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Meeting Report from New Rules
Special Inaugural Meeting
Appendices:
A:
List of Members as of May 17, 2006
B:
New Rules Activities
C: Final Recommendations from FFD Consultations
D:
Project Description - Democratic Governance and Parliamentary Oversight (DGPO)
Project
E:
Board Candidate Bios
F:
Proposals Received for Discussion
APPENDIX D: Project Description: Democratic
Governance and Parliamentary Oversight (DGPO)
Project
Secretariat: New Rules for Global Finance Coalition
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 Democratic Accountability and Parliamentary Oversight 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:
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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;
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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;
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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 overall design of the project will be informed by
grassroots, national and global perspectives
to ensure greater project coherence, integration, and impact. The primary
emphasis is on identifying the strategic possibilities for strengthening,
scaling up, and sustaining the on-going efforts by civil society organizations
and parliamentary groups to enhance parliamentary oversight of the International
Financial Institutions (IFIs) at the national, regional, and global levels.
Here the IFIs include the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and
the regional banks, such as the African Development Bank, the Inter-American
Development Bank, and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Main Project Goals and Activities
First, three leading CSOs in the developing world
that are already working at the sub-national, national and regional levels have
developed “plans of action” for enhancing parliamentary oversight of the IFIs as
country partners. The initial country partners include: Rede Brasil in Brazil,
ISODEC in Ghana, and Intercultural Resources in India. Specifically, these
country partners will explore: (1) how to expand and to enhance outreach to
their own national parliaments; and (2) how to reinvigorate national civic
processes that enhance parliamentary oversight of the IFIs. During the planning
year, these civil society organizations from Africa, Asia, and Latin America
will initiate a range of relevant activities, such as strategic planning,
capacity-building, public education and training, outreach to parliaments and
other key actors (e.g., media, political parties, trade unions, etc.).
·
The DGPO Planning Meeting held on 2-3
March 2006 in Washington, DC developed mechanisms to ensure on-going
communication and outreach; and to identify effective strategies and lessons for
enhancing parliamentary oversight of the IFIs between and among these country
case-studies.
·
Those Southern and Northern CSOs that
are not engaged in producing country case studies are invited to contribute to
key capacity-building, research, knowledge-sharing and outreach activities
during this first year.
Second, Northern CSOs engaged at the regional and
global levels (e.g., New Rules for Global Finance Coalition) will carry out
research on two levels: 1) a broad catalogue of civil society initiatives to:
a) hold the IFIs accountable, and b) engage with their national parliaments on a
range of policy issues; and 2) an inventory and an analysis of
inter-parliamentary organizations, including their membership, mandates,
inter-action with IFIs, and relationships with civil society organizations.
Third, at the end of the planning year, a Strategic
Planning Meeting involving the project’s main partners will be organized to
develop a strategic, multi-year plan for going forward with Phase 2.
Goals: The
principal purpose of this Strategic Planning Meeting will be to develop a
multi-year work plan to expand and enhance democratic governance and
parliamentary oversight of the IFIs at the sub-national, national, regional and
global levels. The work plan will include:
·
an overall funding strategy;
·
strengthening of existing country-cases
from key regions of the developing world;
·
expansion, as appropriate, to
additional national and regional situations;
·
identification of a shared research
agenda that strengthens the strategic analysis and impact of parliamentary
oversight activities of IFIs at the national, regional and global levels; and
·
planning of educational materials for
members of parliaments and dissemination to national and regional civil society
partners.
Participants:
·
The country-case study participants
will share what they have learned about what works, what does not, and what is
still needed to expand civil society collaboration with national parliaments;
·
Include additional civil society
organizations who are prepared to begin or expand their work at the national and
regional levels in order to enhance parliamentary oversight of the IFIs in their
national parliaments;
·
Possibly include representatives from
select inter-parliamentary groups at the regional and global levels.
·
Representatives from civil society
organizations engaged at the regional and global levels will participate,
helping to learn from and to document the proceedings.
During the project’s first (planning) year, the New
Rules for Global Finance Coalition will serve as the Secretariat. New Rules
will work in collaboration with partner organizations to take the lead for
developing the main research components over the first year, extracting the
lessons from the reporting at the Strategic Planning Meeting at the end of the
first year, and for assisting in designing the research agenda going forward.
During this strategic planning event, the Secretariat of the project will be
transferred to a Southern CSO to take the lead for this initiative.
This project intends to model the participatory
democracy that it promotes. By drawing on the shared knowledge and myriad
experiences derived from national-level efforts to enhance parliamentary
oversight of the IFIs in the developing world, the organic nature of this
process is likely to ensure informed and quality outcomes.
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
Executive
Committee:
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Manish Bapna, Bank Information Center (BIC) (USA)
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Marcus Faro, Rede Brasil (Brazil)
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Jo Marie Griesgraber, New Rules for Global Finance Coalition, USA
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Smitu Kothari, Intercultural Resources (India)
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Jeff Powell, Bretton Woods Project and International Parliamentary Petition
(UK)
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Rick Rowden, ActionAid International USA (USA)
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Ex-Officio
member, Jim Riker, New Rules for Global Finance (USA)
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