The Institute for Economic Justice, alongside others, have issued a joint civil society briefing on the World Bank‘s Evolution Roadmap. The briefing highlights multiple concerns, and provides a series of recommendations. The briefing calls for a Roadmap that prioritises people, participation, and the planet over profit and economic growth.
It further provides an alternative analysis of the current ‘crisis of development’ which the Evolution Roadmap seeks to respond to. In addition it presents key evidence on the damaging effects of the Bank’s approach to date and proposes a more equitable and sustainable World Bank Group ‘evolution’. It proposes an alternative pathway where grassroots voices, and economic, social, women’s, girls’ and human rights will be central to a public development paradigm.
Overview
In the briefing the IEJ, alongside others, are calling on the World Bank to commission an external review of its effectiveness, and put the public at the core of its efforts to support the Global South.
As part of the consultation on the World Bank Group’s Evolution Roadmap, organisations including the Bretton Woods Project, the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad), Christian Aid, Third World Network, and the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) have produced a comprehensive briefing which contains recommendations that would transform the current problematic proposals.
The briefing calls for the World Bank to #RerouteTheRoadmap, as discussions on World Bank reform continue. It aims to place this discussion firmly on the agenda of the upcoming World Bank Annual Meeting in Marrakech in October.
It makes six key recommendations:
- Commission an external and independent review of the World Bank Group’s development effectiveness;
- Invert the current approach and put the public at the core of the World Bank’s efforts to support global public goods;
- Develop and fund a human-rights policy;
- Mainstream climate justice into the Bank’s operations;
- Mainstream a gender lens into the Bank’s operations, extending the mandate of the upcoming Gender Strategy; and
- Develop Better metrics for measuring – and policies to tackle – inequality.