This post is from Bank Information Center - Amplifying Local Voices to Democratize Development.
Beginning in 2011, much like other Arab Spring countries, Yemen had to face months of mass, oftentimes violent, protests that called for the toppling of Ali Abdallah Salah’s regime. In an attempt to stop the sliding of the country into further chaos, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) brokered an initiative to establish a caretaker government that could govern the country for two years until a national government is formed. As part of the transitional discourse, a National Dialogue Conference convened between March 2013 and January 2014.
The World Bank Group (WBG or Bank) was at the time set to pledge a Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Yemen based on the outcomes of this dialogue. To ensure citizens’ engagements in Bank’s development practices, Yemeni Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) asked Bank’s officials in Sanaa that consultation sessions be held in all six regions of the country. Among their asks was that consultations be open, inclusive, and transparent.
But then again, when GCC Initiative broke down in September 2014, and violence intensified shortly after in 2015, the Bank was forced to suspend its operations, except those dealing with humanitarian needs. In assessing these needs, the Bank had to work with the United Nations offices in the country.
Further adjusting its work to the security situation, the Bank had to change its approach. As part of the new model, which the Bank normally adopts in countries experiencing transition or conflict, a Country Engagement Note (CEN) will replace the CPF, and will be informed by a country dynamic needs assessment as well as a household budget expenditure survey conducted in 2014. For this, the Bank would collaborate with other international institutions, such the European Union and the Islamic Development Bank, to more accurately determine Yemen’s social and economic needs.
Adapting to these new developments, local CSOs asked the Bank for an appropriate medium to discuss and consider their asks. Instead of the six original consultative sessions, they suggested that the Bank establishes online consultations in Arabic as well as consultative sessions outside of Yemen to which few CSOs representatives may be invited.
Following the submission of the new modified consultation asks,[1] Bank’s Executive Director for Yemen, Dr. Merza Hassan, assured, in his email response on January 12, 2016, to accommodate CSOs requests. But nothing has materialized as yet.
Yemeni CSOs had hoped they will be involved at every stage of the Yemen CEN development process, but, to date, it is unclear when, and if, the Bank actually adopts the CEN, for no information has been made public. The April 2016 date for CEN approval by the Bank’s Board of Directors, which Yemeni CSOs have recently learned about, is approaching, and CSOs remain in wait for information whether their feedback will be sought and considered.
Given the most up-to-date political and security updates in Yemen, following the recent direct peace talks, on March 9, 2016, between Saudi Arabia and the Houthi rebels, which was followed by the Saudi decision, on March 17, 2016, to scale back military presence in Yemen, it is especially important to effectively engage Yemeni CSOs in the development process of any strategy that aims at helping the county to restore peace
[1] The linked consultation asks are in Arabic
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This article by Julia Radomski originally appeared on bicusa.org on March 28, 2016 at 09:00PM
