| Abstract: |
Civil society actors have been pushing for greater accountability of the World
Bank for at least three decades. This paper outlines the range of
accountability mechanisms currently in place at the World Bank along four
basic levels: (1) staff, (2) project, (3) policy, and (4) board governance. We
argue that civil society organizations have been influential in pushing for
greater accountability at the project and policy levels, particularly through
the establishment and enforcement of social and environmental safeguards and
complaint and response mechanisms. But they have been much less successful in
changing staff incentives for accountability to affected communities, or in
improving board accountability through greater transparency in decision
making, more representative vote allocation, or better parliamentary scrutiny.
In other words, although civil society efforts have led to some gains in
accountability with respect to Bank policies and projects, the deeper
structural features of the institution - the incentives staff face and how the
institution is governed- remain largely unchanged. |