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World Bank as a “knowledge bank”

The World Bank has a long and integrated history with development. This institution started out as a lending agency, supporting post-war programs and countries that were able to convince the World Bank that their projects would make some sort of marked improvement on the world. Decisions on what received funding and what did not relied heavily on traditional data, such as economic reports, employment records, and health statistics. Project management was mostly delegated to organizations and institutions outside the World Bank, giving the project management a hands-off feel.

The World Bank has since shifted to assume the role of the dominant provider of development-related information on the global scale. Now relying more on secondary data sources which are the result of lengthy social processes and which are shaped by the biases of agents involved, the World Bank advises other lenders on which projects or aspects of development should be supported. The World Bank now aims to be the “first port of call for development expertise.”

Although some consider it to be helpful to have an authoritative global voice on development, the World Bank as a “knowledge bank” of development expertise is also loaded with Western biases, neoliberal assumptions, and rigid theories. The secondary data that the World Bank is doling out is chock-full of inaccurate reporting, underrepresentation, and misconceptions of qualitative measurements. Although this type of data is important to give a human face to information and to help give focus to development policy, it is critical to recognize the implicit opinions and beliefs that make this data impossible to be objective.

In terms of inclusive sustainable development, the monopoly on knowledge that the World Bank has also has problematic implications. Even if the World Bank supports the CRPD and other policies that advocate for persons with disabilities, the data that they are receiving may place them in the background or, even worse, forget about them entirely. Trying to complete a cross-country analysis with secondary data is also extremely difficult as the World Bank does not have a standardized comparative study of the data that is collected.

The World Bank also tends to focus only on the poorest countries (measured by GDP, GNP, or some other traditional neoliberal measure of development), leaving middle and even high-income countries where the poor, and persons with disabilities, still live at the mercy of their government. This is a major problem in places in the US where public infrastructure is not accessible to people with disabilities and basic human rights like healthcare and internet are not evenly distributed.

If we are truly to regard the World Bank as a trustworthy institution that conducts rigorous development research, we need to look critically at the type of data they are collecting and the biases that are implicit in its construction and development studies.

World Bank’s work on person’s with disabilities https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/disability

International Development Studies, Sumner and Tribe, chapter 6 http://sk.sagepub.com/books/international-development-studies

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Development Theory: My thoughts on Sen

Amartya Sen, the author of Development as Freedom, has contributed to our conceptualization of what development means: shifting the mainstream discourse primarily centered on poverty alleviation and economic indicators such as GDP growth and personal income,  to more of a focus on humans and their lived experiences. More specifically, Sen defines development as the removal of “unfreedoms”, or aspects of life that limit one’s ability to make choices. This centers around access to five freedoms in particular: political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees, and protective security. 

While I do agree with Sen’s conceptualization of development as something more comprehensive than poverty alleviation, I take issue with the idea that freedom is the sole end and means of development. Although there is some validity in this argument, the rapid economic rise of a few non-democratic nations, which has significantly increased the standard of living for millions of people, must be included in what we understand as development. 

For example, China’s government structure is made up of a one-party communist system, in which the people do not have many of the freedoms that Sen posits define development. Yet, over the past few decades, Chinese people’s lives, in general, have overwhelmingly improved without the freedom to democratic processes or free markets. In a discussion with a Peking University professor, with the context of relatively recent political turmoil, famine, socio-cultural disasters in mind, for most people, they are happy if they can find jobs and feed their families. If the CCP blocks their use of Youtube or if the news is biased in favor of Xi jinping, it does not affect the way they want to live their lives day-to-day.  

I am not saying that freedom does not matter in development; surely the Chinese people would benefit from the freedom to mobilize and advocate for their needs and wants. I see the importance of Sen’s work for the development field, but do not think the Western-leaning ideas of freedom and individualism are always applicable to development. It is still a useful framework for many states in the international system to use as a guide of what to be constantly striving for, through the continuous process of human progress. Countries like the United States could look to removing “unfreedoms” as a way to raise the standard of living and make real improvements in people’s lives.

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Grand Challenges

            A Grand Challenge is a complex, ambiguous term that embodies the objectives of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. While Tom Khalil of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy claims that there is no definition for what constitutes as a Grand Challenge, he provides some guidance for specific characteristics of Grand Challenges (Pescovitz, 2012). Continue reading →

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LIVE! from the UN Internet Governance Forum and GigaNet

The 13th Internet Governance Forum, an annual event for global leaders in internet governance to discuss policies and exchange information about the internet and new technology, was held in Paris, France on November 12-14th. Some of the major themes discussed were Cybersecurity, Trust & Privacy, Development, Innovation & Economic Issues, Digital Inclusion & Accessibility, Emerging Technologies, Evolution of Internet Governance, Human Rights, Gender & Youth, Media & Content, and Technical & Operational Topics. Because of my interest in working with youth, I was most interested in the sessions around youth and the internet. Continue reading →

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Opportunities and Limitations in Global Strategic Frameworks

Global Strategic Frameworks like the Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals are important pieces in the puzzle of development because they are good for marketing ideas internationally and setting a standard for where the world should head, but it is essential that we examine their limitations for inclusive development. Continue reading →

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Multistakeholder Internet Governance and Sustainable Development

Internet Governance is defined as “the development of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and activities that shape the evolution and use of the Internet” (UNESCO). As the internet has grown and become such an integral part of the human experience globally, it is no surprise that it requires governance. Continue reading →

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ICTs and ISD–Digital Divide

ICTs, or Information and Communications Technologies, are technologies that offer access to information through communication. The term refers to both the physical hardware and the cyber infrastructure that people use to send and receive information and communicate with. Because these are so essential to everyday life now in the 21st century, reports such as “The Missing Link” by the International Telecommunications Union and “Falling Through the Net” by the National Telecommunications and Information Agency highlight the disparities in access to ICTs. Continue reading →

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International Development Theory

I have studied many different development theories over my time as a developmental studies SIS major at American University. There has been on that has stood out to me from the beginning as the one that will do the most good for the most people. Development as Freedom by Amarta Sen is the most human based yet practical development theory I have read throughout college. So many other theories worry about the global dynamics and international politics whereas Development as Freedoms sole focus is how to provide the individual no matter where in the world with the freedom and the options to chose their own path. Sen makes no assumptions about the person or tries to make them conform to a certain path or way of development. Whatever a person can chose the path they want to take without their basic rights being taken away or hinder that is a truly developed society. I feel as if many development actors do not focus on this theory today. They are much more concerned about the immediate results and impact that, that sometimes the humanity of the exchange gets lost in it all.

The UN and UN frameworks or conventions are a great way at guiding stakeholders in developmental goals. There is limited opportunities to get stakeholders other than government involved. This is something that needs to be improved. Although the governments are the ones who provide the monetary assistance, the NGO’s are generally the movers and shakers who provide the on ground technical support. More importantly they are the ones who interact with the communities at a much more personal level. They are the people who would be able to most effectively and accurately advocate for populations who cannot advocate for themselves. That is why grassroots NGOS and other stakeholders such as the communities themselves need to be given many more opportunities to actively participate in major discussions on how their communities are going to be developed.

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Global Grand Challenges of International Sustainable Development

The idea of global grand challenges and the vast number of them that exist in todays world can be daunting and discouraging. A global grand challenge is a technical complex societal problem without a solution.  It effects multiple communities around the world and needs global cooperation. It is important that the multiple actors involved in solving these global grand challenges are as inclusive as possible. When a large problem spans across a diverse amount of people it is difficult for one governing entity to take responsibility for solving it. I think that it is crucial for states to donate money to research and innovation for solving these big problems that face most of the world today.

Where one can fall short when thinking about these global grand challenges  is the idea is one size fits all. Development as a whole is not a one size fits all type of sector. Each challenge, community and project is so unique that it is difficult to duplicate the same exact thing everywhere. Even just in the same immediate community there are people who experience the grand global challenges different from their neighbor. The way that something like the Millennial Development Goals will not be the same as for a person with a disability.

There are so many grand challenges and all of them are important that it is hard to pick one that stands above the rest. I would have to pick climate change  as the most important grand global challenge. Climate change is a challenge that if not addressed, the entire world population a few generations from now will feel the effects.

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Intersectionality in Sustainable Development

The term intersectional has become quite a buzzword in the development community. It is used often by humanitarians, organizations and to describe projects. When a word becomes so prominent in a community, at times it can lose its original meaning or purpose. Intersectionality originated in academic communities as a way to explain the dual discrimination that African American women faced in the United States.  That being said, intersectionality in sustainable development is very important framework to consider and can benefit many if understood correctly by development actors. Development agencies or workers can best assist communities by understanding the complexities and intersectionalities that each community or person in that community faces. Many different factors in a person’s life such as gender, race, sexual orientation, socio-economic class  and more all combine to determine how that individual experiences oppression or discrimination.

I read a quote from Kimberle Crenshaw, an African American lawyer who coined the term intersectionality, that I thought  important for development stakeholders to consider. She said, “If efforts began with addressing the needs and problems of those who are the most disadvantaged, and with restructuring and making the world more necessary, then others who are singularly disadvantaged would also benefit.” When development actors listen to the most marginalized communities they are able to build from the ground up and make sure that development is inclusive for the entire population. Implementing projects with intersectionality in mind also allows for sustainability and long-term effectiveness. When look at the intersectional discrimination a population faces the project is more likely to identify the root cause of the problem and solve it more efficiently. This does not waste as much donor funding by only looking into one issue and jus putting a Band-Aid on the larger problem at hand.

In my capstone project intersectionality is important to think about. The students who I am researching are some of the most marginalized in the Haitian community. Girls have a harder time accessing school in the country, but it becomes nearly impossible when they have a low socio-economic status and also have a disability. These intersectionalities need to inform the government and schools when designing programing for students such as the one described above in Haiti and all over the world.