Can the World Bank effectively promote and protect the needs of vulnerable communities?

Abstract

The present investigation explored if the World Bank could effectively promote and protect the needs of water-stricken Andean communities through the implementation of bottom-up environmental resilience building and community political empowerment efforts in the context of technical cooperation programmes on climate change adaptation (CCA). The investigation was motivated by the fact that while World Bank CCA programmes have received relatively less attention by the mainstream literature compared to structural adjustment programmes, they have become one of the fastest growing catalysts for support to vulnerable people worldwide. The dissertation adopted a qualitative research approach through a single-country deviant case study, which was selected on the assumption that it would provide the most relevant data. Information was gathered through forty semi-structured key informant interviews with representatives of sixteen institutions, across six cities and towns, spanning three countries. The study found that the Bank enhanced local community resilience to climate change. At the same time, the study also found that the Bank did not facilitate the shifting of deeper lying power structures necessary to empower the local community vis-à-vis long term natural resource management decision making. However, what set apart the case study from traditional Bank programmes was the effort to mediate social conflict by attempting to empower local communities through the implementation of capacity development activities. This unexpected role is defined as that of a buffer institution, which is a concept that is used in a novel fashion in the present investigation. The study contributes to the literature on international development aid by helping to understand if the Bank may be pursuing a different type of engagement with poor communities compared to its past interventions, and whose interests this type engagement might best serve. The findings disclose avenues for future research into the extent to which the Bank may embrace new approaches to development assistance.

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for Pia Riggirozzi: orcid.org/0000-0001-5809-890X

Catalogue record

Export record