27 February 2004
February 13, 2004
Dennis Flannery
Executive Vice President
Inter-American Development Bank
Dear Vice President Flannery,
We would like to take this opportunity to express our appreciation for the invitation to the Fourth Regional Inter-American Development Bank Civil Society meeting, taking place in Ocho Rios, Jamaica in mid-February. While we commend the Bank’s intention to conduct regular meetings and consultations with civil society organizations on a national, regional and sub-regional level, our concerns regarding the meeting and consultation process prevent us from considering this meeting as a legitimate forum for civil society participation.
- Process of setting agenda: The IDB did not solicit comments regarding the agenda from groups invited to attend. Without having a say in the creation of the agenda, civil society groups are denied a chance to address the issues that are of greatest concern to them.
- Disclosure of relevant materials: Because the policies being discussed in Jamaica have not been disclosed prior to the meeting, civil society groups will not have the opportunity to prepare constructive feedback regarding the new Indigenous Peoples policy or the “Expanded Profile” of the Environment Policy. Without any ability to review information concerning the proposed policies beforehand, meaningful discussion is impossible.
- Time for meaningful discussion: It is unclear from the agenda presented by the Bank how much time will be allotted for open discussion of the environment and indigenous peoples policies after the IDB presentations and comments by panelists. It appears that there may be as little as ½ hour of discussion for each subject. A significant amount of time needs to be set aside for discussion to ensure that the Bank has the opportunity to hear constructive comments and improve upon its policies.
- Documentation and follow-up: Although minutes are taken from the meeting, without a formal action plan civil society’s input may be simply disregarded or go unacknowledged.
Although the issues being discussed at the IDB-Civil Society meeting are critical, the way in which they are presented do not allow for meaningful citizen participation. First, the invitation for the meeting was sent on January 8th, less than a month and a half prior to the meeting and only two weeks before RSVPs were required, making it almost impossible for diverse participation from civil society groups from Latin America. While the IDB is paying for lodging costs, the cost of the trip to a resort location on a US holiday weekend is extremely prohibitive. The IDB should therefore consider ways to make future meetings more accessible to a broader spectrum of civil society organizations from throughout the region. Further, the IDB refused to disclose the list of participants for the meeting, which prevents civil society from being able to coordinate with each other for an effective use of resources for input to the meetings.
We would like to point out that this letter is far from the first of its kind. Prior to last year’s Civil Society-IDB meeting, the secretariat of the Alianza Frente al BID wrote a letter that voiced similar concerns and explained the network’s reasons for not attending (see attachment). We are already hearing from many civil society partners in Latin America that they can neither afford to attend, nor are they interested in participating in a process suffering from all of these flaws.
We support the IDB’s intention to hold a forum for civil society participation and input in IDB activity. We also support the objective of engaging a wide range of external actors. However, there seems to be a contradiction between the Bank’s stated desire to engage civil society on the one hand, and the manner by which it organized the civil society meeting in Jamaica. Without improvements in these areas of concern, the Bank risks further damaging its credibility in the eyes of key stakeholders, many of whom will not be participating in the Jamaica meetings. Despite the concerns stated above, we have decided to attend the meeting in order to monitor its process and report its outcome to our partners in the region.
Sincerely,
Manish Bapna
Executive Director
Bank Information Center