Is The World Bank Rolling Back Commitments to Citizen and Civil Society Engagement, Again?
Date: July 2024
Author(s): Rachel Nadelman
Publication type: Policy brief
Published by: Bretton Woods Project
Once again, the World Bank’s commitment to citizen and civil society engagement is being called into question as it drops a decade-old corporate commitment to project monitoring and withholds from the public a 2023 assessment of recent citizen engagement efforts.
Understanding the Bank’s chequered history with public, community, and civil society participation is key for understanding what is at stake and what to do next.
In this brief in the Bretton Woods Project’s At Issue series, Rachel Nadelman reflects on the past, discusses roll-backs of progress on citizen participation, and discusses the implications for advocacy strategy.
Civil society representatives participate in townhall meeting during the World Bank Annual Meetings in Marrakech, October 2023. Credit: World Bank, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Rachel Nadelman is a Research Professor with the Accountability Research Center. She is a scholar-practitioner, pursuing research on international development that offers opportunities for collaboration and can contribute to both scholarship and advocacy. Rachel currently specializes in accountability and civic engagement in international development finance, focusing on the World Bank’s work with the public sector.