Panel Co-Hosts Annual Meetings Session on Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations

The Inspection Panel and Oxfam International on October 18, 2019, co-hosted a session titled “Development and Accountability Challenges in FCV Countries” at the Civil Society Policy Forum (CSPF) during the World Bank Annual Meetings. The session explored the challenges facing development practitioners in countries beset by fragility, conflict and violence (FCV), the difficulty in implementing safeguard policies in those countries, and steps that can be taken and the role civil society can play to address those challenges and allow for more effective development. Inspection Panel Chair Imrana Jalal moderated the session. Speakers included Gerard Antioch, an alternate executive director at the World Bank, Nadia Daar, head of Oxfam’s Washington office, and Panel Executive Secretary Dilek Barlas, who discussed the Panel’s 2018 investigation of a roads projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo. World Bank Senior Operations Officer Olivier Lavinal attended the session at the request of the Panel and answered questions related to the Bank’s FCV strategy, the first draft of which is expected to be released before the end of the year.
 
The FCV session was one of three CSPF events the Panel took part in during the Annual Meetings week.
 
On October 17, Ms. Jalal was a panelist at a session sponsored by Gender Action, Human Rights Watch and Bank Information Center-Europe among others and titled “Ensuring Projects Do Not Discriminate Based on Sexual Orientation, Sex Characteristics or Gender Identity.” Ms Jalal noted the importance of not only assessing and mitigating risks in projects but looking for ways to promote equality. Earlier in the week, Panel Senior Operations Officer Reinett Erkan and Research Assistant Rupes Dalai represented the Panel at the CSPF orientation and explained IPN’s mandate and operations to civil society representatives.