“The best-laid plans of banks and men…”
(“or how development assistance is finally acknowledging the need to engender a demand for good governance to match the supply and insure the effectiveness of its measures.”)
Dr. Ramon Daubón, moderator and president of the Esquel Group Foundation, welcomed the speakers and participants, and reported that Esquel Group Foundation will soon publish a revamped website. Daubón then differed to Dr. Arthur Domike who presented The Esquel Group’s new book Civil Society and Social Movements: Building Sustainable Democracies in Latin America (contact Arthur Domike for copies in Spanish or English), and thanked Janine Perfit for the sponsorship of the Inter-American Development Bank. Daubón then asked the participants to introduce themselves and presented the topic.
Presentation by Rodrigo Serrano-Berthet
Rodrigo Serrano-Berthet, Senior Social Development Specialist for the Latin America and the Caribbean region at the World Bank, thanked Daubón for the introduction. Serrano-Berthet began by explaining how good governance thinking began at the bank in a small and isolated fashion by reaching out to NGOs as it also adopted environmental and social safeguards. He then described attempts to win support for civil society loans during the late 1980s and into the 1990s, leading to several programs across 50-60 countries at around $2-5 billion in centralized social investment funds. Serrano-Berthet noted that this was met with criticism and led instead to block grants for local governments and municipalities to develop the strategic relationship between local governments and civil society groups, with the direct lending of the bank playing a minor role. Recently, nevertheless, the bank’s board has requested that governance and anti-corruption strategies be implemented across the institution in response to the re-examination of the question, “What is development, engineering economics or a matter of governance?” and the realizations that development cannot be imposed from the outside and that corruption is a basic problem for development that must be dealt with.
Serrano-Berthet then began a discussion of the generators of good governance. He mentioned the importance of multi-stakeholder involvement, government consultation of civil society, and monitoring and oversight in decision making. He stated, “The bank has done a lot to support states in providing good government to its citizens by strengthening the capacity of state financial management and through civil service reform, however, it is clear that reform will not happen if there is not demand for better government by non-state actors that make the government responsible for society’s needs.”
As for the demand side for good governance, Serrano-Berthet explained that the bank is still looking for a conceptual framework to promote, mediate, and monitor the demand for good governance and is coming up with a strategy by working with regional champions of civil society. Serrano-Berthet described how civil society leaders could deal with the daily challenges, bottlenecks, and untapped opportunities relating to the supply and demand for good governance and advise how donors can be involved. A report is currently in process led by Daubón and Rodrigo Villar and is intended to explain the benefits of understanding the institutional networks and the knowledge that already exists along with actions that are already in place. Serrano-Berthet then explained how the bank is interested in starting a dialogue with such leaders, even if informal to get a clear idea of the challenges and opportunities and to identify priorities to strengthen the demand side for good governance.
Presentation by Rodrigo Villar
Rodrigo Villar, Director of International Programs at Fundación DIS in Colombia, thanked Serrano-Berthet and Daubón for their remarks and started his presentation by responding to Serrano-Berthet’s statements saying that it is, “great news that the World Bank is at the center of civil society development for those who started in the area in the 80s.” Villar said, “Civil society can achieve many things that government cannot, however, the convergence of both shows good potential. Good government and governance are necessary conditions for economic, social, and political development in Latin America and enhancing the state’s capacity is one of the best ways to hold the state accountable.” Villar commented on the challenges of convincing elected officials that using a multi-stakeholder approach is politically beneficial and expressed hope that the interviews would reveal cases of such occurrences.
Villar then spoke of the specifics of participatory budgeting, citing examples of success in some parts of Brazil and Colombia. He cautioned that these successes have come after five- to ten-year processes of deep engagement that built trusting relationships amongst the various actors. How to foster this process is still not known and some mayors (e.g. in El Salvador and other parts of Brazil and Colombia) have manipulated civil society actors in promoting participatory planning. To prevent such abuses, Villar recommended a network approach to generate a sustained demand for good governance. According to the interviews, it is still not known which type of network, ad hoc or formal, is more effective, however it is clear that networks with provide public information and access to “specialists” can help organizations develop plans for what they want over four or five year period.
The participants then proposed questions for the speakers and discussion ensured.
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 10:00 AM.