[p2p-research] Fwd: Accountability in Complex Organizations: World Bank Responses to Civil Society

[Michel Bauwens]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Maurice Mutabazi <mutabazi at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Nov 7, 2008 at 4:58 AM
Subject: Accountability in Complex Organizations: World Bank Responses to
Civil Society
To:


FYI, see below and the attached paper.

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-- Peter Senge
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*Accountability in Complex Organizations: World Bank Responses to Civil
Society*
By Alnoor Ebrahim and Steve Herz
Working Paper Number:RWP07-060
*Submitted: 12/10/2007*
*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.

URL: http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/Research/wpaper.nsf/rwp/RWP07-060



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