World Bank report on equity and development called "extraordinary statement"
Monday, January 23, 2006
By: Larry Ekin, WLID

President Carol Bellamy chairs dialogue among NGOs and World Bank staff on report

World Learning President Carol Bellamy recently chaired a dialogue between a group of non-governmental organization (NGO) representatives and World Bank staff as one response to the World Bank’s 2006 World Development Report that focuses on "Equity and Development." World Learning for International Development (WLID), a Washington, D.C.-based division of World Learning, and InterAction jointly organized and hosted the event, sponsored by the World Bank’s Global Civil Society Team. Nearly 50 NGO representatives and World Bank staff participated in the discussion.

In her opening remarks, Bellamy noted that the event was an opportunity for NGO leaders to be a "seeing eye dog" for people at the Bank, because the civil society community readily understands the impact of inequality in international development. Bellamy also cautioned authors and participants to bear in mind that reports like this often presented averages and that there is a need to dig down below the average, in order to see inequalities within countries.

Bellamy introduced Francisco Ferreira, one of the report’s principal authors, who presented an overview of the document. Ferreira’s presentation was followed by a response from Ritu Sharma, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Women’s Edge Coalition. Bellamy then opened the session for questions, short comments, and discussion.

In "Equity and Development," the authors proceeded from a premise that "differences in life opportunities across nationality, race, gender and social groups unfairly condition people's chances to a decent livelihood and even avoiding an early death. They are also likely to lead to wasted human potential and thus to missed development opportunities."  Thus according to the report’s authors, there are both moral (intrinsic) arguments as well as sound economic reasons for a society to pursue greater equality of opportunity. (Click here to read more about the report).

Ferreira acknowledged that he and his colleagues faced a variety of challenges in trying to introduce equity considerations into the World Bank, and spoke about some of their efforts to meet those challenges. One challenge, for example, is how to measure missed opportunity; are there existing economic indicators that might be examined in a new light? He also outlined some recent experiments that were aimed at measuring the influence of inequity. "You (the NGO community) already know that social inequality influences economic performance," said Ferreira about some of the experiments, adding, "but, believe me, demonstrating its causal effects and generating empirical evidence which is convincing to economists is a challenge."

Ferreira also pointed to historical and institutional data as another category evidence that bad resource control often leads to weak political institutions which, in turns, leads to ineffective economic policies. "In the long run, equity and efficiency are complements," concluded Ferreira. "Public action should aim to level the playing field by expanding access to opportunity."

In her response, Women's Edge Coalition Co-Founder Ritu Sharma characterized the report as "an extraordinary statement by the Bank," and that we should "convey our gratitude for producing economic evidence for what we know to be true." She called it "an economic rationale for the moral imperative and basic human right to equality of opportunity."

Nevertheless, Sharma stated some reservations and highlighted some important considerations. "Will the Bank use equity as a mirror for its own governance structures?" she wondered.

Furthermore, Sharma expressed a strong belief that gender and equity in development, particularly within households, is a critical theme. She expressed optimism that the World Bank will consider this as a focal point for upcoming Annual Development Reports. Also, noting that over time the World Bank had introduced some safeguards into its loan evaluation processes such as environmental impact, she suggested that one possibility might be to work for the development of an equity impact assessment as well. 

Sharma also asked why the authors did not give more attention in the study to the gender dimension of inequality.  Ferreira agreed that the authors would have liked to delve more deeply into this issue but that gender would deserve an entire WDR study of its own and suggested that gender groups such as her should propose that the Bank assign a future WDR to this topic.

Several WLID staff took an active role in the subsequent discussion which lasted well over an hour. Coralie Turbitt urged the nongovernmental organizations work with their partners in developing countries and elsewhere to help make them more effective advocates. Ferreira seemed to think that was good advice, noting that much of what the Bank provides "are driven by what our clients want."

WLID Civil Society Director Dr. Preeti Shroff-Mehta noted that she was "struck by the long-term nature of the issues we address, but that we are forced to address them in a short-term framework." She also noted that legal and legislative reforms can also serve as valuable short-term mechanisms.

Shroff-Mehta, who helped organize the event, recognized the report's importance, but also identified a need for significant continuing dialogue. She urged the World Bank and civil society practitioners to create avenues and opportunities to respond constructively and incorporate relevant results of the report into program development and implementation efforts.