Vice-President, External Engagement, Food for the Hungry, Non-Resident Fellow, NYU Center on International Cooperation
Love to see this The World Bank initiative on building coalitions and collective action for change. A growing body of evidence points to the fundamental importance of cross-state and societal coalitions for change, including in fragile contexts. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Adnan Qadir Khan) has been one of the biggest catalysts and supporters of this work, building out a focus on elite bargains and political deals and underwriting formative applied research from: the Global Development Institute’s Effective States and Inclusive Development consortium, Anti-Corruption Evidence (ACE) Research Consortium - SOAS (Pallavi Roy) ODI Global’s work on political settlements. International Growth Centre State Fragility Initiative (Abdilahi Ali) There’s also UNU-WIDER - United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research key work on deals and development (Kunal Sen). The Bank’s WDR 2017 on governance laid out a framework for adaptive coalition building, and Simon O'Meally et al’s superb report on social service delivery in violent contexts delivers a sophisticated coalitional approach that challenges the conventional good governance agenda. Exciting now to see this Coalitions for Reform program focused on mainstreaming this critical work within the Bank, with leadership from the amazing Maria Poli. My own pieces on country platforms with The Brookings Institution Foreign Policy World Bank Independent Evaluation Group and OECD Development have underscored the importance of having centers of gravity in hard places for adaptive collective action, mutual accountability and political and policy dialogue. Here’s an excerpt of a piece from Maria, and other members of the team, Mathieu Cloutier Samuel G. Sandra Valdivia (see link in comments): “Often, the biggest hurdles reformers face are not found in designing a new policy but in the intricacies of collaborative effort or lack thereof for its adoption and implementation. This rings especially true for Governance issues, where bottlenecks such as the political economy environment, powerful vested interests, and historical norms and values often impede meaningful policy reforms. Simply put, the success of any development program relies on effective collaboration among relevant stakeholders... This calls for a shift in our approach to one that places people at the center of development efforts. Understanding how the complex web of human dynamics plays out – how individuals connect, collaborate, and respond to change – is essential. It goes beyond mere resource-sharing and emphasizes the need for building coalitions and integrating collective action approaches into development strategies. It is about cultivating a culture of collaboration between government entities and civil society, the private sector, and the media to garner public support for initiatives”. All the best with this important initiative!
Adnan Qadir Khan
8mo
Jonathan Papoulidis Thanks for highlighting the importance of fragility. With global poverty increasingly concentrated in fragile states and with fragility increasingly connected to climate change, conflict and shocks, addressing fragility is an issue of huge importance for international development and should deserve more attention than it currently does. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is committed to addressing the drivers of fragility in the world and look forward to working with others on this agenda.
Maria Poli
8mo
Heartfelt thanks Jonathan Papoulidis! You have inspired a lot of my thinking about these issues, along with Roby Senderowitsch who’s the architect behind this global initiative 🤩
Vice-President, External Engagement, Food for the Hungry, Non-Resident Fellow, NYU Center on International Cooperation
8moHere are links to: The Bank piece cited: https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/443cfe6820a21efd91ab9f4fe25ac042-0350052024/original/Coalitions-for-Reforns-Brochure-8-5x11.pdf Simon’s report; https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/2c19c2be-ea99-5939-ba6e-ef08fe908c5f And some of my work on country platforms and new ways of working in fragile contexts: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/recommendations-for-us-treasury-and-mdbs-in-developing-evolution-roadmaps-from-fragility-to-resilience/ https://ieg.worldbankgroup.org/blog/country-platforms-fragile-states-new-path-development-cooperation https://sponsored.foreignpolicy.com/food-for-the-hungry/pathways-to-resilience-in-hard-places/