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The World Bank's Draft Comprehensive Development Framework and the Micro-Paradigm of Law and Development
Blake, Richard
Blake, Richard
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Abstract
In January 1999, World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn circulated a proposal for a "Comprehensive Development Framework" (CDF) to World Bank personnel. Building upon Wolfensohn's previous policy statements, as well as consultative meetings held worldwide with various international development actors, the CDF calls for a new "holistic approach to development." It seeks a better balance in policymaking by highlighting the interdependence of all elements of development-social, structural, human, governance, environmental, economic, and financial. It emphasizes partnerships among governments, donors, civil society, the private sector, and other development actors. Perhaps most important, [it puts] the country.., in the lead, both "owning" and directing the development agenda, with the Bank and other partners each defining their support for their respective plans. This New Development examines the CDF and its implications for international development. Specifically, using microdevelopment theory, including micro-law and development theory, it analyzes the CDF and compares it to the Bank's previous approaches to development. On its face, the CDF appears to give the poorest of the poor more of a voice in formulating their countries' development policies. Examination of the implementation of the CDF in several pilot countries, however, reveals that it is most often being used as a tool to improve relationships between those countries' governments and international development donors; the voices of those countries' citizens in poverty, as well as other elements of civil society, are largely being ignored. According to micro-law and development theory, unless countries pay attention to civil society, especially the poorest of the poor, development policy is doomed to fail. To that end, this New Development encourages civil society, and especially non-governmental organizations that represent the poor, to use the CDF as a means of getting to the table and assuming their appropriate place as full participants in the formulation of development policy.