URU, Alm.del - 2011-12 - Bilag 80: World Bank Update - Parliamentary Newsletter December 2011

World Bank UpdatePARLIAMENTARY NEWSLETTERDecember 2011 - January 2012pants were amongst others interestedin the World Bank’s role in addressingdrought and poverty in the Horn ofAfrica; how we work in fragile situa-tions; and the Bank’s openness agenda.To learn more about our countrywork, see www.worldbank.org/coun-tries or www.worldbank.org/conflictfor World Bank efforts in fragile andconflict affected countries.

CPA UK PARLIAMENTARYCONFERENCE ON THE MDGSorld Bank Vice President forExternal Affairs Mr. CyrilMuller on November 30 addressedan audience of about 55 MPs from30 countries at the International Par-liamentary Conference on the Millen-nium Development Goals, organisedby the Commonwealth ParliamentaryAssociation’s UK branch. The con-ference focused especially on gov-ernance, accountability and the roleof Parliamentarians in the run up to2015. Vice President Muller in hisPhotographer, Paul Milsompresentation highlighted the WorldWorld Bank Vice President for External Affairs,Cyril Muller at CPA UK Conference in LondonBank’s efforts to increase its focuson Results, strengthening Account-ability and promoting Openness indevelopment, and how this can alsobe a powerful tool for Parliamentar-ians. For more information or to readthe summaries of conference sessionsvisit www.parliament.uk/cpauk.

he Busan Partnership for EffectiveDevelopment Cooperation nego-tiated at the Fourth High Level Forumon Aid Effectiveness amongst othersconcluded that “Parliamentsand lo-cal governments play critical rolesin linking citizens with government,and in ensuring broad-based anddemocratic ownership of countries’development agenda”and vowed tofacilitate their contribution through:“a) Accelerate and deepen the imple-mentation of existing commitments tostrengthen the role of parliaments inNATO PA TRANSATLANTICthe oversight of development process-FORUMes, including by supporting capacityn December 5, Chief of Staff ofdevelopment - backed by adequatethe World Bank President’s of-resources and clear action plans; b)fice Ms. Debbie Wetzel addressed theFurther support local governmentsannual ‘Parliamentary Transatlanticto enable them to assume more fullyForum’ of the NATO Parliamentarytheir roles above and beyond serviceAssembly, sharing her views on thedelivery, enhancing participation andinterlinkages between security andaccountability at the sub-national lev-development. About 75 parliamentsels”. Consult the agreement in full atattended the session, and the follow- www.busanhlf4.org.ing discussion was chaired by Assem- On November 30, World Bank Vicebly Vice-President, Chairman of its President Joachim von Amsberg metEconomics and Security Committee, with a joint Parliamentary delegationand member of the Lithuanian Par- from the European Parliament and theIssue n�27December 2011 JanuaryParliamentary Network on the World1liament, Petras Austrevicius.-Partici-2012

Bank and the IMF, attending the HighLevel Forum on Aid Effectiveness inBusan. The discussion amongst oth-ers focused on how to strengthen ac-countability in development throughincreased openness, and the Parlia-mentary delegation was interested inWorld Bank views on how to furtherstrengthen the involvement of MPs inthe consultation processes for CountryAssistance Strategies. Von Amsbergnoted that the World Bank will nolonger provide budget support unlessreceiving countries publish their bud-gets, or commit to do so within a year.To learn more about the World Bank’sdevelopment efforts, see www.world-bank.org/mdgs

fices in the field, if or when travellingto developing countries. Parliamen-tarians were interested in the WorldBank’s views on the effectivenessand coordination of aid; how to bestavoid corruption; and how the WB ishelping countries benefit from naturalresource revenues.On November 9,World Bank Chief Economist Justin

ondon, UK, on November 23- During the UK launch of theWorld Development Report (WDR)-2012 on Gender Equality and Devel-opment, World Bank Sector Direc-tor Sudhir Shetty and World BankGender Specialist Ana Maria MunozBoudet presented the findings of thereport to members of the InternationalDevelopment Committee (IDC) in theHouse of Commons. The MPs gath-ered were very supportive of the WDRand felt it was extremely timely. Theyasked a broad range of questions towhich the drafting team expertly sum-marized the main messages for themto take away. For more information,see www.worldbank.org/gender andwww.worldbank.org/wdr2012.

n the Nordics, on November 8 to10- Parliamentarians in Finlandand Norway met with World Bank Se-nior Management to discuss develop-ment issues and the global economy.On November 8,World Bank VicePresident for Concessional Finance,Mr. Axel van Trotsenburg, met withmembers of the Finnish Parliament,in a meeting chaired by Mr. KimmoSasi of the National Coalition Party,Chair of the Finance Committee inParliament. The World Bank com-mended Finland for its strong supportfor development assistance, and en-couraged Finland to stay engaged indevelopment. Axel van Trotsenburgalso invited MPs to scrutinise thework of the World Bank, and to visitWorld Bank projects and country of-

Lin met with the Finance Committeein the Norwegian Parliament. The dis-cussions focused on how to supportglobal growth, and the World Bankstressed the rising role of developingcountries for global growth and high-lighted that supporting investmentsin developing countries’ infrastruc-ture could be a global win-win solu-tion.On November 10,Vice Presi-dent Axel van Trotsenburg met withthe Foreign Policy Committee in theNorwegian Parliament. The WorldBank’s move towards openness waswelcomed, as well as the focus onoutcomes and results. The discussionfocused on the Bank’s role in sup-porting the MDGs, and how it makessense for Norway to stay engaged inmultilateral fora, especially as newand emerging countries are increasingtheir global influence. For more in-formation please contact jkopperud@worldbank.org.

okyo, Japan, on November18- World Bank Vice Presidentfor Sustainable Development RachelKyte visited Japan on November 17-18. The World Bank Office in Tokyoorganized a meeting with the Japanesechapter of the Parliamentary Network(PN) on the World Bank and IMF,and the Global Legislators Organi-zation (for a Balanced Environment)GLOBE, Japan. Thirteen parliamen-tarians from both groups includingformer Foreign Minister Koumura,Chair of PN, Japan, participated in themeeting. Mrs. Kyte also had bilateralmeetings with Mr. Maeda, Ministerof Land, Infrastructure, Transport andTourism and with Mr. Yokomitsu, Se-nior Vice Minister of Environment, aswell as with some additional key par-liamentarians. For more informationplease contact ktaniguchi@world-bank.org

russels, on November 8- TeamLeader for Global Climate PolicyJarl Krausing represented the Bankin a seminar on “Implementing CBD(Convention on Biological Diver-sity) COP10 outcomes in Develop-ing countries: Which strategy for re-source mobilization?”, organized bythe European Parliament’s Intergroupon Climate Change, Biodiversity andSustainable Development. The eventwas hosted by MEP Charles Goerens(Luxemburg) and attended by ap-proximately 40-50 MEPs, advisors,and International NGO representa-tives. In his presentation, Jarl Kraus-ing focused on the Bank’s work onbiodiversity, innovative resourcemobilization as well as theWAVESandOCEANSprogrammes. For moreinformation please contact glaryea@worldbank.org.

Bank Group’s next 4-year programin Serbia in a consultative meetingwith members of the Serbian Parlia-ment. Hosted by the Deputy Chair ofFinance Committee, the meeting wasan opportunity to share and discusswith a group of 15 MPs the areas offuture engagement of the World Bankin Serbia where it can support thecountry’s development efforts in theprocess of EU accession. It comes in

he World Bank regularly engagesparliamentarians and other con-stituencies during consultations onthe Country Strategies. For example,in December, the Board is scheduledto review the Country AssistanceStrategies (CASes) for Bolivia, Ser-bia and Tuvalu as well as the Coun-try Partnership Strategies (CPSes) forthe Russian Federation and Vietnam.In January, the Board is scheduledto review the CPS for Jordan andthe Interim Strategy Note (ISN) forTogo. In all these countries, mem-bers of parliament were involved inthe meetings/preparations (at nationaland/or regional levels) that shape thestrategies. In the Russian Federation,the CPS is also going to be presentedto the newly elected members of theparliament in due time after the De-cember 4th parliamentary elections.”

he World Bank is preparing anew Social Protection and Labor(SP&L) Strategy which will serve toguide its work in SP&L in the decadeto come 2012-2022. The final strategyis expected to be launched in 2012 af-ter feedback from a second round ofconsultations has been incorporated.We encourage you to share your viewsatwww.worldbank.org/spstrategy

lobal food prices remain high andvolatile, hitting the poorest coun-tries hardest and adding to the strainsfacing the global economy, accordingto the World Bank Group’s new FoodPrice Watch released early in No-vember. While the Bank’s food priceindex has dropped 5 percent fromits February 2011 peak and dippedmarginally in September by one per-cent, it remains 19 percent above itsSeptember 2010 levels. More infor-mation at http://go.worldbank.org/FP9N9EPM90

hile a global slowdown and re-cent turbulence in the Eurozonehave shaken economies of the sixcountries in South East Europe (SEE),their deeper integration with the Eu-ropean Union (EU) remains the bestlong term prospect for their growth,according to “South East Europe Reg-ular Economic Report” released onNovember 15. The special feature ofthe present (semi-annual) report is thefocus on education, and on Researchand Development (R&D) and Inno-vation. More information at http://go.worldbank.org/PP0G9OR540

drafts? And what have we learnedfrom Doha about “fresh, credibleapproaches” to trade negotiationsand the new challenges for the mul-tilateral trade system? Published onNovember 8, the Book offers timely,comprehensive analysis of the DohaRound and options for moving for-ward. More information at http://go.worldbank.org/WV3WI1ASS0

the index. The report, the 2011 pilotAid Transparency Index follows the2010 Aid Transparency Assessmentproduced by Publish What You Fund,a U.K-based coalition of civil societyorganizations working on governance,aid effectiveness, and access to infor-mation. The report can be accessedat http://www.publishwhatyoufund.org/resources/index/2011-index/.

rowth is still strong in develop-ing East Asia, but continues tomoderate mainly due to weakeningexternal demand, underscoring theneed for governments to refocus onreforms to increase domestic demandand productivity, says the World Bankin its latest East Asia and Pacific Eco-nomic Update released on Novem-ber 22. More information at http://go.worldbank.org/YKZACSKOJ0

ow much will temperatures risein 30, 40, or 50 years? Howcould changing weather affect rain-fed crops in the Horn of Africa, orwinter flooding and summer droughtsin Uzbekistan? And what shouldcountries do to prepare for more in-tense droughts and storms? These arethe kinds of questions the World Bankhopes to answer with this new ClimateChange Knowledge Portal, launchedon November 23. More informationat http://go.worldbank.org/OGGRM-H6XP0/

he World Bank, the United King-dom, Sweden, Spain, the Nether-lands, Estonia, and Finland announcedon November 25 their endorsement ofthe Open Aid Partnership to visualizetheir development assistance throughinnovative technologies, particularlythrough web-based open collabora-tive maps. The Open Aid Partnership(OAP) is facilitated by the World BankInstitute (WBI). More information athttp://go.worldbank.org/J466JBSPS0