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CSO forum kicks off

Angie Gentile's picture

October 2 2009. World Bank Annual Meetings. World Bank Presiden Robert B. Zoellick and IMF Managing Director Dominque Strauss-Kahn meet with CSO/NGO representatives. Archbishop Noungane of South Africa moderates. Photo credit: Simone D. McCourtie/World BankRepresentatives from civil society organizations around the world converged at the Istanbul Conference Center yesterday for a special Townhall meeting with World Bank President Robert Zoellick and IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Just guestimating here, but I’d say there were about 300 CSOs in the room.

At the head of the table was moderator Archbishop Winston Njongonkulu Ndungane, who set the tone by noting how times have changed, with the World Bank and IMF engaging much more closely with CSOs these days.

The Archbishop posed three questions to inform the discussion: How can we work together to avoid another financial crisis? What can the Bank and Fund do to make sure the world doesn’t backslide? And how do shifts in power give those most affected by the crisis a chance to impact the response?

Archbishop Ndungane: ‘We should be intentional about what CSOs are saying’

Angie Gentile's picture

Archbishop Winston Njongonkulu Ndungane, World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings, Istanbul. Photo credit: Simone D. McCourtie/World BankYesterday I caught up with the stately Archbishop Winston Njongonkulu Ndungane, who is attending the Civil Society Forum here in Istanbul. The Archbishop carved out some time to meet before heading off to head a CSO Townhall meeting featuring Bank President Zoellick and IMF Chief Strauss-Kahn.

Archbishop Ndungane is the founder and president of African Monitor, an independent pan-African nonprofit whose main objective is to monitor aid flows, what African governments do with the money, and what impact it has.

 African Monitor holds poverty hearings through which they seek to magnify voices. “We pride ourselves in having the confidence of people on the ground—the voice of people—and taking those voices to the corridors of power,” the Archbishop told me.

Archbishop Ndungane talked about linking up the creative and innovative minds of CSOs with the World Bank on today’s key issues—hunger, climate change, financial crisis. He emphasized the need to develop mechanisms for translating ideas into action.