5 December 2003
How World Bank Group Governance Shuts Out Citizens and Undermines Accountability
Graham Saul
Bank Information Center
September 2001
Member countries participate in the governance of the World Bank Group through three principal bodies:
(i) the Board of Directors, made up of 24 Executive Directors who represent the full membership of the institution and meet almost daily to discuss and approve World Bank Group loans and policies;
(ii) the Development Committee, made up of 24 members who are appointed by the Board of Directors and meet twice per year to set broad Bank policy and advise the Board of Governors on development issues and;
(iii) the Board of Governors, made up of one representative from each of the Bank's 183 member countries who meet at least once per year and are the highest decision-making body of the Bank.
With the notable exception of the Board of Governors, the deliberations of these bodies are secret. The Board of Directors, which is by far the most active of the three bodies identified above, is not only closed to journalists, but does not release either transcripts or summaries of its meetings. The Development Committee is also closed to journalists and does not release transcripts until years later. The Board of Governors meetings are an exception in that they are open to accredited journalists and broadcast within the conference center of the Annual Meetings. However, none of these bodies are open to the general public and only the Board of Governors provides a detailed account of its deliberations. The function and transparency of the Board of Directors, Development Committee and Board of Governors are individually summarized below.
Board of Directors:
The Board of Directors meets to discuss and decide on World Bank Group lending, policies and strategic directions. It meets almost daily, either formally or informally, and also has five standing committees. According to the Bank's website, the Executive Directors (EDs) "are also responsible for presenting to the Board of Governors at the Annual Meetings an audit of accounts, an administrative budget, and an Annual Report on the Bank's operations and policies, as well as any other matters deemed necessary in their judgment."
The 24 EDs on the Board of Directors represent the 183 member countries of the World Bank Group. Member countries having the largest number of shares, such as France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, have one ED dedicated to representing only their own country. These five countries control roughly 40 percent of the voting power on the Board of Directors, with the United States alone controlling about 15 percent. The other countries are grouped into constituencies, each represented by an Executive Director who is elected by a country or group of countries every two years. For instance, 26 African countries are represented by one Executive Director with a combined voting power of roughly three percent.
Meetings of the Board of Directors are held in secret. They are not open to the public, nor to journalists. Transcripts of these meetings are not made available, nor are summaries or minutes. For a very limited number of discussions a "Chairman's Concluding Remarks" is made available, but these provide very little information and apply to only a fraction of the Board's discussions. Even less is disclosed about the activities of the Board's five standing committees.
As a result of the closed nature of the Board of Directors, citizens have no way of knowing how they are being represented. The public is unable to determine if an Executive Director is promoting issues that it deems important on a day-to-day basis, whether they be economic, social, environmental or otherwise. Similarly, the public is unable to determine if the ED is behaving in a way that is consistent with the laws of their country. This is a frustration that has recently been encountered by those involved in monitoring the law requiring the United States Executive Director to oppose user fees on primary health care and education at the IMF and the World Bank. In general, citizens do not have access to the information that they need to understand how they are being represented.
Development Committee:
The Development Committee is a forum of the World Bank and IMF with a mandate "to advise the Boards of Governors of the Bank and the Fund on critical development issues and on the financial resources required to promote economic development in developing countries" (see Bank website). It is made up of 24 members, usually Ministers of Finance or Development. These members are appointed by the above mentioned Executive Directors and represent all the member countries of the Bank and IMF. Its Secretariat is located in the Bank. A number of inter-governmental agencies, including the regional multilateral development banks and the UN, participate in the Development Committee as observers. The Committee meets twice per year, during the World Bank's "Spring" and Annual Meetings respectively.
Development Committee meetings are closed to both journalists and the general public. Transcripts of the meetings are not provided until years later. While some information is made available both before and after the meetings, details of the Committee's deliberations remain secret for years. As a result, citizens are denied detailed information about how they are being represented within the meetings.
Board of Governors:
According to the institution's "Articles of Agreement", "all the powers" of the World Bank "shall be vested in the Board of Governors." Each member country appoints a Governor to represent their country. The Board of Governors, who must meet at least once per year during the Bank's Annual Meetings, discuss international issues and approve corresponding resolutions.
Accredited journalists have access to the Board of Governors, transcripts of interventions are also made available and the proceedings are broadcast within the conference center of the Annual Meetings. Organizations accredited to the AGM do not have direct access to the Board of Governors meeting, but the above provisions do provide interested parties an opportunity to better understand the role that their representatives played within the meeting itself. The Board of Governors is, therefore, unique in providing this level of access.
While the Board of Governors is technically the highest decision-making authority within the institution, it meets infrequently and only for a short time. In practice, it is used as an opportunity to formally present the statements of individual governments and to officially approve decisions that have been more thoroughly negotiated elsewhere.
Conclusion:
Though it remains closed to the general public, the Board of Governors does at least provide a minimal amount of information so that citizens can better understand how they are being represented. Conversely, the secrecy surrounding the Board of Directors and the Development Committee prevents citizens from accessing information and, by extension, undermines their ability to hold their respective government accountable for its behavior. This lack of transparency has contributed to the "democratic deficit" within the Bank and will increasingly damage the credibility of the World Bank Group as a whole.
For further information contact:
Graham Saul, Bank Information Center, Tel. 1+202-624-0626 or .