The Bank has established a secretariat to coordinate work on the Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF), the initiative on donor coordination and integrated analysis launched in January (see Bretton Woods Update 12).
The unit is headed by Pablo Guerrero. His staff have explained to NGOs that the framework will help the Bank focus on structural as well as macroeconomic reforms. The framework may not, however, improve understanding of the linkages between these types of reform or integrate “crosscutting issues” such as gender and poverty. A working demonstration matrix will be compiled by September.
As the concept of ownership is now widely accepted, the Bank will have to show more flexibility on what policies it supports. Secretariat staff suggested that the Bank will face political pressure to fund programmes developed by countries even if they are not in line with its economic viewpoint. The role of conditionality is being debated.
Studies and discussions are already underway in some CDF pilot countries: Eritrea; Ethiopia, Ghana; Uganda, Dominican Republic, and Bolivia.
They will soon start in the rest: Cote d’Ivoire; Morocco; Jordan; West Bank and Gaza; Vietnam; Kyrgyz Republic, and Romania. All these countries are due for a new Country Assistance Strategy in 2000 except for Dominican Republic whose CAS goes to the Board this June, and Bolivia and the Kyrgyz Republic whose next CASs are due in 2001.
For more details about the CDF: rguerreroo@worldbank.org.
For more details about NGO monitoring initiatives contact Bretton Woods Project.
