The Real World: Participation and Other Fictions of Development

In December 1996 Theodore Downing, a frequent consultant on development programs and a past president of the Society for Applied Anthropology, filed a human rights complaint against staff of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the first such complaint ever lodged against an organization of the World Bank Group. In brief, the IFC had retained Dr. Downing to evaluate one aspect of a hydroelectric development project in Chile. His report concerned the project's effects on the indigenous Pehuenche people, and the failure of a foundation established as part of the development scheme to serve their interests. Downing's human rights complaint did not, however, concern the substantive issue of the project's effects on the Pehuenche. Rather, the issue raised by Dr. Downing is that both Pehuenche leaders and community members have been deliberately excluded from any meaningful review of his report because of their ethnicity, and thus prevented from effective involvement in the planning or implementation of the hydroelectric project.

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The World Bank: Human Rights, Democracy and Governance

Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights ◽

10.1177/092405199701500103 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 21-45 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Nicholas H. Moller

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

World Bank ◽

Poverty Reduction ◽

World Bank Group ◽

Democratic Values ◽

The World Bank ◽

The World ◽

Alternative Means ◽

Democratic Principles ◽

Bank Group

The World Bank group has been criticised by a wide variety of groups over the years for its failure to adequately take into account human rights and democratic principles. Recently, the Bank has started to widen the scope of its activities so that now the Bank is involved in projects concerned with such disparate issues as the environment, poverty reduction and women in development. This paper focuses on one of the new Bank concerns, governance, and examines the prospects it holds for ensuring that the Bank and its borrower-countries respect human rights and democratic values. It then reviews the responses governance has received and suggests alternative means that may more effectively ensure that the Bank takes into account such values. Finally, the paper proposes a new test, based on Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to be applied to potential borrowers and the test is applied to Burma.

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The Real World: The Pangue Hydro Project Revisited

Practicing Anthropology ◽

10.17730/praa.20.3.v582531ut62n3807 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 20 (3) ◽

pp. 33-34 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Robert Winthrop

Keyword(s):

International Finance ◽

World Bank ◽

World Bank Group ◽

Hydroelectric Project ◽

Power Company ◽

The World Bank ◽

Bank Group ◽

Hydro Project ◽

Term Benefit

In a past column I reported on the controversy surrounding the construction of the Pangue Hydroelectric Project by the Chilean power company ENDESA, an undertaking funded by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-sector lending arm of the World Bank Group (see Practicing Anthropology 19(4): 35-36, Fall 1997). That column focussed on the experience of anthropologist Theodore Downing, who was retained by the IFC to evaluate the Pehuen Foundation, an organization established to channel a portion of revenues from the Pangue Project for the long-term benefit of the indigenous Pehuenche communities affected by the dam.

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