Norm diffusion within international organizations: a case study of the World Bank

Constructivists often argue that International Organizations (IOs) diffuse norms throughout the international system. This article asks the question: if IOs promote and diffuse specific norms within world politics, where do these norms come from? In particular, this analysis seeks to formulate how IOs' identities emerge in issue areas where rationalist theories give limited explanation, such as the environment. This article posits that IOs interact with and consume norms from non-state actors such as transnational advocacy networks, a process overlooked by the constructivist analysis of institutions. This is examined through a case study of the World Bank's environmental identity where transnational advocacy networks played an important role in the Bank's shift towards sustainable development, through processes characterized here as direct and indirect socialization. This article demonstrates that the Bank's shift was more than instrumental as a result of this interaction, and that constructivists therefore need to examine the role of IOs as norm consumers as well as norm diffusers.

Greening political risk: transnational advocacy networks and the World Bank Group

Significant increases in direct private investment in developing countries in recent decades have also led to increased interest in political risk insurance. Of importance to transnational advocacy networks are the environmental and social impacts of guaranteeing loans for private sector projects in developing countries with weak or no social or environmental safeguards. This article examines how transnational advocacy networks have attempted to influence political risk insurers to become sustainable development guarantors through a case study of the World Bank Group’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). Analyzing how advocacy networks influenced MIGA’s projects, policies, and accountability institutions enables greater understanding of how to ‘politicize finance.’ It also assesses the likelihood of shaping political risk insurance identities to become sustainable development guarantors. The outcomes of such an analysis however, question the extent to which politicizing finance necessarily leads to further greening of the international development lending process.

External policy influence and higher education reform in Ethiopia : understanding symbolic power of the World Bank

Increasingly national policy processes are intersected with and affected by global policy actors and ideas. In aid-recipient countries such as Ethiopia, donors use financial and non-financial means to influence national policy decisions and directions. This paper is about the non-financial influence of the World Bank (WB) in the Ethiopian higher education policy reform. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic power as a ‘thinking tool’, the paper aims to shed light on forms of symbolic capital that the Bank uses to generate a ‘misrecognisable’ form of power that regulates the HE policy process in Ethiopia. The findings show that the WB transforms its symbolic capital of recognition and legitimacy to establish a ‘shared misrecognition’ and thereby make its policy prescriptions implicit and hence acceptable to local policy agents. The Bank uses knowledge-based regulatory instruments to induce compliance to its neoliberal policy prescriptions. The paper therefore underscores the value of symbol power as an analytical framework to understand elusive but critical role of donors in policy processes of aid recipient countries.

The World Bank and higher education reform in Ethiopia: knowledge aid and its undesirable effects

This chapter critically examines World Bank (WB) support for Ethiopia, specifically for its higher education (HE) system. It is now almost commonplace for support for developing nations from International Organizations (IOs) such as the WB to be the subject of analysis and critique. Reasons for this are not difficult to discern, particularly in relation to the WB 's activities. This is because the WB is the largest external financial source for educational expenditure in developing countries in general and in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in particular (Jones 2007). In fact, the Bank provides about a quarter of all external funds for education in low-income countries (LICs) (Domenech and Mora-Ninci 2009). In twenty years (1990-2010), the WB committed a total of nearly US$42 billion for education (Molla 2013b). Poor countries with low annual per capita income are eligible for the WB 's financial aid, which includes concessional outright grants and interest-free long-term loans (World Bank 2007a).

Invested truth in World Bank education policy: The exclusion of educators' perspectives in the future of education

The objective of the paper is to critically review the positioning of teachers in the World Bank's Education Sector Strategy 2020. The review is framed through the lens of Habermas' communicative action theory (CAT) to show how teachers' truth, rightfulness and truthfulness are obfuscated in the new policy. Habermas centres notions of democratization and participation as key requirements for representative systems. However, as the new strategy takes shapes, what is more apparent is the further marginalization of educators and education scholars from education reforms. The review suggests that education and teachers' work is becoming further embedded in broader social and economic systems. This is despite extensive consultations that are a feature of the new strategy and its development. The paper raises questions about the work of teachers and their place within education systems whose development is influenced by agencies such as the World Bank. As more of the analytical and intellectual tasks associated with education and teachings are being taken over agencies and organisations, t...

‘Knowledge aid’ as instrument of regulation: World Bank’s non-lending higher education support for Ethiopia

In the context of low-income countries, the role of donors in public policymaking is of great importance. Donors use a combination of lending and non-lending instruments as pathways of influence to shape policy directions in aid-recipient countries. This paper reports some findings from a doctoral study on the role of the World Bank in the recent higher education (HE) policy reform process in Ethiopia. It focuses on the nature and impact of non-lending assistance by the Bank to the Ethiopian HE subsystem. Based on an interpretive policy analysis of sector reviews and advisory activities of the Bank, and selected national HE policy documents, the following findings are highlighted. First, as a ‘knowledge institution’, the World Bank produces, systematises and disseminates knowledge through policy advice, policy reports, analytical sector reviews, and thematic conferences and workshops. Second, knowledge aid from the Bank not only has a profound discursive effect on shaping Ethiopian HE policy reform priorities in accordance with its neoliberal educational agenda but also undermines the knowledge production capacity of the nation. The paper also argues that, for an effective education policy support, the Bank needs to shift its modality of engagement from knowledge aid to research capacity building. 

Cultural diversity through transformative action research: translating ideas into real world impact

According to the World Bank, in 2013 more than 215 million people were living outside their countries of birth, and the United Nations Population Fund outlined that if all international migrants lived in the same place they would constitute the world’s fifth most populous country. In other words, the world’s migrant population is greater than at any other time in history and is expected to grow further. As a result of this ever-increasing human mobility, cultural diversity is a fait accompli. For this reason the mission of the Alfred Deakin Research Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation (ADRI-CG), since its inception in 2001, has been to work towards fostering intercultural understanding, human rights and social inclusion through transformative action research and within multidisciplinary approaches. Further, the Institute is mindful that academic work alone is not enough to effect lasting change in both policy and practice, and as such continually seeks strategic partnerships and effective dissemination strategies to influence public policy, and reach communities both locally and globally.

Streetwise Asia, a practical guide for the conservation and revitalisation of heritage cities and towns in Asia.

This is a practical and accessible guide for residents and professionals concerned to preserve and revitalise heritage cities in Asia. Heritage cities (many listed by UNESCO) are of course of major interest to one of the world's largest industries, tourism. Using inset colour photographs to complement the text, the realities of destructive and constructive development, repairs, restoration and usage are made clear. Legal, financial, administrative, historical and educational aspects of conservation policies, incentives and implementations are discussed. With outlines for strategy, goals and bibliography.