Here I read a write-up about the global convening efforts that The World’s Bank group participates in. Also included is the short video that goes along with the article.
“The World’s Bank – An Evaluation of the World Bank Group’s Global Convening” Excerpt
“Leading on global issues is a core pillar of World Bank Group strategies. International collective action is needed to provide policies, investments, and public goods that respond to global risks. This evaluation explores what global issues the Bank Group convenes on, what factors drive its convening choices, and what factors determine its convening effectiveness.
It defines convening as “bringing together relevant actors to act collectively to address global or regional development challenges.” It looks at both instances where the Bank Group leads and where it supports convening, including its role in multilateral forums and where it acts as co-convener. The evaluation looks at convening both for global public goods (for example, development data, business standards, protecting the global environment) and on other global development issues with need for collective action (for example, gender, fragile countries).
- Convening is more likely to be effective if the issue has strong links to the World Bank Group’s mandates and goals; the Bank Group has a comparative advantage relative to other actors; and there is high demand from both donors and clients for Bank Group engagement, for example, because of a crisis or urgent need.
- Being intentional about the goals of the Bank Group’s convening and the scope of its engagement can be a primer for effective convening. Champions of global initiatives often set lofty goals. Many external convening requests are open ended, with no clear end time or delimitation in scope. The Bank Group can mitigate against open-ended convening engagements by setting clear goals and being intentional about its roles and contributions.
- Convening on politically sensitive issues where shareholders have divergent interests is hard but potentially rewarding. Success requires determination, sustained efforts over many years, and skillful coalition building. There can be significant development results from bridging divergent positions, for example, on trade, taxation, corruption, migration, climate change, or policy distortions.
- The Bank Group performs at its strongest when it brings to the table adequate staffing, established expertise, credible data and knowledge work, a dedicated unit to perform the work, internal coherence, support and engagement of senior champions, and willingness to operationalize the topic or initiative in its country programs.
- Humility pays off. Partners seek out the Bank Group for its strengths but appreciate when its representatives listen and engage them in co-creating solutions rather than seeking to impose their own solutions.” (The World’s Bank, 2020).
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REVIEW
This entire evaluation was extremely interesting as the writers genuinely self-examined the positives and negatives of the Worlds Bank convening work, even noting that survey results indicated them overstepping or overshadowing other groups. The lessons that they learned from their reflective evaluation are super important for me to consider as well. These are mistakes that researchers recognized in themselves and are providing for others to learn from. I am interested in their specific guidelines in outlining a realistic goal and establishing an exit plan for when I am no longer part of the process. It’s super intriguing hearing this from a business perspective as ODNR is a business, and there are different rules and expectations that businesses have that we do not have to deal with while in school. I will likely be referring back to this evaluation often in my research process to review their processes in self-examining their own impact. I think retroactively looking back into my design process and its impact is something I should start doing, and having this guide by a large business is super helpful.
REFERENCES
IEG WorldBankGroup. (2020, August 26). How well does the World Bank Group convene on major global development challenges?. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us-rtIMc4Ro
The World’s Bank – an evaluation of the World Bank Group’s global convening. Independent Evaluation Group. (2020, April 1). https://ieg.worldbankgroup.org/evaluations/world-bank-group-global-convening
