How do the international financial institutions oversee their own operations? What internal regulations monitor and, more importantly, ensure responsible behavior?
And more broadly, what mechanisms outside of the institutions influence IFI behavior? What role do elected officials, donor and borrowing governments, international bodies like the UN, and the public play to influence the activities of these institutions?
These questions, and their answers, frame discussions of IFI Governance.
BIC engages with IFI governance on multiple fronts. A central and longstanding goal of the organization is the promotion of transparency and accountability. BIC actively engages with the institutions to promote better, more comprehensive, and more timely public disclosure of project and policy information.
BIC also fights for more responsible environmental and social safeguards at the institutions, as well as the application of external standards, like rights, to IFI activities. See BIC's transparency and accountability webpages for more information.
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has made the fight against corruption a defining theme of his presidency, culminating in the institution's development of a governance and anticorruption framework in 2006-2007. A highly debated and publicized effort, the framework raises important questions about the institution's internal and external efforts to promote effective and responsible governance. Visit BIC's World Bank anti-corruption framework webpage for up-to-date information on the development of the strategy.
BIC is furthermore actively engaged in campaigns to increase the involvement, voice and influence of elected officials on the institutions. Parliamentary oversight of IFI activities is essential to ensuring that borrowing and donor governments are effectively responding the will and true interests of their people.
