02/12/2025
On 9 October, a broad coalition of civil society organisations, including The Good Lobby, sent an open letter to the President of the World Bank, collectively calling for action and demanding that the Bank translate its formal commitments to civic and citizen engagement (CCE) into concrete, timely and accountable practices.
The letter expressed concern that, despite repeated assertions about the importance of participation and transparency, progress had stalled. The signatories urged the World Bank to:
- Finalise and adopt a renewed CCE framework and publish it for external review.
- Establish rigorous monitoring through a new ‘quality’ indicator for civic and citizen engagement, applied in all countries and projects.
- Ensure continuous and meaningful engagement with civil society during the preparation and implementation of national strategies (Country Partnership Frameworks – CPFs) and stakeholder engagement plans (SEPs).
- Establish and adequately resource a civil society organisations funding mechanism to support civic participation and social accountability.
- Ensure transparency in the implementation of SEPs and encourage monitoring by third parties from civil society.
The letter emphasised that without clarity, resources and institutional incentives, the CCE risked being reduced to a mere administrative formality rather than a genuine bottom-up approach to development.
The World Bank’s Response
In response, the Bank issued an official reply acknowledging many of the concerns raised and confirming that work was ‘underway’ in the four main areas mentioned. Specifically:
- A review of the management of the CCE framework is underway and will be followed, as planned, by a second round of consultations with civil society.
- The new indicator ‘Quality of civic/citizen engagement’, which covers 45 countries, is currently under internal review; the Bank is committed to publishing it as soon as it is finalised.
- The future country engagement approach will integrate the CCE and civil society engagement. The Bank confirms that it will continue to consult with CSOs during the preparation and implementation of CPFs.
- The Bank reiterated its intention to strengthen the transparency of stakeholder engagement plans (SEPs) and encouraged CSOs to monitor the implementation of SEPs.
- On funding and resources, the Bank highlighted progress in establishing a new CSO funding mechanism (CIVIC), including a dedicated $15 million platform for CSO initiatives in health and nutrition, and stated that it was in discussions with donors to secure additional resources.
These developments likely reflect progress made on the institutional changes recommended in the open letter and indicate that the Bank has taken civil society concerns seriously.
Yet Big Questions Remain
Although this response is a welcome acknowledgement of the issues raised, the Bank has not provided a concrete timeline for completing the reviews, publishing the indicator and framework, or rolling out the new financing platform.
Furthermore, the Bank is currently undergoing a large-scale institutional reorganisation, which includes the elimination of the independent global practice that currently manages civic and citizen engagement, and the merger of its two accountability mechanisms—the Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman (CAO) and the Inspection Panel (IP)—into a single structure. These changes could have a significant impact on how civic and citizen engagement is prioritised and implemented, with uncertain implications for accountability and civil society influence.
In a nutshell, significant structural changes are underway, but without clear safeguards or a roadmap to preserve the importance and effectiveness of citizen engagement.
The Stakes for Civic Engagement
Meaningful civic and citizen engagement is not just a procedural nicety; it is essential to responsible, inclusive and effective development.
As the Bank itself has long recognised, when citizens and civil society are involved not only as consultants but also as partners, development projects tend to be more transparent, responsive and sustainable.
Ongoing initiatives – a renewed CCE framework, a quality indicator, a global mechanism for CSOs (CIVIC) – reflect a certain ambition. But ambition alone will not suffice. What is needed is strong political and institutional commitment, clear timelines, adequate funding and real incentives to make citizen engagement a central and sustainable feature of the Bank’s work, not a footnote.
As civil society actors, we need to keep pushing for more clarity, transparency, and accountability, and make sure the Bank delivers on its promises.