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New Rules Working
Group: Democratic Governance and Parliamentary
Oversight (DGPO)
The Democratic Accountability and Parliamentary
Oversight (DGPO) project is developing a strategic
plan of action for a range of activities to
expand and enhance
outreach of civil society organizations in the
developing world to national parliaments, and to
reinvigorate national civic processes that enhance
parliamentary oversight of the international
financial institutions (IFIs). The overall
focus is on strengthening ongoing work and campaigns
that seek to build on and scale up
capacity-building, public outreach and networking,
and advocacy activities of civil society
organizations and networks engaged in these issues.
Interested civil society organizations are welcome
to participate in an initial year of planning
activities focused on enhancing accountability
mechanisms and processes for parliamentary oversight
of the international financial institutions.
Overview of the DGPO Project
There is increasing
debate at the global level about what should be the
guiding criteria for democratic governance of the
international financial institutions. What reforms
are needed to ensure greater accountability,
transparency, representation and democratic
decision-making in the governance of these
institutions that shape the possibilities for
advancing equitable and sustainable development and
for alleviating poverty? One promising direction is
to strengthen the role of parliamentary oversight to
enhance the democratic governance and performance of
the international financial institutions. This
project seeks to establish a global network of
leading civil society organizations, academic
centers, and parliamentary groups to develop
promising strategies for enhancing the democratic
governance and parliamentary oversight of the
international financial institutions (IFIs), namely
the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), and regional development banks.
A network of civil
society organizations is needed to facilitate a
collaborative process to rethink the democratic
principles, processes and practices for governance
of the international financial institutions (IFIs).
While many civil society initiatives are presently
underway to address and to reform various aspects of
IFI governance and parliamentary oversight, too many
are ad-hoc or discrete in nature and limited in
scope. Given the need for improved coordination and
expansion of these ongoing efforts, an expanded
network of civil society organizations is needed to
come together to develop a consensus about the
medium- and long-term objectives and strategies for
enhancing parliamentary oversight of the
international financial institutions (IFIs).
The overall goal of
this project is to enhance the democratic governance
of the international financial institutions and
regional development banks.
Specifically, this project intends to achieve this
goal through the following strategies:
-
Strengthen the capacity of civil society
organizations (CSOs) to engage on these issues
through parliamentary initiatives at the
national, regional and global levels. The
project will lead by example by engaging leading
CSOs in developing countries (Brazil, Ghana,
India, Indonesia) to design country-specific
strategies to enhance parliamentary oversight of
the IFIs’ policies and programs within their
countries, and of the IFI Boards at the
headquarter’s level;
-
Enhance accountability mechanisms by developing
structures and tools that support
parliamentarians in carrying out their oversight
role of the international financial
institutions, by strengthening networking and
information exchange between and among civil
society organizations active on the national
level, coordinating on the regional level, and
eventually collaborating on the global level;
-
Convene and help coordinate a wide range of
civil society organizations to work with
parliamentary groups and academic centers in the
Global South and North to strengthen oversight
over the international financial institutions;
-
Articulate a broader vision of democratic
governance of the international financial
institutions that addresses the four key
dimensions of transparency, accountability,
representation, and democratic decision-making.
The New Rules for Global Finance Coalition, which
serves as the Secretariat for the Democratic
Governance and Parliamentary Oversight (DGPO)
Project, oversees the project’s agenda and
administration on behalf of a collaborative network
of leading civil society organizations from the
Global South and North. Member organizations of the
project’s Executive Committee include: ActionAid
International USA; the Bank Information Center
(USA); the Bretton Woods Project (UK) and
International Parliamentary Petition; Intercultural
Resources (India); New Rules for Global Finance
(USA); and Rede Brasil (Brazil).
For more information about this project, please
contact:
Democratic Governance and Parliamentary Oversight (DGPO)
Project
New Rules for Global Finance Coalition
c/o Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate
1470 Irving Street, NW, 2nd Floor
Washington, DC 20010 USA
Phone: 301-277-9390; Fax: 202-483-0708
E-mail:
jvriker@aol.com
www.new-rules.org
Events
April
22, 2006: Enhancing Democratic Governance and
Parliament Oversight of the International Financial
Institutions. Venue: Bank
Information Center located at 1100 H Street NW,
Suite 650, Washington, DC Time: 4:00-5:00 pm. |
