Posts
1 June 2012
BIC outlines the World Bank's current
activities in Yemen and proposes that civil society engagement is necessary now
more than ever.
Throughout 2011, Yemenis fought for their right
to a democratic country free of corruption and dictatorship. The country
underwent an extremely painful and difficult year in which the regime’s forces
fought the rebellion, and used the withholding of basic services such as
electricity as political pawns in the fight to retain power. Meanwhile,
international institutions and bilateral donors halted aid to Yemen either in
protest of the regime’s actions, or due to their inability to monitor how the
government was spending the funds. The World Bank was one such donor and in
July 2011 released a statement announcing that all disbursements to Yemen would
be temporarily suspended.
The Bank restarted operations in January 2012
in a limited way, but since the February election which passed the political
reins to Abdrabbo Al-Hadi, the Bank’s role in the transitional period has
become increasingly clear and strong. The DC-based institution may not be the
biggest lender in the game - indeed the Friends of Yemen conference that took
place on May 23rd proved that countries like Saudi Arabia will continue to lend
impressive sums to Yemen – but it certainly deserves our attention.
Yemen is considered one of the poorer countries
in the Bank’s portfolio, and as such the Bank provides grants to the country as
opposed to loans. Historically however, even though the amounts that the Bank
gives to Yemen are not very substantial relative to some other Middle East and
North Africa countries like Egypt or Morocco, Yemen has not been able to absorb
all the money that the Bank has given it. Moreover, certain projects have had
more success than others with respect to implementation and results.
Consequently, the Bank plans to re-evaluate and restructure its existing
portfolio in the country keeping the “good” projects and canceling others that
were not seeing success. This is unusual for the Bank which ordinarily prefers
to keep the money flowing out of its door, and it is curious as to whether this
type of sensible decision would have been made had it been loans we were
talking about rather than grants.
Beyond its project portfolio, the World Bank
has been leading efforts on a social and economic assessment alongside the
European Union, the United Nations, and the Islamic Development Bank, to
determine the impact of the past year’s political crisis on the economic and
social condition of Yemen. Moreover, the Bank is providing technical assistance
to the government on its economic transition plan. Very importantly, the Bank
will be coordinating and co-chairing a donor conference that will be taking
place in the coming months.
While Yemeni civil society was unfortunately
not invited to be a part of the Friends of Yemen conference, a number of groups
have asked the Bank to give space to civil society at the upcoming donor
conference. It is yet to be seen how the Bank will respond to this request but
the outlook is positive. This is after all not a novel concept; civil society
and the private sector, for that matter, have been present at several donor
conferences that the Bank has coordinated in the past, including in Uganda and
Nepal.
The involvement of civil society in activities
being discussed and proposed by international organizations and by the
government of Yemen is one of absolute necessity. Some say that a revolution
took place in Yemen, but we could also consider that the revolution is still in
motion and as such, bringing those voices to the table would be useful at any
moment in time but bringing them in now is particularly critical. This is the
moment when the blueprints for this country's future are being drawn up; the
constitution is being drafted, the laws are being made, and the economic plans
which could affect every one of Yemen's 24 million people are being developed.
These plans can not be made behind closed doors - all stakeholders should be
involved. While these documents are in their budding stages, civil society is
not. There is a lot that Yemeni civil society has to offer, but there need to
be the opportunities to do so.
In order for there to be meaningful engagement,
timely information and the availability of space is key. This is what the World
Bank and other international institutions can and should do. This is also what
they should encourage the government of Yemen to do. On the other hand, Yemeni
civil society also has to step up and be ready to engage; ready to read and
analyze that information and ready to participate in that space.
