Findings of our pilot project on Civil Society and Accountable Global Governance were presented at a specially convened event in November 2008 at the IMF and the World Bank. 

BGD at the IMF

The Civil Society and Accountable Global Governance project presented findings and recommendations at a specially convened seminar on 6 November 2008 at the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, DC. The event, co-hosted by the IMF and the World Bank, was attended by around 50 people from the two institutions and a range of civil society actors who engage with them. 

Presenting our findings 

The CS-AGG panel comprised a subset of the project authors. Jan Aart Scholte of the University of Warwick and London School of Economics presented the project conceptual framework on ‘Global Governance, Accountability and Civil Society’ as well as his case study on ‘Civil Society and IMF Accountability’. Alnoor Ebrahim of the Harvard Business School presented the study of ‘The World Bank and Democratic Accountability: The Role of Civil Society’. Carolyn Long and Nata Duvvury presented their work at the International Center for Research on Women concerning ‘Civil Society and Accountability Promotion in the Global Fund’. The event was chaired by Preeti Shroff-Mehta of World Learning. John Garrison of the World Bank and Vasuki Shastry of the IMF led off the discussion.

The role of civil society in global financial governance

The seminar at the Bretton Woods institutions was a welcome opportunity to debate the role of civil society in global financial governance. It was especially interesting to compare the experiences of civil society in the BWIs (illustrating an older form of intergovernmental multilateralism) and in the Global Fund (illustrating a newer form of multistakeholder multilateralism). Could and should civil society be brought more into the heart of policymaking at the IMF and the World Bank, as it is in the Global Fund?

Other points raised in the debate included the desirability of including civil society inputs from early stages of policy deliberations, and not just towards the end after key decisions have already been taken. It was noted that challenges of staff incentives to engage with civil society are found at both the Bank and the Fund. Officials attending the event affirmed that consulting civil society organisations helped them to do their job better, but many other colleagues may need more direct incentives related to performance review.

It was highlighted that the Managing Director of the IMF has recently declared civil society to be the fourth pillar of IMF governance. Nevertheless, IMF staff struggle with resource constraints to build up relations with civil society organisations. Meanwhile civil society associations that are committed to long-term detailed engagement with the BWIs often struggle to get sufficient sustained support from funders.

In sum, this was an open, searching and highly constructive informal discussion of civil society relations with two central institutions of global economic governance. The event achieved the sort of positive practitioner-researcher interchange that the BGD programme strives to promote. Both Alnoor Ebrahim and Jan Aart Scholte will continue their respective work with the World Bank and the IMF. It was also suggested that the Bank and Fund could host a follow-up discussion when the CS-AGG book is launched. Meanwhile those attending the event have been added to the BGD mailing list in order to keep in touch with the further development of the programme.