Democratic Governance and Parliamentary Oversight – New Rules for Global Finance Coalition

What We DoIMF Governance ReformDemocratic Governance and Parliamentary Oversight

Democratic Governance and Parliamentary Oversight

The Democratic Accountability and Parliamentary Oversight (DGPO) project is developing a strategic plan of action for a range of activities to expand and enhance outreach of civil society organizations in the developing world to national parliaments, and to reinvigorate national civic processes that enhance parliamentary oversight of the international financial institutions (IFIs). The overall focus is on strengthening ongoing work and campaigns that seek to build on and scale up capacity-building, public outreach and networking, and advocacy activities of civil society organizations and networks engaged in these issues. Interested civil society organizations are welcome to participate in an initial year of planning activities focused on enhancing accountability mechanisms and processes for parliamentary oversight of the international financial institutions. The New Rules for Global Finance Coalition, which serves as the Secretariat for the Democratic Governance and Parliamentary Oversight (DGPO) Project, oversees the project’s agenda and administration on behalf of a collaborative network of leading civil society organizations from the Global South and North. Member organizations of the project’s Executive Committee include: ActionAid International USA; the Bank Information Center (USA); the Bretton Woods Project (UK) and International Parliamentary Petition; Intercultural Resources (India); New Rules for Global Finance (USA); and Rede Brasil (Brazil).

Overview of the DGPO Project

There is increasing debate at the global level about what should be the guiding criteria for democratic governance of the international financial institutions. What reforms are needed to ensure greater accountability, transparency, representation and democratic decision-making in the governance of these institutions that shape the possibilities for advancing equitable and sustainable development and for alleviating poverty? One promising direction is to strengthen the role of parliamentary oversight to enhance the democratic governance and performance of the international financial institutions. This project seeks to establish a global network of leading civil society organizations, academic centers, and parliamentary groups to develop promising strategies for enhancing the democratic governance and parliamentary oversight of the international financial institutions (IFIs), namely the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and regional development banks.

A network of civil society organizations is needed to facilitate a collaborative process to rethink the democratic principles, processes and practices for governance of the international financial institutions (IFIs). While many civil society initiatives are presently underway to address and to reform various aspects of IFI governance and parliamentary oversight, too many are ad-hoc or discrete in nature and limited in scope. Given the need for improved coordination and expansion of these ongoing efforts, an expanded network of civil society organizations is needed to come together to develop a consensus about the medium- and long-term objectives and strategies for enhancing parliamentary oversight of the international financial institutions (IFIs).

The overall goal of this project is to enhance the democratic governance of the international financial institutions and regional development banks. Specifically, this project intends to achieve this goal through the following strategies:

1. Strengthen the capacity of civil society organizations (CSOs) to engage on these issues through parliamentary initiatives at the national, regional and global levels. The project will lead by example by engaging leading CSOs in developing countries (Brazil, Ghana, India, Indonesia) to design country-specific strategies to enhance parliamentary oversight of the IFIs’ policies and programs within their countries, and of the IFI Boards at the headquarter’s level;
2. Enhance accountability mechanisms by developing structures and tools that support parliamentarians in carrying out their oversight role of the international financial institutions, by strengthening networking and information exchange between and among civil society organizations active on the national level, coordinating on the regional level, and eventually collaborating on the global level;
3. Convene and help coordinate a wide range of civil society organizations to work with parliamentary groups and academic centers in the Global South and North to strengthen oversight over the international financial institutions;
4. Articulate a broader vision of democratic governance of the international financial institutions that addresses the four key dimensions of transparency, accountability, representation, and democratic decision-making.