Publication: Engaging Citizens in Countries Affected by Fragility, Conflict, and Violence
Loading...
Files in English
952 downloads
Date
2019-12-01
ISSN
Published
2019-12-01
Author(s)
Chasara, Margaret
Editor(s)
Abstract
This paper provides insights for World Bank staff to support a stronger understanding of the challenges, opportunities, and entry points to mainstreaming citizen engagement in fragility,conflict, and violence (FCV) contexts. It does not promise comprehensive solutions, rather a more nuanced view of citizen engagement in FCVs, and it suggests operational response. First, it summarizes what makes citizen engagement a necessary but challenging agenda. Second, it summarizes operational implications and suggestions for supporting citizen engagement using various FCV archetypes and examples of approaches to citizen engagement as a primer for the future direction of this agenda within the Governance Global Practice (GGP). The paper builds on the analysis conducted for the World Bank’s flagship report Opening the Black Box: The Contextual Drivers of Social Accountability, incorporating additional insights from the past few years. It is one in aseries of four papers from the GGP on citizen engagement in the areas of FCV situations, opengovernment, trust, and emerging technology.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Chasara, Margaret; Grandvoinnet, Helene. 2019. Engaging Citizens in Countries Affected by Fragility, Conflict, and Violence. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33451 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Engaging Civil Society Organizations in Conflict-Affected and Fragile States : Three African Country Case Studies(Washington, DC, 2005-06)Civil society organizations (CSOs) play a prominent role in conflict-affected and fragile states. In the absence of capable or credible public institutions due to conflict or weak policy environments, CSOs tend to substitute for public institutions and become primary providers of basic social services. At the same time, the international donor community has increased its involvement in countries affected by conflict and instability, often relying increasingly on CSOs to reach the poor. While the prominent role of CSOs in social service delivery and other development activities is often seen as an interim solution, it may extend for years, even decades. Recognizing that reliance on CSOs is likely to prevail for the foreseeable future in many countries, there is a need to consider how to make CSO engagement more effective and sustainable. The objective of this report is to identify approaches to more effectively engage CSOs in the context of weak public institutions in conflict-affected and fragile states. The report will: 1) Examine the roles, strengths, and weaknesses of CSOs in terms of service delivery, community development, advocacy, peace building, and governance; 2) Identify the factors that influence CSO effectiveness in performing these functions; 3) Assess donor influence on CSOs and their indirect influence on governance by supporting CSOs; and 4) Discuss the relationship between CSOs and government including their changing roles, weak communication, and government efforts to coordinate and regulate CSO activity. Key findings are presented from pilots of the Civil Society Assessment Tool (CSAT) in Angola, Guinea Bissau, and Togo. The pilots were carried out from January 2004 to February 2005.Publication Dealing with GAC Issues in Project Lending : The Special Case of Fragile and Conflict-Affected States(Washington, DC, 2013)The principal objective of the Bank's governance work should be to help develop capable and accountable states to deliver services to the poor, promote private-sector-led growth, and tackle corruption effectively. The agenda for action has been defined, new tools and approaches have been developed, and governance and anticorruption (GAC) issues and concerns are increasingly being mainstreamed in the Bank's operational work at the country, sector, and project levels. With the introduction of the operational risk assessment framework (ORAF), the Bank has undertaken a major effort to improve how it manages GAC risks in the development projects and programs it supports. This note provides principles-based advice and guidance to task teams working at the sector and project levels on fragile and conflict-affected states (FCS) countries in Africa. It aims to provide a common conceptual framework for understanding the challenges and opportunities they face in project design, implementation, and supervision; highlight key lessons learned and good practice examples from others working in this area; and suggest some topics where further work is needed to understand and mitigate key operational risks. A communications strategy that frames GAC issues in a constructive way, seeks to take into account the concerns and perspectives of all stakeholders involved, enhances the understanding of constraints and opportunities, and strengthens the project's incentives for improving governance and reducing corruption. In FCS countries, constraints are likely to include severe weaknesses in institutional capacity; thus the project design should include an explicit strategy and action plan for institutional strengthening, as well as explicit, measurable indicators of progress.Publication Dealing with Governance and Anticorruption Issues in Fragile and Conflict-Affected States : Ten Things Team Leaders Should Know(Washington, DC, 2013-01)Over the past several years, to improve development outcomes, the Bank has developed new and more effective tools and approaches for dealing with governance and anticorruption (GAC) issues at the country, sector, and project levels. At the same time, the Bank has increased its focus on fragile and conflict-affected states (FCS), as reflected in the 2011 World Development Report (WDR): conflict, security, and development. Helping these countries achieve their development objectives, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), is a critical part of the Bank s mission to reduce poverty. On a parallel track, the Bank is working to strengthen its support to the FCS. The approach includes both near-term policy and procedural changes to improve the Bank s operational effectiveness, and the preparation of a more comprehensive strategy for longer-term engagement, building on the analysis and recommendations of the 2011 WDR. In attempting to integrate the GAC and FCS agendas, it is clear that we have much to learn. For example, that governance and corruption risks pose a serious threat in many of the FCS, not just to the achievement of development objectives but to the prospects for sustaining peace and building more accountable state institutions. However, emerging good practice GAC tools and approaches may not work in FCS, or at least they will need to be adapted to FCS circumstances. This note aims to share what authors have learned so far about some of the practical things that task team leaders (TTLs) should take into account in designing and supervising Bank-financed projects in FCS.Publication Mainstreaming Citizen Engagement in the Middle East and North Africa Region(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-09)This brief provides an introduction to the issue of citizen engagement (CE) as well as the piloting of the agenda in the Banks Middle East and North Africa (MNA) region. The objective is to develop sustainable country systems for CE. It includes participation of citizens in all spheres of development, whether the making of policies and decisions that affect citizens, the formulation and execution of budgets, or delivery of public services. At the policy, program, and project level, CE work includes strengthening government-citizen interaction and results through citizen-beneficiary consultation, participation, and collaboration in all aspects of projects, programs, or policies. As part of its new strategy, the World Bank Group (WBG) has committed to mainstreaming CE in country engagements and operations to achieve improved development results through participatory planning, management and monitoring, participatory budgeting, and grievance mechanisms. Citizen movements globally and in MNA have mobilized to demand greater voice and participation in decisions affecting their lives in places where they are not heard or given opportunities to engage. CE brings dividends at the national and subnational, as well as project levels. The WBG is developing a strategy to scale up the use of CE principles, mechanisms, and processes in its engagement with non-state actors, as well as with government counterparts.Publication World Bank Group Engagement in Situations of Fragility, Conflict, and Violence(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-08-01)The report discusses how challenging it is for the World Bank Group to provide assistance when middle-income countries experience situations of fragility, conflict, and violence. The government may have its own views on how and when to tackle the underlying issues, or may be reluctant to increase its borrowing to correct what may be seen as a localized or temporary problem. Through examining such cases, IEG concluded that the Bank Group’s comparative advantage is supporting countries in tackling long-term development challenges, including early engagement and a sustained presence in conflict-affected areas, as well as continuous dialogue with the parties to violent conflicts, where possible.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Digital Progress and Trends Report 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-05)Digitalization is the transformational opportunity of our time. The digital sector has become a powerhouse of innovation, economic growth, and job creation. Value added in the IT services sector grew at 8 percent annually during 2000–22, nearly twice as fast as the global economy. Employment growth in IT services reached 7 percent annually, six times higher than total employment growth. The diffusion and adoption of digital technologies are just as critical as their invention. Digital uptake has accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic, with 1.5 billion new internet users added from 2018 to 2022. The share of firms investing in digital solutions around the world has more than doubled from 2020 to 2022. Low-income countries, vulnerable populations, and small firms, however, have been falling behind, while transformative digital innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) have been accelerating in higher-income countries. Although more than 90 percent of the population in high-income countries was online in 2022, only one in four people in low-income countries used the internet, and the speed of their connection was typically only a small fraction of that in wealthier countries. As businesses in technologically advanced countries integrate generative AI into their products and services, less than half of the businesses in many low- and middle-income countries have an internet connection. The growing digital divide is exacerbating the poverty and productivity gaps between richer and poorer economies. The Digital Progress and Trends Report series will track global digitalization progress and highlight policy trends, debates, and implications for low- and middle-income countries. The series adds to the global efforts to study the progress and trends of digitalization in two main ways: · By compiling, curating, and analyzing data from diverse sources to present a comprehensive picture of digitalization in low- and middle-income countries, including in-depth analyses on understudied topics. · By developing insights on policy opportunities, challenges, and debates and reflecting the perspectives of various stakeholders and the World Bank’s operational experiences. This report, the first in the series, aims to inform evidence-based policy making and motivate action among internal and external audiences and stakeholders. The report will bring global attention to high-performing countries that have valuable experience to share as well as to areas where efforts will need to be redoubled.Publication Global Economic Prospects, January 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-16)Global growth is expected to hold steady at 2.7 percent in 2025-26. However, the global economy appears to be settling at a low growth rate that will be insufficient to foster sustained economic development—with the possibility of further headwinds from heightened policy uncertainty and adverse trade policy shifts, geopolitical tensions, persistent inflation, and climate-related natural disasters. Against this backdrop, emerging market and developing economies are set to enter the second quarter of the twenty-first century with per capita incomes on a trajectory that implies substantially slower catch-up toward advanced-economy living standards than they previously experienced. Without course corrections, most low-income countries are unlikely to graduate to middle-income status by the middle of the century. Policy action at both global and national levels is needed to foster a more favorable external environment, enhance macroeconomic stability, reduce structural constraints, address the effects of climate change, and thus accelerate long-term growth and development.Publication World Bank Annual Report 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-25)This annual report, which covers the period from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, has been prepared by the Executive Directors of both the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA)—collectively known as the World Bank—in accordance with the respective bylaws of the two institutions. Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, has submitted this report, together with the accompanying administrative budgets and audited financial statements, to the Board of Governors.Publication World Development Report 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-08-01)Middle-income countries are in a race against time. Many of them have done well since the 1990s to escape low-income levels and eradicate extreme poverty, leading to the perception that the last three decades have been great for development. But the ambition of the more than 100 economies with incomes per capita between US$1,100 and US$14,000 is to reach high-income status within the next generation. When assessed against this goal, their record is discouraging. Since the 1970s, income per capita in the median middle-income country has stagnated at less than a tenth of the US level. With aging populations, growing protectionism, and escalating pressures to speed up the energy transition, today’s middle-income economies face ever more daunting odds. To become advanced economies despite the growing headwinds, they will have to make miracles. Drawing on the development experience and advances in economic analysis since the 1950s, World Development Report 2024 identifies pathways for developing economies to avoid the “middle-income trap.” It points to the need for not one but two transitions for those at the middle-income level: the first from investment to infusion and the second from infusion to innovation. Governments in lower-middle-income countries must drop the habit of repeating the same investment-driven strategies and work instead to infuse modern technologies and successful business processes from around the world into their economies. This requires reshaping large swaths of those economies into globally competitive suppliers of goods and services. Upper-middle-income countries that have mastered infusion can accelerate the shift to innovation—not just borrowing ideas from the global frontiers of technology but also beginning to push the frontiers outward. This requires restructuring enterprise, work, and energy use once again, with an even greater emphasis on economic freedom, social mobility, and political contestability. Neither transition is automatic. The handful of economies that made speedy transitions from middle- to high-income status have encouraged enterprise by disciplining powerful incumbents, developed talent by rewarding merit, and capitalized on crises to alter policies and institutions that no longer suit the purposes they were once designed to serve. Today’s middle-income countries will have to do the same.Publication Business Ready 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-03)Business Ready (B-READY) is a new World Bank Group corporate flagship report that evaluates the business and investment climate worldwide. It replaces and improves upon the Doing Business project. B-READY provides a comprehensive data set and description of the factors that strengthen the private sector, not only by advancing the interests of individual firms but also by elevating the interests of workers, consumers, potential new enterprises, and the natural environment. This 2024 report introduces a new analytical framework that benchmarks economies based on three pillars: Regulatory Framework, Public Services, and Operational Efficiency. The analysis centers on 10 topics essential for private sector development that correspond to various stages of the life cycle of a firm. The report also offers insights into three cross-cutting themes that are relevant for modern economies: digital adoption, environmental sustainability, and gender. B-READY draws on a robust data collection process that includes specially tailored expert questionnaires and firm-level surveys. The 2024 report, which covers 50 economies, serves as the first in a series that will expand in geographical coverage and refine its methodology over time, supporting reform advocacy, policy guidance, and further analysis and research.