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Panel Takes Part in Events to Explain its Mandate and Operations to Civil Society in South Asia, Africa

Ramanie Kunanayagam at Bangladesh Outreach_Sep2019

The Panel on September 26-27, 2019, joined civil society organizations (CSOs) and other independent accountability mechanisms (IAMs) to organize a workshop in Bangladesh for community representatives from several South Asian nations on the mandate and operations of the IAMs.
 
Panel Member Ramanie Kunanayagam and Senior Executive Assistant Oriana Bolvaran represented the Panel at the workshop, which featured sessions on September 26 on development projects in South Asia and how to find project information, the workings of the IAMs, CSO experiences engaging with the mechanisms, and how to file a complaint with an IAM. On September 27, representatives of the IAMs and civil society met for a half day to discuss accountability issues of interest to the region. The increasing risk of reprisals against those who express concerns about development projects featured heavily in the comments by civil society and community representatives, who emphasized the goal for them and the communities they work with is remedy to their problems.  
 
The workshop – which was attended by civil society and community representatives from Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka – was sponsored by accountability mechanisms of the World Bank Group, Green Climate Fund, United Nations Development Programme and Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the following civil society groups: International Accountability Project, NGO Forum on ADB, Coastal Livelihood and Environmental Action Network, Bangladesh Working Group on External Debt and Accountability Counsel.
 
Earlier in the month, Senior Operations Officer Serge Selwan and Senior Communications Officer Rob Doherty spoke via video to explain the workings of the Panel and answer questions from civil society representatives from Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Malawi attending a workshop organized by the Bank Information Center in Dar es Salaam.