It then considers the World Bank’s role in the conservation and management of oceans, and particularly in the areas of food security, marine biodiversity and climate change. It also examines the World Bank’s strategy towards helping to restore ocean health to an optimal through its so-called blue projects.

scholarly journals THE ROLE OF THE WORLD BANK IN THE GLOBAL LENDING SYSTEM

2021 ◽  
pp. 79-88
Author(s):  
Baubek SOMZHUREK ◽  
Raushan ELMURZAEVA ◽  
Nurzhanat TALAPOVA
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Financial Institution ◽  
International Development Association ◽  
International Financial Institution ◽  
Financial Organization ◽  
International Bank ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World

This article describes the structure and role of the largest international financial institution, the World Bank, which provides credit services through two institutions, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, established in 1944, and the International Development Association, established in 1960, in the global lending system and the specifics of recent years. The structure of the World Bank, which unites about 200 countries, occupies a prominent place in the financial system of the world. Since investment and development loans are a source of financing for the developing and lagging countries of the world. The object of the study is the credit indicators provided by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association to States in various regions in the period from 2016 to 2019. The article uses the method of comparative research. As a result, a sufficient assessment of the projects implemented by the international financial organization will be given.

scholarly journals Navigating an International Research Elective in a Resource-Poor Setting

2010 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 909-911
Author(s):  
Jorina Elbers
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Resource Poor Setting ◽  
Poverty Threshold ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Immunodeficiency Virus ◽  
The World ◽  
Sub Saharan

In the fall of 2008, I completed a 2-month international elective and traveled from Toronto, Canada to Zambia. Zambia is a peaceful, land-locked country in sub-Saharan Africa, neighboring Zimbabwe,Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Zambia ranks number 164 out of 182 in the United Nation's Human Development Index (2009), with 64.3% of the nation's population living below the World Bank poverty threshold of $1 a day. The estimated adult prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is 15%, with greater than 50% of the population less than 18 years old, and an average lifeexpectancy of 42 years (Unicef, 2007).

scholarly journals The Conditional Sink: Counterfactual Display in the Valuation of a Carbon Offsetting Reforestation Project

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Véra Ehrenstein ◽  
Fabian Muniesa
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Carbon Offsetting ◽  
The World ◽  
Prospective Assessment ◽  
Change Mitigation

This paper examines counterfactual display in the valuation of carbon offsetting projects. Considered a legitimate way to encourage climate change mitigation, such projects rely on the establishment of procedures for the prospective assessment of their capacity to become carbon sinks. This requires imagining possible worlds and assessing their plausibility. The world inhabited by the project is articulated through conditional formulation and subjected to what we call “counterfactual display”: the production and circulation of documents that demonstrate and con!gure the counterfactual valuation. We present a case study on one carbon offsetting reforestation project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We analyse the construction of the scene that allows the “What would have happened” question to make sense and become actionable. We highlight the operations of calculative framing that this requires, the reality constraints it relies upon, and the entrepreneurial conduct it stimulates.

Aid Effectiveness

2020 ◽  
pp. 59-76
Author(s):  
Constantine Michalopoulos
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Aid Effectiveness ◽  
Bilateral Aid ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Reduction Strategies ◽  
The One ◽  
The Imf

The collaboration the U4 launched at Utstein covered a wide variety of development issues handled by different international institutions. This involved in the first place coordination of their positions at the World Bank and the IMF, and the UN and its funds, programmes, and agencies. The World/Bank IMF were very important both because of the size and extent of their own programmes but also for helping developing countries manage the overall poverty reduction strategies within which all bilateral aid was supposed to fit. Increasing the effectiveness of bilateral aid could only succeed if it were part of a consistent overarching multilateral effort. This chapter starts with a discussion of U4 efforts to ensure that the poverty reduction strategies developed with the help of the World Bank/IMF in connection with debt relief actually reflected developing country priorities. It then moves on to U4’s efforts to improve the effectiveness of UN programmes which tended to be characterized by fragmentation and inefficiencies. The last part addresses the problem of coherence and collaboration between the IMF and the World Bank—the international financial institutions, on the one hand, and the UN and its agencies, on the other.

Reconstruction after Earthquakes: Sustainability and Development

1991 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alcira Kreimer
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Seismic Risk ◽  
International Aid ◽  
Resource Mobilization ◽  
The Other ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Significant Burden ◽  
The One

This paper identifies key sustainability issues arising in earthquake-related projects financed by The World Bank. First, Bank-financed reconstruction activities are briefly described within the background of the Bank's objectives in development. Second, the connections between human activities and development decisions on the one hand and seismic risk and vulnerability on the other are discussed. The multiple nature of earthquake-related losses are identified, including economic (direct and indirect), time-related and institutional losses. Third, resource mobilization efforts following disasters are discussed, including issues related to local and international aid. Fourth, the inclusion of measures geared to preventing losses in Bank-financed reconstruction efforts are explored within the overall context of preserving sustainability and reducing vulnerability. The paper offers the conclusion that the losses from vulnerable development amount to a significant burden to member countries governments, institutions, and populations.

Social knowledge and international policymaking at the World Bank

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 297-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Toye
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Social Knowledge ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Public Bureaucracy ◽  
Binding Constraints

The production of social knowledge in all international organizations is problematic because all are public bureaucracies. The World Bank provides a case study of the problems of managing in-house research in an international public bureaucracy. Not only are there managerial constraints on what the Bank is willing to publish, but the binding constraints on publication evolve. The evolution in managerial objectives at the Bank in recent years and the factors that have influenced shifts in its rhetoric and policy are examined. Are these adjustments merely rhetorical? Recent research on poverty reduction, governance and conditionality is discussed to gauge how far the Bank has moved.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document