Bread for the World Institute has produced a guide to advise NGOs and civil society groups on how to influence the World Bank’s Country Assistance Strategies (CASs). The guide describes how the Bank draws up CASs, before recommending principles along which the CAS should be formulated. These include:
- the CAS should be negotiated with the borrower government;
- the CAS should be a public, not a confidential document;
- the Bank should provide borrowing governments with guidelines for soliciting input to the CAS from civil society organisations; and
- “trigger actions” which qualify governments for high levels of borrowing should be based on poverty reduction.
Finally, it outlines a process to help NGOs decide whether and how to try to influence the CAS, suggesting possible rules for engagement between civil society, government and the Bank.
Bread for the World Institute, Who Shapes Your Country’s Future?, a guide to influencing World Bank Country Assistance Strategies. Contact Nancy Alexander; Fax: +1-301-608-2401; bankwatch@igc.apc.org
