Joint civil society submission on the Development Policy Financing Retrospective
The World Bank Group's use of Development Policy Financing as an instrument to nudge countries towards specific policy reforms, undermines countries’ policy space and democratic ownership.
In December 2021, 14 civil society organisations jointly submitted feedback to the World Bank online consultation on the 2021 Development Policy Financing Retrospective, which covers the period 2016-2021. This joint submission touches on four points:
- It raises issues with the Retrospective consultation process and its weak and superficial engagement with civil society
- It highlights overarching concerns with the Development Policy Financing (DPF) instrument and its reliance on conditionality
- It discusses evidence in four key thematic issues where the World Bank is attempting targeted policy interventions via DPF (including climate change, gender, fiscal consolidation and business environment
- It provides recommendations.