*{Civil Society, the U.N. and the World Bank - Global Policy Forum - NGOs 

Corner
CIVICUS World 
November/December 1998}

Since the end of World War II, a network of global and regional multilateral 
institutions has come to dominate much of the international development and 
financial agenda. The United Nations system and the World Bank are the best 
known and arguably the most powerful of these institutions, but they are not 
alone. Others include the International Monetary Fund; development banks in 
Latin America, Asia and Africa; regional organizations like the Organization 
of American States, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 
the European Union and the Organization of African Unity; and trade regimes 
like the World Trade Organization. 

Over the past 50 years, the relationship between these organizations and civil 
society has changed beyond all recognition. In a recent report to the UN, 
Secretary General Kofi Annan offered this perspective: "Back then, the 
governments of UN Member States were virtually the sole actors in the 
international process; nongovernmental organizations were seen as supporters, 
allies, and mobilizers of public opinion in favor of the goals and values of 
the UN Charter." Today, the Secretary General notes, "NGOs are often on the 
ground before the international community gives the UN a mandate to act. They 
are indispensable operators in areas ranging from demining to human rights, 
from health care to refugees. And they are seen not only as disseminators of 
public information or providers of services, but as shapers of public policy." 

At the World Bank, President James Wolfensohn, credited by many for his 
program to open up the Bank to NGOs and other nongovernmental actors, is on 
record that "unless the Bank believes that [civil society] participation is an 
essential element of its projects, they will not be as successful." 
In this issue of CIVICUS World we examine the relationship of civil society 
and its organizations (particularly NGOs) to the United Nations system and the 
World Bank. Our focus is two-fold:
what are the issues, the debates and the reforms most important to CSOs and to 
strengthening civil society worldwide?; and
how can CSOs and NGOs participate most effectively with these institutions - 
to affect policy, impact decision-making, ensure better project design and 
outcomes and gain access to the extraordinary financial, intellectual and 
informational resources controlled by the multilaterals?
 
*partie=titre Civil Society's Essential Role *partie=nil  
The new spirit of openness and partnership that UN and Bank officials herald 
today is the result of more than 15 years of intense pressure, lobbying and 
campaigning on the part of CSOs and NGOs. As author David Korten has noted, 
"The 1980s saw a growing rejection of the myth that government is the sole 
legitimate agent for development decision-making and the management of 
development resources. It is now widely accepted that civil society has an 
essential, if not central, role in both." 

Many factors contributed to this shift in perspective. Among the earliest 
efforts, international environmental organizations in the early 1980s 
challenged the World Bank on the environmental impact of its programs, 
particularly the building of large dams. Other NGOs confronted the Bank on 
questions of third world debt, loans to repressive regimes, the human cost of 
structural adjustment programs and the large-scale, involuntary resettlement 
of indigenous peoples due to Bank infrastructure projects. Beginning in 1994 
at the time of the 50th anniversary of the Bretton Woods institutions (the 
World Bank and the IMF) and continuing to this day, the NGO 50 Years is Enough 
Campaign has focused attention on the Bank's fundamental development paradigm, 
arguing that its economic growth policies exacerbate rather than reduce income 
gaps between rich and poor. According to Jonathan A. Fox and David L. Brown in 
their recent study of the World Bank and NGOs, The Struggle for 
Accountability, "These campaigns have had an impact, most notably by 
pressuring donor governments to encourage the World Bank to adopt more 
rigorous environmental and social policies. Controversial projects that the 
World Bank would probably have funded a decade ago are today much more likely 
to be vetoed or modified in the design phase. Although its practice continues 
to lag behind policy promises, the World Bank's reform policies are important 
because they create benchmark standards that public interest groups can use to 
hold the institution accountable." 

While pressure was mounting on the Bank, other NGOs and CSOs pushed for and 
won expanded participation in a series of large international UN-sponsored 
conferences on environment and development (Rio de Janeiro), women (Beijing), 
population (Cairo) and social development (Copenhagen). The fallout from the 
active involvement of thousands of NGOs in these summits was felt back at UN 
headquarters in New York. After the Earth Summit, in particular, many NGOs 
sought access not only to UN conferences, but also to the UN itself in order 
to monitor implementation of the declarations, final reports and platforms for 
action signed by governments at these global gatherings. Pressure from these 
groups and sympathetic governments caused the UN to reassess its policies 
toward NGO involvement. A new era of open-ness and transparency was initiated. 
In June of this year, at the UN's Special Session on the "Earth Summit +5," 
NGOs were allowed unprecedented access, including the delivery by 12 speakers 
representing civil society of formal statements from the podium to the General 
Assembly. The GA's President, Ambassador Razali Ismail, has called this "a 
milestone," that for the first time brought the "nongovernmental sector right 
into the plenary of the General Assembly." 

*partie=titre A Transformed Working Relationship *partie=nil  
This past decade has seen significant change -- even transformation -- in the 
working relationship between civil society and the multilateral giants. For 
CSOs and NGOs, this has meant greatly expanded participation in international 
conferences, more consultations with governments and UN and Bank staff, 
greater access to once tightly held information and increased involvement in 
project development and implementation. In many cases, CSOs and NGOs are now, 
in effect, operational partners with multilateral agencies in their projects 
and programs. 

A few statistics help to demonstrate this shift: 
At the United Nations, from the 41 NGOs granted consultative status by the 
Economic and Social Council in 1948, and 377 in 1968, the number of NGOs in 
consultative status has now expanded to over 1,550. Approximately 1,800 
representatives of 637 organizations from 61 countries attended last year's UN 
Department of Public Information/NGO Conference. At the World Bank, in 1990, 
NGOs were involved in just 12 percent of Bank projects being implemented. By 
the Bank's Fiscal Year '97, 47 percent of all approved projects involved NGOs 
to some degree. 

Beyond the statistics, the Bank and UN have also made some important strides 
in changing their internal policies and mechanisms to encourage greater civil 
society participation. In recent years, for example, virtually all UN system 
departments, agencies, programs and funds have been engaged in fundamental 
reviews of their relations with organizations of civil society. This has taken 
many forms. Guidelines for working with NGOs have been updated and developed. 
More enabling and pro-active approaches to cooperating with local and regional 
NGOs are being developed for regional and country offices. 

Many agencies now hold periodic consultations with NGOs on substantive issues, 
policy questions and program strategies. The governing body of at least one 
agency, UNAIDS, has five seats for NGO representatives. A number of other 
agencies cooperate with standing NGO committees which have been established 
explicitly as permanent fora for ongoing policy dialogue between NGOs and the 
agency concerned. An important recent advance was the 1997 establishment of 
the NGO Working Group on the Security Council, through which a 30-member 
consultation group meets regularly with government delegations sitting on the 
Council. (See pages x-y for more information about United Nations NGO-related 
programs, as well as for information on civil society organizations working 
for further UN reforms.)

For its part, the World Bank has instituted a number of mechanisms and changes 
as a result of the restructuring begun in 1993 shortly after President 
Wolfensohn took office. An NGO Unit has been established and a civil society 
initiative and social capital program launched. Civil society "experts" have 
been stationed in each country office -- virtually all hired locally -- to 
teach staff how to work with NGOs and civil society. An NGO-World Bank 
Committee made up of Bank staff and leaders of NGOs from every region serves 
as a forum for input on major issues such as structural adjustment and 
transparency. Another NGO group advises and monitors the World Bank's 
microenterprise lending initiative. In July 1997 the Bank and a network of 
NGOs jointly launched the Structural Adjustment Participatory Review 
Initiative (SAPRI) which is assessing the impact of the Bank's often 
controversial economic adjustment measures in eight countries. (See pages x-y 
for information about these initiatives, as well as various NGO and CSO 
efforts to continue to bring change to the World Bank.) 

If the United Nations system and the World Bank have opened themselves up to 
new levels of partnership with civil society, still much remains to be done 
and many important issues resolved. Summing up the current state of the 
relationship between NGOs and CSOs and the multilateral development and 
financial institutions, James Paul, Executive Director of the Global Policy 
Forum, says, "They have few formal powers but growing influence." 

*partie=titre Doubts Persist About the World Bank *partie=nil  
Still, for many civil society organizations participating with the network of 
multilateral development and financial giants -- particularly the World Bank 
-- remains a two-edged sword. On the one hand, these institutions represent 
powerful forces that can make a difference in efforts to fight poverty and 
improve the quality of life, build democracy and ensure human rights, foster 
sustainable development and protect the environment. They also are vehicles 
for transferring financial resources to CSOs and NGOs through grants and 
contracts; indeed grants and loans to governments, which then sub-contract 
with NGOs, are a major source of funding for civil society worldwide. 
Multilaterals also provide programs and technical assistance that help 
strengthen civil society's institutions; they are repositories for vital data 
collection and intellectual thought; and they offer fora in which civil 
society can meet with governments to help shape national and global policy 
debates. 

On the other hand, many observers question the economic and social impact the 
multilaterals are having on countries of the South. This is particularly true 
in the case of the World Bank. Despite many reforms at the Bank, some NGOs 
remain deeply skeptical of the Bank's environmental and poverty eradication 
efforts, and indeed of the institution's underlying economic philosophy. The 
Bank's strongest critics, such as the NGOs participating in the 50 Years is 
Enough Campaign, argue that the institution is so fundamentally biased toward 
the interests of northern states, multinational corporations and wealthy 
national elites that reform is hardly possible. The campaign urges governments 
to cease funding the Bank and reallocate the money to more socially and 
environmentally responsible development agencies. 

Even some NGOs, such as the Bank Information Center (BIC) and Development Gap, 
that are formally involved with World Bank initiatives, such as SAPRI, are 
ambivalent. Kay Treakle of BIC comments that "NGOs have needed to build and 
maintain political pressure from outside to force the Bank to create the space 
for dialogue. Even then, dialogue is not the best way to describe it, because 
real dialogue rarely occurs. The 'dialogues' that often occur around these 
processes tend to be constructed by the Bank, so they are undertaken on their 
terms." The potential for co-optation, she believes, is great; as a result, 
"many NGOs do not want to legitimize a process they feel is illegitimate." 
Nevertheless, she says, "I would never recommend not engaging the Bank. If you 
can engage them, pressure them, and in some cases even win over some of the 
more progressive staff, then progress is possible." 

*partie=titre At the UN, the Issue Is Access *partie=nil  
At the United Nations, access to the UN's deliberative and decision-making 
bodies and processes continues to be at the top of the NGO/CSO agenda. Despite 
the advances of recent years, there are remain many important negotiations 
taking place at the UN which NGOs are not allowed to observe or attend. This 
is particularly true with high level General Assembly working groups. 
The World Federalists believe that "The exclusion of citizens groups is 
unacceptable, particularly since these groups are making decisions on many of 
the proposals in the action plans adopted at the recent UN world conferences 
and summits. This exclusion is difficult to justify given that many of the 
most creative and thoughtful proposals for UN reform have come from civil 
society, from NGOs." 

Another contentious issue is the fact that the UN's main decision-making body, 
the General Assembly, does not offer formal access to NGOs. Establishing a 
formal consultative mechanism through which the representatives of civil 
society can submit reports, make statements and lobby for their agenda is a 
high priority for NGOs and CSOs. Still another concern, worries James Paul of 
the Global Policy Forum, is that some governments are trying to roll-back the 
hard-won advances of recent years and initiate new restrictions on NGO 
participation at the UN. Some countries, he says, "don't want NGOs sticking 
their noses into global issues like disarmament."

The vital role of civil society in addressing global concerns is now widely 
understood among most governments and within the halls of the UN and the World 
Bank. How the partnership between the third sector, the multilaterals and 
governments will evolve remains the subject of intense debate. CSOs and NGOs 
have been instrumental in opening the door and letting fresh air into the once 
dark and restricted corners of multilateral financial and development 
institutions. Civil society has already gained much from this sometimes 
difficult process. But so too have the multilaterals. As Kofi Annan reported 
to the General Assembly this summer, "The advantages of this increased NGO 
participation cannot be overestimated. NGOs have introduced additional 
knowledge and information into the decision-making process; they have raised 
new issues and concerns which were subsequently addressed by the United 
Nations; they have provided expert advice in areas where they were the main 
actors; and they have contributed greatly to a broad consensus-building 
process in many areas which ensured commitment by all actors to a global 
agenda.