The World Bank Group: Championing sustainable development norms?

Global Governance

Volumn 13, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 535-556

  Park, Susan ^a  

^a DEAKIN UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

Environment; International Finance Corporation; International organizations; Norms; World Bank

Indexed keywords

EID: 37349005250     PISSN: 10752846     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/19426720-01304007     Document Type: Review

References (108)

1. Martha Finnemore, National Interests in International Society (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996).
2. The World Bank comprises the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA).
3. See the Equator Principles' Web page: www.equator-principles.com/ principles.shtml.
4. Michael Barnett and Martha Finnemore, Rules for the World: International Organizations in World Politics (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004);
5. Michael Barnett and Liv Coleman, "Designing Police: Interpol and the Study of Change in International Organisations," International Studies Quarterly 49, no. 4 (December 2005): 593-619.
6. Barnett and Coleman, "Designing Police."
7. Finnemore, National Interests in International Society, pp. 22-23.
8. Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), p. 9.
9. Robert Wade, "Greening the Bank: The Struggle over the Environment 1970-1995," in D. Kapur, J. Lewis, and R. C. Webb, eds., The World Bank: Its First Half Century (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1997), p. 731.
10. This is a first cut at why the socialized decide to actively become the socializer rather than passively diffusing norms.
11. Christopher Wright, "Public Rules for Private Consumption: The International Finance Corporation and the Equator Principles," draft article, 2006, p. 17, on file with author. On the Equator Banks, see www.equator-principles.com/principles.shtml. It might be easier for IFC to diffuse norms to similar organizations than for the Bank to diffuse norms to states. But this is ironic; if anything, one would envisage less understanding between private banks, IFC, and TANs than between the World Bank, borrower states, and TANs.
12. Personal communication with Ken Newcombe, creator and former director of the Prototype Carbon Fund, 19 December 2006.
13. The G8 Gleneagles Communiqué, available at www.g8.gov.uk (accessed November 2006).
14. Barnett and Finnemore, Rules for the World, p. 42.
15. IOs are agents because they reinterpret norms via staff, but they are more than just the sum of their parts, because "we cannot understand the characteristics of bureaucracies (such as resistance to innovation) by examining only the beliefs of individuals." Jonathan Mercer, "Anarchy and Identity," International Organization 49, no. 2 (1995): 238.
16. Susan Park, "Norm Diffusion Within International Organisations: A Case Study of the World Bank," Journal for International Relations and Development 8, no. 2 (2005): 114-141;
17. Susan Park "How Transnational Environmental Advocacy Networks Socialise IFIs: A Case Study of the International Finance Corporation," Global Environmental Politics 5, no. 4 (2005): 95-119.
18. Tamar Gutner, "World Bank Environmental Reform: Revisiting Lessons from Agency Theory," International Organization 59 (2005): 773-783;
19. Daniel Nielson and Michael Tierney, "Theory, Data and Hypothesis Testing: World Bank Environmental Reform Redux," International Organization 59 (2005): 785-800.
20. Catherine Caufield, Masters of Illusion: The World Bank and the Poverty of Nations (London and Basingtoke: Macmillan, 1996), p. 168.
21. Keck and Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders;
22. Caufield, Masters of Illusion; Wade, "Greening the Bank."
23. Caufield, Masters of Illusion, p. 259.
24. Wade, "Greening the Bank," pp. 682, 731.
25. Gutner, "World Bank Environmental Reform"; Nielson and Tierney, "Theory, Data and Hypothesis Testing."
26. Interview with World Bank official, 19 September 2001.
27. World Bank, OED's Review of the Bank's Performance on the Environment, 2001, p. 10; available at www.worldbank.org/evaluation/sector (accessed 24 July 2001).
28. Caufield, Masters of Illusion, p. 255.
29. Interview with World Bank official, 20 September 2001.
30. Tamar Gutner, "Explaining the Gaps Between Mandate and Performance: Agency Theory and World Bank Environmental Reform," Global Environmental Politics 5, no. 2 (2005): 20.
31. World Bank, 2004 Annual Report on Operations Evaluation (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005), pp. 8, 12, 24.
32. World Bank, Quality at Entry in FY04-05 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006), pp. 67, 69;
33. World Bank, Quality of Supervision in FY03-04 (QSA6) (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005), pp. 37-39, annex 7.
34. World Bank, 2005-2006 Inspection Panel Annual Report (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006), pp. 118-120.
35. Jonathan Fox and Kay Treakle, "Concluding Propositions," in Dana Clark, Jonathan Fox, and Kay Treakle, Demanding Accountability: Civil Society Claims and the World Bank Inspection Panel (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), p. 284.
36. World Bank, Annual Report 2006 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006), p. 21.
37. World Bank, 2005 Annual Report on Operations Evaluation, p. 25.
38. Shannon Lawrence, Retreat from the Safeguard Policies: Recent Trends Undermining Social and Environmental Accountability at the World Bank (Washington, DC: Environmental Defense, 2005).
39. Quoted in Robert Marschinski and Steffen Behrle, "The World Bank: Making the Business Case for Environment," paper presented at the Fifth Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change, Berlin, 12 December 2005, p. 12.
40. Letter to the board of executive directors, "World Bank's Proposed Middle Income Country Strategy Threatens to Weaken Social and Environmental Standards," signed by 186 environmental organizations, 7 June 2004, available at. www.bicusa.org (accessed November 2006).
41. World Bank, Making Sustainable Commitments: An Environment Strategy for the World Bank (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2001).
42. World Bank, Putting Our Commitments to Work: An Environment Strategy Implementation Progress Report (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003), p. 33.
43. World Bank, Promoting Environmental Sustainability in Development: An Evaluation of the World Bank's Performance (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2002), p. vii.
44. Bank Information Center, Bretton Woods Project, Campagna per la Reforma della Banca Mondiale, et al., How the World Bank's Energy Framework Sells the Climate and Poor People Short, p. 8; available at www.endoilaid.org (accessed November 2006).
45. World Bank, "Mainstreaming Environment in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers," Environment Strategy Notes No. 4 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2002).
46. World Bank, Focus on Sustainability (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2004), p. 14.
47. World Bank, "Environment Director's Overview," Environment Matters 2006, available at www.worldbank.org (accessed November 2006).
48. Weaver, "The World's Bank and the Bank's World."
49. World Bank, Making Sustainable Commitments, p. xix.
50. World Bank, Putting Our Commitments to Work, p. 12.
51. World Bank, Promoting Environmental Sustainability in Development, p. 19.
52. World Bank, Putting Our Commitments to Work, p. 25.
53. Frances Seymour, "Mainstreaming and Infrastructure," Environment Matters 2004, World Bank. 2004, available at www.worldbank.org (accessed 19 May 2006).
54. Bank Information Center, "Mainstreaming or Undermining Sustainability?" Policy Brief (Washington, DC: Bank Information Center, July 2006).
55. World Bank, "World Bank President Assigns Responsibilities to Managing Directors and Announces Organisational Integration," press release no. 2006/501/WB, 27 June 2006, available at www.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/ NEWS (accessed 31 October 2006).
56. Frances Seymour, "Sustaining the Environment at the World Bank," World Resources Institute Policy Note, 2006, available at www.wri.org (accessed 31 October 2006).
57. Gutner, "Explaining the Gaps."
58. Lawrence, Retreat from the Safeguard Policies, p. 7.
59. World Bank, 2005 Annual Report on Operations Evolution, p. 8.
60. World Bank, Putting Our Commitments to Work, p. 13.
61. Park, "Norm Diffusion Within International Organisations."
62. Marschinski and Behrle, "The World Bank."
63. World Bank, Focus on Sustainability, p. 9.
64. World Bank, Putting Our Commitments to Work, p. 46.
65. World Bank, "Mainstreaming Environment," p. 4.
66. Marschinski and Behrle, "The World Bank," p. 15.
67. World Bank, Carbon Finance for Sustainable Development (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006), p. 4.
68. World Bank, Putting Our Commitments to Work, p. 32;
69. World Bank, Prototype Carbon Fund Annual Report (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2004), p. 5.
70. Marschinski and Behrle, "The World Bank," p. 13.
71. World Bank, Carbon Finance, p. 19.
72. Bank Information Center et al., World Bank's Energy Framework, p. 12.
73. World Bank, Carbon Finance, p. 19.
74. Clean Development Mechanism Watch, The World Bank and the Carbon Market: Rhetoric and Reality, 2005, p. 2, available at www.cdmwatch.org (accessed November 2006).
75. IFC, Articles of Agreement, Article 1; see www.ifc.org (accessed 19 May 2006).
76. IFC, "The Environmental and Social Challenges of Private Sector Projects: IFC's Experience," Lessons of Experience, Series 8 (Washington, DC: IFC, 2002), p. 31.
77. IFC, Review of IFC's Safeguard Policies: Draft for Comment - CAO Report, pp. 23-42 (Washington, DC: IFC, 2002);
78. IFC, Review of IFC's Safeguard Policies: Staff Survey Draft for Comment - CAO Report, pp. 12, 17-18 (Washington, DC: IFC, 2002).
79. IFC, Strategic Directions Report (Washington, DC: IFC, 2005), p. 52.
80. Christopher Wright, "From Safeguards to Sustainability: The Evolution of Environmental Discourse Inside the International Finance Corporation," in Diane Stone and Christopher Wright, eds., The World Bank and Governance: A Decade of Reform and Reaction (London: Routledge, 2006), pp. 68-87.
81. Interview with Bank Information Center activist, 15 February 2006.
82. IFC, Compliance Advisor Ombudsman Annual Report (Washington, DC: IFC 2005), p. 3.
83. OEG 2003 PowerPoint presentation, on file with author.
84. Interview with IFC officer, 16 February 2006.
85. IFC, Annual Review of IFC's Evaluation Findings (Washington, DC: IFC, 2003), p. 1.
86. IFC, Sustainability Fact Sheet (Washington, DC: IFC, 2003), p. 4;
87. World Bank, Extractive Industries and Sustainable Development: An Evaluation of World Bank Group Experience, vol. 3 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003), p. 95.
88. IFC, Annual Review of IFC's Evaluation Findings (Washington, DC: IFC, 2004), p. 2.
89. IFC, Sustainability Report (Washington, DC: IFC, 2004), pp. 41-42.
90. IFC, Independent Evaluation of IFC's Development Results (Washington, DC: IFC, 2007), p. 56.
91. Interview with IFC director, Environmental and Social Development Department, Washington, DC, 8 September 2005.
92. IFC, Compliance Advisor, p. 3;
93. IFC, A Retrospective Analysis of CAO Interventions, Trends, Outcomes and Effectiveness (Washington, DC: IFC, 2006), pp. 7, 9-10, 13-14.
94. IFC, Annual Report 2001 (Washington, DC: IFC, 2001).
95. IFC, Strategic Directions Report (Washington, DC: IFC, 2001), p. 14.
96. Wright, "From Safeguards to Sustainability."
97. IFC, Strategic Directions Report, p. 51.
98. IFC, Annual Report 2005 (Washington, DC: IFC, 2005).
99. IFC, Sustainability Report, p. 53.
100. IFC, "Environmental and Social Challenges," p. 29; IFC, Strategic Directions Report, p. 18.
101. Interview with IFC director, Environmental and Social Development Department, Washington, DC, 8 September 2005; IFC, Annual Report 2005, p. 22.
102. IFC, Strategic Directions Report, p. 19
103. Interview with IFC director, Environmental and Social Development Department, Washington, DC, 8 September 2005.
104. Interview with IFC investment officer, 10 February 2006.
105. Wright, "Public Rules for Private Consumption," p. 17.
106. Prepared statement by Peter Woike, executive vice-president of the IFC, Equator Principles press conference, 4 July 2003.
107. D. Stevastopulo, "Four Banks Adopt IFC Agreement," Financial Times, 7 April 2003, available at www.equatorprinciples.ifc.org (accessed 13 November 2003).
108. Wright, "Public Rules for Privte Consumption," p. 17.