Promoting Civic Engagement Through Analytical Work in the The World Bank Meeting of the External Advisory Group on the Enabling Environment for Civic Engagement Work Program June 7 & 8 2004 Jeff Thindwa Social Development Department

Role of Civil Society in Development Consensus for reforms Human Rights – Equity Econ. Growth Institutional Transparency and Accountability Social Mobilizn, participn of poor Service Delivery-Low Cost - Quality Resource Manag & Env. Protection

Prioritizing Participation and Civic Engagement 1996 Participation Sourcebook: provided conceptual and operational framework Participation embodied in Comprehensive Development Framework; PRSP approach Empowerment framework: access to information, inclusion and participation, accountability, local organization capacity 15 Operational policies and directives OED, QAG, DEC studies highlight benefits of participation

Conclusion: Engagement of citizens and citizens’ organizations in public policy debate, or in delivering public services and contributing to the management of public goods, is a critical factor in making development policy and action responsiveness to the needs and aspirations of the people and potentially of the poor.

Operationalizing Civic Engagement Tools, resources, capacity building, for social accountability Tools, resources to facilitate diagnostic work on civil society ARVIN CSAT Tools, resources to promote PM&E of poverty reduction strategies Corporate advocacy and institutional guidance

Analytical Work on Civil Society Attempts to answer four questions: How can civil society fulfill these functions? What kind of laws, regulations, policies, capacities, other institutional factors are necessary? How can stakeholders deepen understanding of these factors What actions can the Bank, partners, clients, other stakeholders, take to improve conditions for civic engagement?

Embracing Analytical Approaches to Improve Environment for Civic Engagement Participatory Diagnostic Tool NGO Law Handbook Focus on Civic Engagement NGO Focus Focus on Broader Reforms Focus on Regulation Expert driven Stakeholder driven General audiences Alignment with Bank Operations

Characteristics of the Tools and Methodology Participatory and inclusive Multi-stakeholder approaches Action-Research orientation Integrative (with other SD tools) and adaptive Outreach/collaboration with peers Focus on learning

A R V “ARVIN” Framework I N oice ssociation esource Mobilization nformation egotiation A V I N R esource Mobilization Legal & Regulatory Framework Political & Governance Context Socio-Cultural Characteristics Economic Conditions The objectives of the ARVIN framework are to provide a conceptual and methodological framework for assessing and understanding the institutional conditions that impact civic engagement; to guide Bank country teams in identifying and advocating policy and legal reform priorities and capacity building needs, in order to improve the conditions for civil society; and to develop knowledge products and support the training of Bank task teams and external stakeholders in the enabling environment analytical work The “ARVIN framework,” facilitates a detailed assessment of the institutional context of civil society by looking at four principal dimensions: the legal and regulatory, political and governmental, socio-cultural and economic. These, in turn, directly influence five critical factors, or “enabling elements,” of civic engagement: the freedom of citizens to associate (A); the ability to mobilize financial and other resources (R); the ability to formulate and express voice, or opinion (V); the access to official information (I); and the existence of spaces and rules of engagement for negotiation and public debate (N). The ARVIN acronym synthesizes this complex set of inter-related elements that determine the effectiveness of civil society in promoting economic, social and political development. Each of the four dimensions of analysis in the vertical axis of the ARVIN framework, represented in the table below, influences each of the five enabling elements in the horizontal axis.

Civil Society Assessment Tool - CSAT A tool – derived from ARVIN- to assess the nature of civil society’s internal and external dynamics; Type of engagement and roles; Strengths and weaknesses; Enabling factors; Opportunities and challenges ……. So that advice and strategies can be designed to enable it to play an effective role as a development actor, in different country contexts. In the case of failed or weak states experiencing conditions of widespread conflict and social ungovernability, civil society organizations usually offer the institutional basis for public service delivery. Their links are vital gateways. CSAT encompasses the enabling environment framework from the perspective of both the internal and external factors promoting civic engagement, as well as critical relationships between government and civil society and with other actors, as well as within civil society (vertical and horizontal relations). CIVICUS is a unique analytical and diagnostic tool to increase knowledge and raise awareness about civil society among the public, government and other sectors of society

Application in Low Income Countries Under Stress - LICUS Priority for the Bank in LICUS: Give attention to -understanding the social and political economy factors, -transferring knowledge -to build capacity Focus on analysis of civil society as part of the governance assessment of the CAS in LICUS or feed into TSS. CSAT tool derived from the ARVIN framework

Some Key Issues Are these approaches responding to the needs that you see in your work? What are we missing? What other actors should the Bank be engaging as part of the process to improve these tools? What are the Bank’s comparative advantages, and how can we better play to them?