Last
night GAP hosted a discussion at Busboys and Poets about racial issues at the
World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). There was a full house,
with standing room only and more than 70 people in attendance, including
representatives and employees from the IDB, World Bank (as observers), civil
society and the U.S. government.
Round
table participants included Bea Edwards, GAP International Program Director; Tina Tinde, Diversity Advisor at the IDB; Andrew Morrison, Chief
of Gender and Diversity Unit, IDB;
Gilberto Amaya, D.C. Representative of the Central
American Black Organization (CABO, ONECA); Vince McElhinny, Manager of the
Bank Information Center’s BICECA project; Joia Nuri, Chief of Staff at TransAfrica
Forum; Carlos Quesada, Latin America
Regional Program Director at Global
Rights; Wamara Mwine, White House
Correspondent for Politics
in Color and author of a National
Examiner report about racial discrimination at the World Bank; and
Aisha Brown, Founder and CEO, Global Awareness Project Consulting.
Bea
Edwards discussed the findings from GAP’s reports about discrimination at the World Bank and IDB.
Tina
Tinde pointed out that many more people suffer the effects of discrimination
than actually bring formal complaints about it. Ms. Tinde discussed the outcomes
of IDB’s recent Leadership in Diversity Conference and initiatives that the IDB plans to take to improve its diversity,
including a focus on recruiting Afro-descendants and indigenous peoples,
succession planning, and launching a self-identification process in 2010 that
will help the IDB set targets for improving its diversity.
Andrew
Morrison agreed with some of the findings from GAP's report including the necessity of
addressing the needs of communities that suffer from racial and ethnic
discrimination in country dialogues and strategies; improving the data
collected by the IDB on race, ethnicity and poverty; and improving the IDB’s tracking
of projects that benefit Afro-descendant and indigenous communities, including
infrastructure projects. Mr. Morrison said that the Bank plans to look at the
state of social exclusion in Latin America every two years.
Gilberto
Amaya discussed a recent Declaration adopted in December by the General
Assembly of ONECA, a network of Afro-descendant organizations from Central
America that works to promote economic development and social inclusion for
Afro-descendent communities. The resolution states that, having learned about
GAP’s report on racial discrimination at the World Bank and IDB, the Assembly resolves to “prepare an action plan to
strengthen a relationship working with these entities and make its team
available to them to support the design proposals that respond to the demand
for our communities in terms of capacity development and investment promotion.”
ONECA challenged the Banks to have clear, measurable goals in their projects
and partnerships with Afro-descendent and indigenous communities and to commit
to having an external organization measure the Banks’ implementation of these
goals.
Vince
McElhinny said that there has been no causal association between the IDB’s
lending and a reduction of inequality in Latin America and stated that the IDB
is not even in the ballpark of targeting enough lending to address social
inequality issues. He stated that now is the opportune time to discuss these
issues, as the IDB is in negotiations for its Ninth Replenishment, in which
taxpayers from donor countries will be asked to contribute significant capital
resources to the IDB. He discussed the failure of the IDB in general to set
targets and urged the Bank to have “less talk and more targets.” He said that
if those targets are not met, someone high-up at the IDB should lose their job,
a statement that received an ovation from the audience.
Joia Nuri stated that something is systemically wrong with
the International Financial Institutions and their lending practices, including
the conditionalities that they impose on the developing world. In that sense
Ms. Nuri pointed out that more lending is not necessarily the answer to
development issues. Ms. Nuri also observed that often people are afraid to
complain about discrimination.
Carlos Quesada stated that discrimination is also a problem at the
Organization of American States. He encouraged the IDB to join an inter-agency
consultation on race and ethnicity and encouraged the International Financial
Institutions to have a human rights approach to development. He also urged
these organizations to apply affirmative action in the hiring process and to
have a multi-professional environment that employs less economists and more
people from other fields, such as human rights experts and sociologists.
Aisha Brown urged the Banks to look at discrimination
against Afro-descendants particularly, rather than lumping different groups
together. She urged the Banks to partner more with Afro-descendent communities.
She also pointed out that there are many qualified Afro-descendents in the
United States, Canada and Europe and that recruiting them should also be a
priority for the development banks.
Wamara Mwine discussed his investigation into discrimination at the World Bank. He said that many World Bank
employees expressed their concerns about discrimination to him, but feared
coming forward publicly. He summarized an
incident that he investigated at the World Bank, in which
someone spray painted a racial slur and a derogatory message outside the Bank’s
Legal
Affairs Offices. Mr. Mwine stressed the importance of having a system to
punish those who engage in such discriminatory acts. He also urged the Bank to
create a system to hire and then track the retention and promotion of African-Americans.
There
was a lively question and answer session with thoughtful discussion. Among
other things, participants discussed recent comments made by the President of
the IDB in which he implied that the Bank would sacrifice the quality of its operations if it
recruited more diverse personnel. A suggestion was made that the
IDB rethink its mandate and also create a staff incentive structure that
rewards employees who promote diversity in the workplace or projects. The need
for a human rights based approach at the World Bank and IDB was discussed, as
was the need to address the needs of Indigenous populations.
GAP encourages people who attended this event to post comments to this blog entry.
A participant from a multilateral development bank asks a question during the question and answer session.
Discussant Wamara Mwine, White House Correspondent for Politics in Color, takes questions from the audience.
Round table participant Carlos Quesada, Latin American Regional Program Director at Global Rights, responds to a question from the audience.
I missed this because I don't keep up w/my home email every day. Please text my cell phone next time! Long live our dialect ;-)
Posted by: Karen George | January 14, 2010 at 08:49 PM