|
The World Bank, Alternative Forums, NGOs and "Civil
Society"
By MIGUEL CRISTOBAL
The World Bank published in early November a text titled
"Report on Development: 2000-2001" that includes a review of
its financial commitments to NGOs and "civil society." The
following information is provided:
o More than 70% of projects approved by the World Bank in 1999 included
the participation of NGOs and representatives of "civil
society." One seven-country project alone that was aimed at
bolstering activities of NGOs cost $900 million.
o A special budget was earmarked for NGOs that requested money (up to
$15,000 per organization) to participate in World Bank-funded seminars.
o The number of World Bank functionaries in charge of relations with
NGOs and representatives of "civil society" increased from two
in 1995 to 80 today.
So much for the World Bank. Another study published by the OECD in
October 1999 titled "Khateriimini" notes that "the
percentage of all aid supplied by OECD countries through the NGOs
increased from 0.7% in 1975 to 3.6% in 1985 to more than 5% in 1995 -
for a total of $2.3 billion. But this amount is far below the real sum,
according to the report, as it "does not include the financing by
the U.S. government to the NGOs."
These gigantic sums reveal the hoax of presenting the rapid growth of
NGOs as a "social phenomenon."
In years past, financing by international financial institutions and
governments went essentially to NGOs whose role was to accompany the
dismantling of public utilities and services (NGOs devoted to medical
care, education, garbage collection). What is new today is that an
increasing share of this financing goes to NGOs which the World Bank
refers to as Civil Society Organizations, or CSOs. According to the
World Bank, these are organizations that promote "social
causes" and "social protest movements" - in other words,
political action.
What is the mission confided to the CSOs. The World Bank "Report on
Development: 2000/2001" gives the answer. "Social tensions and
divisions can be eased by bringing political opponents together within
the framework of formal and informal forums and by channeling their
energies through political processes, rather than leaving confrontation
as the only form of release."
The report continues: "[The World Bank] acknowledges that it must
now pursue its strategies with entirely transparent procedures and that
it must engage in an open and regular dialogue with the organizations of
civil society, in particular those that represent the poor. The
international financial institutions and organizations have to support
poor people's coalitions around the world so that their voices can be
heard in the world debate."
In keeping with this mission of co-optation, the IMF itself reports the
following in a document titled "Globalization, NGOs and IMF: A New
Dialogue": "Criticisms made by NGOs against the system do not
necessarily target the IMF-recommended macro-economic stabilization
policies, because NGOs accept them generally as the necessary condition
for lasting growth." (September 19, 2000)
There you have it: "globalization with a human face." It's a
method aimed at getting the "citizens' protest movements" -
such as the ones staged at the European Union Summit in Nice in December
2000 and the World Social Forum of Porto Alegre of January 2001 - to
join the IMF and World Bank in jointly implementing the destructive
Structural Adjustment Plans.
Back to
ILC Newsletter Index Back to
ILC Debate over WSF Index
|
Open World Conference of Workers