Structural Social Exclusion and Development of Uniform Measures of Race and Poverty Intersection, page 35

Durban Plus OneOpportunities and Challenges for Racial and

Ethnic Inclusion in Development

The World Bank

Office of Diversity Programs&

The Latin America and Caribbean Regional Office Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Unit

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Administrator

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The publishers would like to thank the following individuals for their assistance in the preparation of this report:

Josefina Stubbs, CoordinatorHiska Reyes, CoordinationPeter Brandriss, Editing

The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and should not beattributed to the World Bank, to its affiliated organizations, or to members of its Board of Executive Directors or the coun-tries they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this publication and acceptsno responsibility for any consequence of their use. The presentation of material in this document and the geographical des-ignations employed do not imply expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the World Bank concerning the legalstatus of any country, territory or area, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

June 2003The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank1818 H Street, NWWashington, DC 20433

Cover photo taken by Jonathan French.

Acronyms v

Foreword vii

Preface ix

1 Implications of the Durban Conference for the Bank Group 1David de Ferranti

2 Racial and Ethnic Inclusion in the Development Agenda 7Shelton Davis

3 The Importance of Economic and Social Inclusion in Reaching the Millennium Development Goals 13Gobind Nankani

4 Recognizing Marginalization in Europe: The Albanian Roma and Inclusion in Bank Group Operations 17Hermine de Soto

5 Overlap between WCAR Action Steps and the Bank’s Role 21Hans Binswanger

6 Main Issues and Discussions 25

7 The IDB’s Approach to Economic and Social Inclusion 29Mayra Buvinic

8 The Durban Program of Action and Implications for International Financial and Development Institutions 33Robert Husbands

9 Structural Social Exclusion and Development of Uniform Measures of Race and Poverty Intersection 35Lindsay Jones

10 Closing Remarks 39Aklog Birara

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Contents

AFR Africa Regional Office

CDD Community Driven Development

ECA Europe and Central Asia Regional Office

EU European Union

IAC Inter-Agency Consultation on Race

IDA International Development Association

IDB Inter-American Development Bank

IDF Institutional Development Fund

LCR Latin America and Caribbean Regional Office

LCSES Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Unit

MDGs Millennium Development Goals

NEPAD New Partnership for Africa’s Development

NGO Nongovernmental Organization

OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

OHCHR Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

PAHO Pan American Health Organization

PNAD Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicilios

PREM Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network

PRSP Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers

UN United Nations

WCAR World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination Xenophobia and Related Intolerance

v

Acronyms

This publication is the result of the World Bankforum, Durban Plus One: Opportunities andChallenges for Racial and Ethnic Inclusion inDevelopment, held on December 19, 2002. Theforum was organized by the Bank’s Office of

Diversity Programs and the Latin America and CaribbeanRegional Office (LCR), with the collaboration of otherregional departments.

The focus of the forum was sharing experiences and tak-ing stock of progress made in incorporating the Durban Pro-gram of Action into the work and operations of multilateralorganizations, particularly the World Bank, the Inter-Ameri-can Development Bank (IDB), and the United Nations. Seniormanagers and staff from the World Bank, IDB, and the Officeof the High Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as out-side academics, discussed their efforts and lessons learned inbringing excluded people to the forefront of the developmentagenda and ensuring that financial resources, knowledge, andempowerment opportunities reach excluded people.

Despite unparalleled economic prosperity and techno-logical advances in some countries, widespread povertyand inequality persist and are closely associated with dis-crimination and social exclusion based on gender, color,culture, ethnicity, and stigmatized illnesses. Indigenouspeoples, people of African descent, the Roma population,and many other marginalized communities are among thepoorest of the poor, and women in these groups are pooreryet. Empowering these communities and ensuring thatthey reap the benefits of development is one of the greatestchallenges of our age.

Exclusion is not only an economic phenomenon it isalso the result of deeply rooted social dynamics and collec-

tive attitudes towards particular social groups. At last thereis recognition that development cannot be achieved with-out addressing this problem. The U.N. World Conferenceagainst Racism, Racial Discrimination Xenophobia andRelated Intolerance (WCAR) held in Durban, South Africafrom August 26 to September 8, 2001, focused the atten-tion of governments, development agencies, and multilat-eral organizations on the urgency of working to eliminateall forms of discrimination.

Since Durban, the challenge has been to find ways ofworking toward the inclusion of historically excludedgroups. Specifically we ask ourselves: What actions can beundertaken to include poor and excluded groups in localand national development initiatives? How can we helpcountries and their various social groups overcome socialdynamics and collective attitudes of discrimination andexclusion?

In September 2000 the international community agreedto work together to achieve eight Millennium DevelopmentGoals, among which are halving poverty, promoting genderequality and empowering women, and drastically reducingthe incidence of HIV/AIDS. These aims cannot be metwithout the proactive inclusion of historically excludedgroups. The Millennium Development Goals are not just acall to action to reduce poverty, but an opportunity toempower excluded groups by allowing them to use theirown knowledge, skills, and determination to improve theirliving conditions.

While important strides have been made in overcom-ing denial, bringing issues to the forefront, and empow-ering the excluded to become part of the solution, thechallenges ahead and the work to address them is far

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Foreword

greater. We are committed to meeting these challengesand undertaking this task with the conviction thatpoverty and inequity will not be eliminated unless tradi-

tionally excluded peoples can participate fully in thesociety, the economy, and their own process of develop-ment.

DURBAN PLUS ONE: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR RACIAL AND ETHNIC INCLUSION IN DEVELOPMENT

viii

John Redwood Juliana OyegunDirector, Environmentally and Socially Director, Diversity ProgramsSustainable Development for Latin America and the Caribbean

Plenty of evidence suggests that today’s develop-ment paradigm is changing and its new directionseems to embrace overwhelmingly what we knowas society’s “normative values.” These are values ofthe “acceptable” and “unacceptable,” whose expres-

sions and acceptance may be local, national, or universal. These values are changing the way economics and

finance are practiced and are transforming almost everyaspect of our lives. Normative values surface as a societalconsensus in the form of customs, norms, principles, rules,regulations, laws, and many other institutional arrange-ments.

The U.N. World Conference against Racism, Racial Dis-crimination Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR)was about our universally accepted normative values. As aneconomist at the WCAR it was not only a privilege but aneye-opener to see, hear, and feel how these normative val-ues are so interwoven with economic theory, practice, andpublic policymaking.

Every regional preparatory meeting leading up to theconference brought a different angle to a very complexpuzzle. The Africa meeting raised issues of compensation,Latin America those of indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants, the Middle East and Asia those of culture andreligion, and so on.

It was an event full of controversy; some justified. Hav-ing taken place in South Africa, the WCAR gave a new toneto the political economy of development. For many peoplethe debate and visions expressed at the conference repre-sent a fundamental landmark in improving our under-standing of how normative values impact the developmentprocess.

We are now aware that development is not a set of tech-nological and physical relationships that need to be opti-mized. The “human factor”—human awareness, humanrelations, and human content—is at the core of this para-digmatic transformation toward a truly empowered develop-ment.

However, human dimensions have to be publiclyexpressed and acknowledged. They cannot remainimplicit, for other people to discover on their own. Accord-ingly, the aggregated categories of analysis we use in deci-sionmaking today (such as consumers, producers, traders,poverty, malnutrition, wealth, productivity, comparativeadvantage, etc.) must be disaggregated in order to knowthe true impacts of policies, institutional arrangements, andoperations. Many of the statements in this report are a sam-ple of such disaggregation.

For example, poverty acquires a new character whenone knows that the large or significant majority of the poorare women and that they, in turn, usually belong to mar-ginalized ethnic or indigenous groups. To know thesehuman realities gives real meaning to development with ahuman face and to the challenges of social inclusion.

While in Durban I did not miss—and certainly do notforget even a year later—the sessions allowing those whoare discriminated against to speak out and share their per-sonal tribulations. This was not just information but a pow-erful human experience.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the conferencewas that it allowed people who were discriminated againstto be there, talk to each other, exchange views, and becomeempowered to speak about, reconcile, honor, and recovertheir human dignity. These human factors bring new

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Preface

dimensions to the reality of poverty experienced by minori-ties, lower castes, indigenous peoples, women, children,and many others. Part of the controversy at the WCAR wasrelated to giving new meaning, color, form, gender, andsoul to the very amorphous and abstract concepts of racismand discrimination. In doing so, the conference moved thedebate from simplistic economics, finance, development,social structures, and politics to decisionmaking based on anew set of values that go beyond those expressed by prof-its, productivity, purchasing power, competitiveness, andso on. The debate became one of pardon, reconciliation,sharing, fraternity, caring, loving, and human dignity.

The WCAR recognized that economic developmentcould be both part of the problem and part of the solution.Many at the conference viewed present development out-comes as evidence that development is part of the problem.Thus, heavy criticism was unloaded against national andinternational economic institutions. However, the majorityrecognized that economic growth and “development plus”were essential ingredients for making the fight againstracism and discrimination real. In this context, the DurbanPlus One forum held at the World Bank was a key event.The presentations in this document embrace the importantprinciple of addressing minority issues head-on and mov-ing from rhetoric to hard-core development implementa-tion.

But there was more to Durban. Many participantsdelved into the human, spiritual, ethical, and moral dimen-sions of our normative values. Large numbers of people(including youth and NGO assemblies) gathered toexpress, in so many beautiful ways, that the human souland the human spirit were essential to bringing peace andrespect to those who for centuries have suffered all forms of

discrimination. This was the compassionate side of theconference, the part that said “let me assume responsibilityand be an instrument of peace and respect for the better-ment of mankind.” The Bank statement was probably oneof the most humanistic and most clearly embedded in theprinciple of respect and reconciliation.

Human diversity is not just a moral and ethical imper-ative. Diversity is essential to any form or fashion ofhuman survival that one can conceive. Regardless ofwhether a person is on the left or the right of the politicalspectrum, human transformation will always demanddiversity, equality, respect, and dignity. In fact, the powerof human transformation rests on these values and princi-ples.

Practicing economics without humanistic vision andprinciples is simply making promises that will never be ful-filled. In the end, economics and development are a collec-tion of values and can only be effective if we open the doorto human values and their normative implications. AsWorld Bank President James D. Wolfensohn has stated soclearly, “we only live in one world.” This is not the world ofme, me, and me. This is the world of us, together.

Let us unleash the human power in economics anddevelopment by putting these principles and values at theservice of the voiceless and powerless. Let us search for anew human destiny free from poverty, war, crime, drugs,corruption, disease, hate, discrimination, racism, andxenophobia; a destiny in which hope and human fulfill-ment is no longer chained by material scarcity.

Alfredo Sfeir-YounisSenior Advisor


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TODAY THE POPULATION OF LATIN AMERICA and theCaribbean is approximately 500 million people.1

Of those, 40 million are indigenous2 and between80 million and 150 million are of African descent.We only have to walk the streets of the cities and

rural areas to realize that they exist, and that they also con-tribute to the cultural, social, economic, and political life oftheir countries.

But in too many countries of the region Afro-descen-dants and indigenous peoples see their opportunities con-strained by racial and ethnic discrimination, and theirself-esteem diminished. Their illiteracy rates are still toohigh compared to national averages; in Colombia, forinstance, the illiteracy rate of Afro-Colombians is 29 per-cent compared with a national average of 15 percent.There are other reasons for concern. In the health field,for example, in 1999 a Garifuna organization from Hon-duras3 undertook research and found that, despite 93percent of the Garifuna population being aware ofHIV/AIDS and its means of transmission, 19 percent ofthe Garifuna population was reported infected. Empiricalwork suggests that today that rate has climbed to about23 percent in some communities. In Brazil, 17 percent ofall Afro-Brazilian children between 10 and 14 years are onthe streets, working. In Uruguay, Peru, and Ecuador only

a limited number of indigenous people and Afro-descen-dants make it to secondary education and only a handfulreach the university level.

The deficit of opportunities is too large. Exclusion exactstoo high a price for individuals, communities, and thenational economy. Exclusion based on racial and ethnicdiscrimination has such devastating consequences forcountries and individuals that we simply cannot ignore it.

The goal of the World Bank in this region is to attack thesedisparities across and within countries, to bring more peopleinto the economic mainstream, and to promote equal accessto the benefits of development regardless of nationality, race,or gender. The countries of the region are, and need to be, inthe driver’s seat. Our role is to help, and when appropriateencourage them to define action-oriented policies and pro-grams while advancing with this sometimes difficult dialogue,and to provide financial and technical expertise that will helpgovernments implement those policies.

The Regional Prep-Com in Santiago de Chile, held inpreparation for the World Conference against Racism,Racial Discrimination Xenophobia and Related Intolerance(WCAR) that took place in Durban, South Africa over ayear ago now, was a reminder that racial and ethnic dis-crimination and xenophobia need to be tackled if develop-ment and poverty reduction goals are to be fully achieved.

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1

Implications of the Durban Conference for the Bank Group

David de Ferranti, Regional Vice President,

Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Office (LCR)

Civil society organizations and social movements haveplayed a crucial role in encouraging their governments tobe increasingly ready to acknowledge publicly the linkbetween poverty and racial and ethnic prejudices. WithinLatin America and the Caribbean, indigenous and Afro-descendant groups are increasingly becoming visible andsignificant players in the political scene, and in some casesthis is already having an impact on national policies.

Santiago and Durban were also an opportunity for mul-tilateral institutions like the World Bank to look at theprogress made, to consolidate ongoing initiatives, and toconsider fresh ones.

For over ten years we at the World Bankhave been engaged in addressing exclusionand inequalities. The progress obtained so fartells us that it is possible to see change. Thechallenges ahead tell us that there is muchmore work to do.

During the last decade we have workedand have contributed to progress in at leastfour areas, and I would like to illustrate thisfrom our own experiences in Latin Americaand the Caribbean.

Improving data collection is one of thekeys to addressing inequalities and exclusion.Traditionally, very little reliable data has beencollected on the ethnic and racial dimensionsof economic and social development.Together with national statistics offices in theregion, we are assisting official data collectionagencies to collect disaggregated data by raceand ethnicity. As was reported in the recentTodos Contamos II Regional Conference onCensus and Social Inclusion, at least eightcountries of the region are now including eth-nic and racial self-identification questions intheir national censuses. By the year 2004 weexpect another group of countries to join in.More work needs to be done in sharpeningthe questions addressed to populations ofAfrican descent or Afro-descendants. Weexpect the next round of censuses to embracethis challenge.

In the Latin America and the CaribbeanRegional Office we are also working to

empower excluded groups. This involves helping todevelop their capacities both to improve their livelihoodsand to participate fully in policy dialogues at the local,national, and regional levels.

With improvement of livelihoods in mind, the Bank’sIndigenous Peoples Operational Directive (OD 4.10), created toprotect the cultural, economic, and social livelihoods ofindigenous peoples, has indeed made a difference forindigenous communities and for our own ways of workingin Latin America. To date, 51 percent of all projects fundedby LCR and implemented in or around indigenous areasincluded Indigenous Peoples Development Strategies and


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Photo: Alejandro Lipszyc

Projects. Out of this 51 percent, 38 percent are dedicated tosustainable management of natural resources, 14 percent toimproving agricultural practices, and 17 percent are onsocial protection. If we take a cut by Country Units, 41 per-cent of our entire project portfolio in Central Americainvolves indigenous peoples development initiatives, and22 percent of all our projects in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuadorinvolve indigenous peoples.

A couple of weeks ago, when he visited the region, ourPresident, Jim Wolfensohn, had a chance to meet withindigenous and Afro-descendant organizations in Braziland Peru. With great pride, Afro-Peruvians walked usthrough their culture while making us aware of the seriousproblems of exclusion and racial discrimination they wereunder. As our president stated in his debriefing session tostaff last week, “if the indigenous peoples are at the lowest endof the hierarchy, the Afro-Peruvians are even lower; we are try-

ing to help them”.4 With great dignity and determinationindigenous groups shared with us their problems and theirvery specific proposals and suggestions.

Building capacity for policy dialogue is fundamental.Capacity building programs for Afro-descendants, fundedin alliance with British and Dutch financing programs, havehelped Uruguay introduce primary education books andmaterials that help children value the contribution of Afro-descendants to the history of their countries. In Peru,capacity building has helped bring the cultural contribu-tion of Afro-Peruvians more to the awareness of the entiresociety. Through a number of capacity building investmentinstruments we are helping to strengthen the capacities ofblack women in Central America to play a more active lead-ership role in influencing antipoverty policies, as well as toensure that organizations of Afro-descendants in the regionare included in key, high-profile initiatives such as theMesoamerican Biological Corridor.

However, it is obvious that more needs to be done. Theregion has not yet managed to end poverty, redress patternsof exclusion, and exterminate discrimination. Indigenousand Afro-descendants in the Andean region are reviewingour project portfolio to help us identify the gaps andimprove the means to respond to their needs more effec-tively. More broadly in LCR, we are working on reviewingongoing operations in a number of countries to try to makesure that they reach Afro-descendant communities. Retro-fitting is proving to be a valid method to reach excludedgroups and communities while projects are in actual imple-mentation, to learn what questions were not asked whendesigning the project, and to fine-tune project success indi-cators to include economically and socially excludedgroups. The lessons learned are already being incorporatedin new operations.

Along with governments, civil society organizations, andcommunities we are learning how to do our work better.

The challenge is too great to be handled by any one of us,therefore we are working with others. We are an active part-ner in the Inter-Agency Consultation on Race in Latin Amer-ica coordinated by the Inter-American Dialogue. This is aninitiative where, together with the Inter-American Develop-ment Bank (IDB), Pan American Health Organization(PAHO), the Inter-American Agency for Cooperation andDevelopment, and several private development foundations,we are working to expand and strengthen policy dialogue

IMPLICATIONS OF THE DURBAN CONFERENCE FOR THE BANK GROUP

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Photo: Jonathan French

with governments of the region regarding exclusion based onracial grounds, coordinate project implementation, andshare information, research, and learning in this relativelynew ground of poverty and exclusion of Afro-descendants.

We are seeing progress in enlarging diversity within ourown working environment. During this fiscal year and incollaboration with the Diversity Team, we had nine Afro-descendant students as summer interns. Placed across theorganization, the report from their managers is that theircontribution was of high quality. The same is demonstratedby our indigenous staff placed in our resident missions inEcuador, Mexico, and Honduras. Their presence has madean enormous difference in our projects, in our relationshipwith indigenous communities, and in our internal dia-logue. They bring another perspective and they help us tolook at the same problems and opportunities with neweyes.

Despite the obvious progress made, there are still greatchallenges:

Ensuring that the Millennium Development Goalsare also made relevant to indigenous and Afro-descendant communities

As most of you know, the MillenniumDevelopment Goals (MDGs) represent acommitment for poverty reduction thathas been made by governments and theinternational community. By makinguse of the disaggregated data being pro-duced in the countries, the analysesgenerated by our institutions, and thewealth of experience and knowledgeresiding in the countries, we have thetools to make the objectives of theMDGs a reality. Through them we canopen new opportunities for indigenousand Afro-descendants in education,better health, access to employment,and in addressing the gender inequalitythat afflicts the region. We are workinghard in the Bank to support govern-ments to achieve this.

I have confidence that the MDGs alsooffer an instrument to monitor andreport on how we have helped change

the prospects of these populations to have more andbetter opportunities.

Overcoming what I call the denial of racial and eth-nic discrimination in the regionThe work of the champions and focal points insidethe organizations is crucial, but many more have tojoin in. Change involves getting minds and hearts onboard and to be aware in every operation, in everypolicy discussion in the country, and in our head-quarters that exclusion based on racial and ethnicgrounds is morally unacceptable and economicallydamaging.

As I mentioned earlier, the challenge of inclusion isenormous. No one can do it alone. To succeed we need towork with countries and governments across regions, net-works, and families in our institutions to share knowledgeand identify innovative ways to combat exclusion. Morethan ever before the international community needs tocome together and join forces, coordinate efforts. Andtoday more than ever before we need to take notice of—and take advantage of—the views and experiences of com-


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Photo: Julio Pantoja

munities and local organizations whose experience andknowledge can help inform our debates and that of theirgovernments.

The challenge is one for all of us.

Notes1. Statistical Year Book For Latin America and the

Caribbean 2001. ECLAC/CEPAL, February 2002. Santiagode Chile, Chile.

2. William Partridge, Jorge Uquillas, and KatherineJohns, 1996, “Including the Excluded: Ethno-developmentin Latin America,” in Poverty and Inequality; Proceedings fromthe Annual World Bank Conference on Development in LatinAmerica and the Caribbean, eds. S. Javed Burki, S. Aiyer andR. Hommes. The World Bank, Latin American andCaribbean Studies.

3. La Comunidad Garifuna y sus Desafios en el Siglo XXI.ODECO/Cooperación Española. April, 2002.

4. Internal Memorandum. December 05, 2002.

IMPLICATIONS OF THE DURBAN CONFERENCE FOR THE BANK GROUP

5

TODAY’S EVENT IS PART OF AN ONGOING PROCESS withinthe World Bank to follow up on several of the rec-ommendations made at the World Conferenceagainst Racism, Racial Discrimination Xenophobiaand Related Intolerance held in Durban, South

Africa in September 2001. The World Bank was present atthis historic conference and has studied closely the DurbanDeclaration and Program of Action. Hopefully, we can con-tinue to meet (perhaps on an annual basis) to assessprogress being made in implementing the DurbanDeclaration and Program of Action and carry out a full-scale evaluation of our progress in fulfilling parts of theProgram relevant to the Bank’s mandate as we prepare forwhat will hopefully be a Durban Plus Five Meeting in 2006.

I would like to follow up on some of the earlier commentsmade by David de Ferranti and discuss the origins and evo-lution of the Program of the Latin America and CaribbeanRegion in relation to Afro-descendant peoples. Before doingso, I would like to recognize Ms. Josefina Stubbs who, sinceJanuary 2001 (prior to the Durban Conference), has beencoordinating LCR’s Afro-Descendant Population Program.Josefina has brought great experience, commitment and pro-fessionalism to this task and has already achieved resultswhich I would like to briefly share with you today.

I would also like to recognize Mr. Jorge Uquillas, whocoordinates our LCR programs on behalf of indigenous peo-

ples. Although I shall be making only passing reference toour work with indigenous peoples, it should be noted thatthis work predates our current work with Afro-descendantpeoples and communities and has greatly influenced ourthinking, especially in terms of using various Bank instru-ments to respond to the special needs and circumstances ofhistorically excluded groups, as is the case with both indige-nous peoples and Afro-descendant populations in LCR.

My comments will be brief and what I would like tofocus on are five challenges that we face in developing ourAfro-Descendant Program in LCR.

One of these challenges is identifying Afro-descendantpeoples and communities as subjects of Bank assistance andpart of country investment operations and policy dialogue.Afro-descendant peoples—or what be called “peoples ofcolor” (negros, mulattos, pretos, pardos, etc.)—exist inalmost all of the LCR countries and are estimated to num-ber anywhere between 80 million and 150 million peopleand comprise over 30 percent of the region’s population. InBrazil the Afro-descendant population comprises 45 percentof the population, in Colombia 20 percent, in Venezuela 10percent, and in some Caribbean countries, including theDominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti, and Jamaica, over 50percent of the population is Afro-descendant.

Nevertheless, it has been extremely difficult for varioushistorical, sociological, and political reasons to get an exact

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2

Racial and Ethnic Inclusion in the Development Agenda

Shelton Davis, Sector Manager,

Social Development Unit (LCSEO)

Latin America and Caribbean Region

estimate (or even a rough guess) of the Afro-descendantpopulation in the region. One of the reasons for this is thatrelatively few countries have included questions on race intheir national censuses; when they do, the phrasing of thequestion and the social stigma often attached to race andcolor frequently leads to an underestimate of the Afro-descendant population.

For this reason the Bank and the IDB have been work-ing closely with national statistics institutes in Latin Amer-ica and the Caribbean to improve the census identificationof the racial and ethnic composition of the region’s coun-tries. Two conferences titled “Todos Contamos” (“We AllCount”) were held in Cartagena, Colombia in October2000 and in Lima, Peru in October 2002. These confer-ences brought together census bureau personnel, represen-tatives of indigenous and Afro-descendant organizations,and technical specialists to discuss more systematic ways ofincluding race and ethnic identification in national cen-

suses. Eighteen countries participated in the last TodosContamos event and both the IDB and the World Bank arenow working closely with national census bureaus to holdconferences of a similar type at the national level.

While it is common knowledge that the majority of peo-ple of African descent in our region live in conditions ofextreme poverty and lack access to basic health, education,water and sanitation, and other services, the householdsurveys and various other surveys financed by the Bank tomeasure poverty have only recently begun to disaggregateincome and other data in terms of the race and ethnicity ofrespondents. Therefore, we face the challenge of improvingour understanding of the socioeconomic conditions ofAfro-descendant populations.

One of the earliest experiences we had in the desegrega-tion of household survey data by ethnicity was a four-coun-try study by two Bank economists, George Psacharopoulosand Harry Patrinos, titled “Indigenous Peoples and Povertyin Latin America” (World Bank, 1995). As a result of thisstudy most of our current poverty assessments in countrieswith large indigenous populations now disaggregateincome, educational, and other data in terms of ethnicity(usually identifying indigenous peoples by whether theyspeak an indigenous language or self-identify as an indige-nous person).

In 1999 we also held a conference at the Bank on thetheme of Social Exclusion and Poverty Reduction in the LatinAmerica and Caribbean Region. One of the participants in thisconference was Dr. Nelson do Valle Silva of the UniversityResearch Institute in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. He had beenanalyzing a special body of official household survey data inBrazil (called the PNAD) which had demonstrated that per-sons of color (labeled “pretos” or “pardos” in the Braziliancensus) were more likely to have high rates of poverty, indi-gence, unemployment, and illiteracy than those who self-identified as being noncolored or “white.” There are alsosignificant differences in the Brazilian data between Afro-descendant persons and “whites” in terms of average yearsof schooling (4.4 versus 6.6 years) and in terms of access toboth secondary and higher education. In general, the Brazil-ian data indicate relatively significant differences in terms ofpoverty and other human development indicators betweenAfro-descendant and “white” populations, a pattern whichwe are now finding in household survey studies from othercountries such as Colombia and Uruguay.


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Photo: Sebastian Szyd

Supporting a new generation of Afro-descendant organ-izations in order to increase their capacity to negotiate withnational governments and plan, implement and evaluatepoverty reduction and development programs in theircommunities is the third challenge we face in developingour program in the region.

A growing number of Afro-descendant organizationshave emerged to defend the rights and improve the socialand economic conditions of their peoples and communi-ties. Our initial contacts with these organizations camethrough a series of Bank-financed projects in Colombia,Ecuador and Peru. In Colombia, we were introduced to theleaders of a number of Afro-descendant organizations whoparticipated in the Constitutional Reforms of 1991 and thepassage of a very important law recognizing the collectivelands of the Afro-descendant communities of the PacificCoast in 1993 as part of the Bank-financed Colombia Nat-ural Resources Management Project. In Ecuador and Peru anumber newly formed Afro-descendant organizations alsoparticipated in two Bank-financed development projectsaddressed specifically to the needs of indigenous and Afro-descendant communities.

In June 2000 the Bank joined together with the Inter-American Dialogue, the IDB, the Inter-American Founda-tion, and PAHO to form an Inter-Agency Consultation onRace in Latin America (IAC). At IAC-sponsored confer-ences held in Washington in June 2000, 2001, and 2002,we increased our contacts with a wide range of Afro-descendant organizations and became increasingly awareof their need for support to improve their capacity to

lobby their governments and to participate more activelyin poverty reduction and other projects financed by theWorld Bank and other members of the donor community.As a result of these meetings we solicited resources froma Dutch Trust Fund, the British Department for Interna-tional Development (DFID) and a regional InstitutionalDevelopment Fund (IDF) program to provide a numberof small grants to Afro-descendant organizations for pur-poses of improving their capacity to lobby and negotiatewith their governments in terms of poverty reduction andsocial inclusion policies and strategies, as well as to plan,implement, and evaluate their self-managed communitydevelopment programs. The initial evaluations of theseprograms indicate that they have been highly successfulin achieving their stated goals and have been wellreceived by the participating Afro-descendant organiza-tions and communities.

Despite the lack of discriminatory legislation and a pop-ular belief that the LAC countries are “racial democracies,”in many countries there are strongly held attitudes andinstitutional barriers that make it difficult to target socialprograms and investments to Afro-descendant people andcommunities. There is a need to change public attitudesand institutional obstacles that have held back more inclu-sive social policies for Afro-descendant peoples and com-munities.

The idea throughout the region seems to be that socialprograms and policies need to be universalistic and there isno need to focus on specific groups such as Afro-descen-dants. Generalized social programs targeted at the rural andurban poor, it is often argued, will resolve the historic andcurrent social deficits of these populations (for example inareas of health, education, and social protection).

Nevertheless, the past decade has seen some the firststeps toward a public discussion of a more focused and tar-geted approach to using public policies and programs toreach poor Afro-descendant people, households, and com-munities. In countries like Brazil, for example, a growingnational debate is taking place about “affirmative action”programs for Afro-descendants, especially in the highereducation field. We are interested in furthering this discus-sion by using the MDG framework—now accepted by theWorld Bank, U.N. agencies, and other development insti-tutions—as a way of measuring the impacts on the poor ofdevelopment assistance. By disaggregating data on the

RACIAL AND ETHNIC INCLUSION IN THE DEVELOPMENT AGENDA

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Photo: Julio Pantoja

MDGs by race and ethnicity and in terms of rates ofextreme poverty, access to primary education, infant andmaternal health, gender, HIV/AIDS, environmental sustain-ability and the like, we hope to be able to demonstrate thesocioeconomic disparities that exist among Afro-descen-dants, indigenous peoples, and other marginalized andexcluded populations within the national population. Thecountry assistance strategy (CAS) for Colombia, which wasrecently approved by the Bank’s Board, recommends suchan MDG exercise in that country in the coming year.

Lastly, a major challenge which we face is incorporatinga strong cultural and historical dimension into our workwith Afro-descendant populations.

The past couple of decades have seen a large amount ofhistorical research not only on slavery in the Americas, but

also on the post-slavery cultural processes that haveevolved among the Afro-descendant populations in theAmericas. Many of the Afro-descendant organizations whowe have been working with have highlighted the need tonot only increase the access of Afro-descendant childrenand youth to all levels of education, but also to redesigneducational curricula to take into account the significantcultural contributions that their ancestors have made tothe national societies in which they live. There has alsobeen a growing interest in Afro-Latin and Afro-Caribbeancultural expressions (music, dance, food, folklore, etc.)and the role that they can play in providing “positive iden-tities” for Afro-descendant youth. We are trying to supportthese cultural initiatives by working closely with our col-leagues in the Human Development (LCSHD) Education


10


Sector (LCSHE) departments who are managing educationprojects in countries with significant Afro-descendantpopulations.

We have also become aware in the past couple of yearsof the presence, especially in the rural areas of several LACcountries, of a number of surviving Afro-descendant com-munities of “runway” and “rebel slave” communities. Thesecommunities, called quilombos, palenques, maroons, andother names, represent the last living vestiges of thedescendants of slave populations who rebelled and createdautonomous communities in isolated rural areas. Funda-mental changes have been taking place in these communi-ties, and we are committed to learning more about thesechanges and adapting our rural development and other

interventions to them. We are currently providing an IDFgrant to the Fundaçao Palmaraes in Brazil to assist the rem-nant quilombo communities in that country. We are alsoworking on similar initiatives with rural Afro-descendantcommunities in the coastal areas of Honduras, Colombia,Peru, and Ecuador.

To close, we face very important challenges in LCR, butare committed to working with our borrower countries andwith Afro-descendant organizations and communities tomake more inclusive and equitable societies—ones inwhich we, our children, and our grandchildren will all beproud to live because they have eradicated extreme poverty,discrimination, and exclusion, and provide equal opportu-nities, respect, and dignity for all.

RACIAL AND ETHNIC INCLUSION IN THE DEVELOPMENT AGENDA

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UNTIL ABOUT A YEAR AGO I was working on Brazil.David de Ferranti and I have on many occa-sions talked about how it is that a country likeBrazil, with a per capita income in the $4,000plus range, can have the kind of poverty and

inequality that we see. And as you look at the data, ofcourse, it becomes very clear that the relationship betweenpoverty and inequality, on the one hand, and exclusion, onthe other hand, is extremely high.

I think the policy implications of this link are what theGovernment of Brazil has been struggling with, and whatwe in the Bank have been analyzing. And the questions onthe minds of many of us here today are: How can we avoidfuture Brazils? And, in fact, how can we work together tomend the Brazils of today?

What I want to do today is argue that if we take theMDGs as a framework—a framework that the internationalcommunity and all countries have basically adopted—it isimpossible for us to attain those goals unless we have inclu-sion in a much more systematic fashion going forward.Impossible. And I would suggest at least two ways in whichwe might try and address the issue of inclusion, particu-larly drawing on some of the work that my colleagues havebeen doing in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Man-agement Network.

Now, there are many MDGs. One says that we are com-mitted to halving the number of poor people in the worldby 2015. Another would like to ensure that by 2015 chil-dren everywhere, both boys and girls, are able to completea full course of primary schooling. And a third is to elimi-nate gender disparity at all levels of education by 2015. Inorder to make the point that inclusion is essential to attain-ing these goals, I’ll talk about the issue of gender disparityand look at a few examples of how much of a difference itmakes to incorporate gender inclusion in our work.

There was a very interesting study put out by the Bank’sDevelopment Economics Research Group (DECRG) onengendering development that I highly recommend. Whatit says and proves is that gender discrimination has anextremely negative impact on growth and poverty; or, toput it differently, if you actually have gender equality andaccess in many areas, you can have a tremendous impactincreasing growth and reducing poverty. A few examples:

Sub-Saharan Africa The analysis shows that child mortality could have been asmuch as one-quarter less if men and women had equal school-ing. So just by giving women the same level of schooling thatmen have—just by that—you could reduce infant mortality by25 percent. That’s a tremendous gain from inclusion.

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3

The Importance of Economic and Social Inclusion in Reaching the Millennium Development Goals

Gobind Nankani, Vice President,

Poverty Reduction and Economic

Management Network (PREM)

BrazilOur evidence on child health shows that if you have incomein the hands of mothers equal to the income in the hands offathers, it would make a major difference to the biologicalgrowth of children. In fact, it has four times the impact onchildren’s biological growth if the income is in the hands ofwomen as compared to men.

IndiaThe evidence on education shows that children of literatemothers spend two hours more per day studying than thechildren of illiterate mothers.

You can see what an impact inclusion can make justtalking about the gender dimension.

I would like to emphasize that when you think of thegrowth process, which is important for meeting all of theMDGs, we have to recognize that the kind of growth pathwe will need going forward must be an inclusive growthpath. To give examples of what this means, David de Fer-ranti referred to a lot of work that has been done in Latin

America. There is, in fact, a study by our colleagues at theIDB that looked at the question of exclusion. It is so starkthat I want to share it with you.

The study found that in Bolivia ending exclusion wouldresult in an economic expansion of 37 percent. In otherwords, the gross domestic product (GDP) would be 37 per-cent higher if you ended exclusion. In Guatemala theimpact would be 14 percent and in Brazil it could expandthe economy by 13 percent.

I think that the issue is not really about how importantinclusion is, but rather how we should go about—andwhere we should go about—focusing on the question ofinclusion. Before I talk about the two issues that mostclosely relate to the work we are doing, let me just mentionthat I think the Brazil example I gave at the outset is anexample of a middle-income country where developmenthas taken root. But let me also say that it is very importantto look at questions of inclusion in low-income countries.The issue of ensuring inclusion in the low-income countriesis fundamental to meeting the MDGs and to avoiding the


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Photo: John Isaac

kind of experience that Brazil has had in the past withexclusion.

The key question, therefore, is not whether economicand social inclusion is important, but how we might goabout doing better on inclusion. I think that there are manyanswers to this question, but I’d like to focus on two: accessto resources and empowerment.

First and foremost, of course, there is the issue of ensur-ing that there’s much greater success at targeting resourcesto the excluded—not just transfers, but also capital assetssuch as land and education. I want to give two examples.

The first example that comes to mind is a land titlingproject in the rainforest-covered Chocó area of Colombia.A land titling program with the Government of Colombiahas provided Afro-Colombians—who make up about 90percent of the population in this area—and indigenousgroups titles to land that they have been working on; landcovering some 2.4 million hectares. About 100,000 peoplewere given land titles.

The second example comes from a visit to one of thefavelas in Rio with Jim Wolfensohn many years back. Wewere visiting a water and sanitation project in which theBank had worked with the municipality to provide water inthe low-income favela. The most exciting moment in thatvisit was when a woman came up to Jim Wolfensohn, veryexcited, to thank him and the mayor. She was most excitedby what she was holding in her hand—a water bill with hername on it—because it gave her an identity as far as shewas concerned. Of course she loved having the water, butthe water bill was actually very important because it wouldgive her the right to many other things that the stateoffered.

This kind of formalized access is probably somethingthat can have a tremendous impact on inclusion if spreadacross countries in the world.

In addition to access, empowerment—the issue that Davidde Ferranti also referred to—is fundamental for inclusion. Wehave been doing some work in the Bank, and my colleaguesin PREM are one of the focal points for this, in finding waysof operationalizing what we mean by empowerment. The waywe’ve done it—and I think we can probably improve this, butit has proven to be a useful framework—is what I want tospend the next few moments on.

We see empowerment as something that involvesempowering poor people through four key elements:

information, accountability, participation, and local capac-ity. Let me take these briefly in turn.

First let’s talk about the power of information. There isabsolutely no doubt that the more information that poorpeople have access to, that excluded people have access to,the more they are able to exercise rights that otherwise gounexercised.

Let’s take the example of education expenditures inUganda. In 1991 only 2 percent of non-wage spending oneducation reached schools in Uganda. This was consideredscandalous. There was a big effort to improve that. By 1995,after a major effort, 20 percent of non-wage expenditureswere getting to schools. What happened? The central gov-ernment began to publicize all the information on howmuch money each district was getting from the funds thatwere transferred out of the central government. In otherwords, people could see how much of that money was actu-ally reaching the districts. The wide availability of informa-tion had remarkable results: by 2000 schools in everydistrict in Uganda were receiving 90 percent or more of theoutgoing transfers, just by the power of information, trans-parency, and competition.

We have a lot of useful evidence that participation, thesecond element, which treats poor people, excluded peo-ple, as core producers with authority and control over deci-sions and resources, is fundamental. In Bangladesh, forexample, there is a project in which female educationtuition stipends were paid. Part of this money was actuallypaid directly to schools. The other part of the stipend wassimply paid to the girls themselves who were attendingschools. They were given savings accounts and then simply

THE IMPORTANCE OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL INCLUSION IN REACHING THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

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Photo: Emanuele Santi

asked to pay the remainder of the fees from their savingsaccounts. Of course, they could keep the interest. The veryact of having savings accounts and managing thoseresources was tremendous in increasing the participationthey had, and we find that enrollment rates skyrocketedcompared to areas in which funds were being transferreddirectly to the school.

On accountability I will give another example fromBrazil, but there is a similar example from Indonesia thatyou might find interesting. We have seen great differencesin rural areas in Brazil in which projects are defined by thecommunities. In the Indonesian project referred to as theKecamatan Development Program, the villages choosetheir projects and design and implement them with tech-nical assistance, obviously, from the state. What we haveseen with these participatory methods in Indonesia is thatthe same projects cost 30 percent less than they do inother areas, and the rates of return are about one-thirdmore than in other areas. This is an example of how leav-ing the accountability with those who are otherwiseexcluded makes a big difference to performance.

Finally, on the question of the power of local capacity,here is an example from Bolivia. In 1993 a law of popularparticipation was approved in Bolivia that created over 300new municipalities and gave community organizations thepower to access information and veto municipal budgets. Asurvey done a few years later found, however, that the onlymunicipalities in which this power was actually used werethose in which poor people’s organizations were operatingprior to the legislation, and had been encouraged to partic-ipate.

The questions we face as we talk about empowermentreally have to do with, in our view, the following: How canwe increase access to information? How can we increaseparticipation? How can we increase accountability at thegrassroots level? How can we improve local capacity at thegrassroots level?

Let me close by saying that empowerment really meansestablishing partnerships with those who are to be included.This means that we need to treat them with respect and dig-nity, but also tap into their knowledge, energy, skills, moti-vations, and wisdom.


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IWAS VERY GLAD TO HEAR that our last speaker ended withthe term “empowerment.” I have just come back fromTajikistan from mission, where I was, among otherthings, disseminating a community-driven development(CDD) report that was written by my Social

Development Unit in Europe and Central Asia.After I finished with the dissemination workshops I asked

the government participants, “What is the message that youwould like me to take back to my management?” First theylooked down for a while, and after some reflection, they said,“Actually, yes, there would be something we would like you totake back. You know, we have so many good technical projectsthat work more or less very well. However, we don’t under-stand why our 1,000-year-old mahallas (informal organiza-tions) don’t get empowered in this development process.”

So I came back really invigorated because empower-ment and inclusion are, I think, what we have to focus on.

In this presentation, I would like to introduce you to myoperational work in Albania where we are working with theRoma and Evgjit communities. Our work with thesegroups began when we had a poverty reduction strategy. Aqualitative poverty assessment and a policy review werealso part of that strategy. We found that both our qualita-tive poverty study and the policy review identified theRoma and Evgjit—a new subcultural group that we discov-

ered in the process of our work—as the most marginalizedgroups in Albania. This marginalization was especiallyexpressed in terms of very low living standards; bothgroups are among the poorest in the country and sufferfrom social exclusion.

According to Mr. Claude Cahn, the Roma are a diversecommunity of people who live in Europe, the Americas,Asia, and Africa. They are linked especially by mutualrecognition as Roma, with historical origins in India, andbelieved to have left India no later than the tenth centuryof our common era. Most Roma are native speakers of theRomani language.

Throughout the centuries the Roma have suffered fromdiscrimination and racism. By racism I mean institutionalpower inequalities, systematic discrimination, denial ofresources based on the origin of a group of people, and thecategorization of a group of people as naturally inferior onthe basis of stereotypical understandings of perceived socialand cultural differences. In spite of such systems ofinequality, the Roma have retained their unique culturalself-identification. Their designation as an ethnic group isbased on their separate language, origin, lifestyle, occupa-tion, women’s dress code, social organization, marriage,residence patterns, and flexible but specific communityorganization.

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4

Recognizing Marginalization in Europe: The Albanian Roma and Inclusion

in Bank Group OperationsHermine de Soto, Senior Social Scientist,

Europe and Central Asia (ECA)

The Roma have been in Albania for 600 years, and theirexistence there coincides with the arrival of the conqueringOttoman Turks. We think that when they came to Albaniathey adopted some of the informal social organization ofthe white Albanian population, such as the fis (or clans).

Under the socialist regime of Enver Hoxha, an attemptwas made to create a uniform Albania by suppressing eth-nic and cultural differences. Theoretically then, the Romaenjoyed the same “cradle-to-grave” employment, housing,and free access to social services as other Albanian citizens.The end of socialism marked the beginning of the Roma’sprecipitous slide from relative well-being into abjectpoverty.

Currently the informal institution of the fis, which wassomewhat diminished under socialism, has now reemergedas a coping mechanism in response to the difficulties ofextreme poverty and as the Roma say, “an unreliable gov-ernment” that the Roma feel does not protect them.

As a minority group, the Roma have had difficulties inestablishing and defending their basic rights. A recent EUreport identifies the problem of marginalization and socialexclusion as particularly severe in Central and EasternEurope, but also in Western Europe. Presently, the Alban-ian government has no minority policies that foster socialinclusion of Roma communities. In a recent report the gov-ernment follows traditional perspectives and considersonly those minorities that have their own motherland andcommon characteristics such as religious affiliation, lan-guage, culture, customs, and traditions to be nationalminorities. Thus in Albania only the Greeks, Macedonians,

and Montenegrin Albanians are now considered nationalminorities.

Under this definition, Roma and Evgjit are considered toonly be linguistic minorities or cultural groups—notnational ones—and hence, they get no special attention inthe distribution of resources. Since Albanian national cen-sus data is only disaggregated according to national minori-ties, there is no census data on the Roma, as was alsomentioned this morning by other speakers from case stud-ies from other World Bank regions. Similar to these casestudies, we also have to be very careful when we look atstatistics in Albania.

According to official records, the ethnic makeup of Alba-nia is 98 percent Albanians and 2 percent others, and the 2percent others are the recognized national minorities. Romaand Evgjit are included under the Albanian category and areofficially an integral part of Albanian society. In everyday life,however, both groups suffer from racism and discriminationcaused and exacerbated by low levels of education, highunemployment, poor health, very poor housing conditions,and lack of access to basic public services.

One of the major impediments to developing an effec-tive program to strengthen social and economic develop-ment and alleviate poverty for the Roma is the lack ofreliable information. We had absolutely no informationabout these groups. After we realized this problem we ini-tiated a meeting with the donor community in Tirana,Albania, and organized a steering group. Based on thePoverty Reduction Strategies Papers (PRSPs) and on thequalitative poverty assessment, the government and theRoma community decided that the first step in our under-standing of the problem would be to conduct a qualitativeneeds assessment.

Key stakeholders who became interested and boughtinto the work—and this took almost two years—were theAlbanian government, the Roma and Evgjit leadership, theWorld Bank, the Soros Foundation, the American Embassy,the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), theEuropean Union (EU), the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, andthe Swiss Development Cooperation, which also becamethe steering group.

What are some of the major policy issues to be consid-ered? We feel that several concrete steps could be taken toalleviate the extreme poverty and foster economic and socialintegration by supporting cultural identity and diversity.


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Photo: Stan Constantin

First, the implementation of policies based on thepoverty reduction strategy that promote and sustain eco-nomic growth as well as effective education, health, andsocial protection.

Second, the involvement of the Roma themselves in ourproposed actions is of primary importance to ensure a soundfoundation for social inclusion and empowerment. Presently,target and support mechanisms and policies are still frag-mented and would benefit from a concerted developmenteffort to improve formal livelihoods, increase educationalqualifications, and promote employment opportunities.

Then, there are social inclusion policy issues and EUaccession. With the Council of Europe directive that pro-hibits discrimination on the grounds of racial or ethnic ori-gin, the EU calls for the elaboration of new rights and theeffective protection by governments for immigrants, asylumseekers, and Roma. Currently, the Albanian governmentwatches what is happening in Europe very closely because itwould like to become a member of the EU. It is also becauseof this that the Roma have gained in policy importance.

Social inclusion is understood in social development asthe removal of institutional barriers and the enhancement ofincentives to increase the access of diverse individuals andgroups to develop opportunities under specific projectactivities. That is the basic definition that we use in ourwork with the Roma in Albania.

The needs assessment that is currently in progressassesses how the Roma and the Evgjit are impacted bypoverty reduction and social inclusion efforts. The assess-ment will recommend how these communities can beincluded. The assessment will also assist the government informulating policies of inclusion that are in accordancewith the EU requirements of accession.

We have discussed the concept paper and the question-naires that we designed together with the Roma community(190 questions, focus groups, expert interviews, semistruc-tured thematic questions) with the main stakeholders andthey added some of their own questions. The main questionsthat we are going to ask are:

• What are the impacts of Albania’s transition to a marketeconomy on the Roma?

• What are the needs of the Roma and Evgjit and what arethe key issues and main constraints that impair theirlivelihood sustainability?

• How do the Roma and Evgjit use their own culturalpractices as coping mechanisms and how do theyrespond to forms of inequality?

• How does the Albanian white community perceive theRoma and Evgjit?

• How can the Roma and Evgjit now subjected to socialexclusion be included in society?

• What policies need to be formulated to foster the socialinclusion of the Roma and promote community, socialcohesion, and Albania’s EU integration?

• What kind of CDD assistance programs do Roma iden-tify in the needs assessment as a necessity for empower-ment and participation in society?

We have now completed 70 percent of our needs assess-ment. We are in close contact with the EU Minority Officeand the Ministry of Labor, who invited us to assist in thedevelopment of the Roma minority strategy. Part of theassistance includes sharing preliminary research data.

Since our engagement the Albanian government hasestablished a minority office within the government and theywould like to collaborate with us, especially in gathering sys-tematic qualitative information about the social groups.

At this point, the Roma dilemma leads to some contro-versial ideas. The Roma would like to have at this “transi-tional juncture” their own cultural centers where they couldteach children their own language. So far, there are no lan-guage books and Roma feel that their children can only

RECOGNIZING MARGINALIZATION IN EUROPE: THE ALBANIAN ROMA AND INCLUSION IN BANK GROUP OPERATIONS

19

Photo: Stan Constantin

develop a strong identity if they can first be somewhat liter-ate in their own language and culture. Children like beingeducated but they seem to dislike school. Interviews revealthat in Albanian schools Roma children are put in the lastrow of chairs, don’t receive the same attention from teachersas white Albania children do, and are told they are dirty.

Some non-Roma argue that this could initiate a formof segregation. However at this critical juncture of social

change this is what the Roma say they need. As ananthropologist who has comparatively studied sociocul-tural change and adaptation or maladaptation to moder-nity for a long time, I firmly believe that if a people’scultural identity is not strengthened in the process ofrapid transformation and so-called empowerment, thenthis would only be a rather artificial social developmentexperiment.


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IHAD NOT PAID ANY ATTENTION to this conference onracism, until I was suddenly dispatched to go and dealwith it. What surprised me is that there is, in fact, anincredibly large overlap between the action agendasummarized in three of the paragraphs of the Durban

Declaration and what we do in the Africa region in theWorld Bank. I think it would be clear that we could cer-tainly benefit in our action programs by taking the racialand human rights dimensions into account much moreexplicitly and, therefore, making our programs stronger. Ihave two sets of recommendations: reinforce social analysisin our programs, and form better alliances where informa-tion can be shared.

The Durban Declaration outlines, in paragraphs 157 to159, what is expected from the World Bank. Using theseparagraphs as a guiding point, I will elaborate on a cou-ple of the areas we are working on in the Africa regionregarding: conflict resolution, community-driven devel-opment, market access, technology transfers, health andeducation, and infrastructure development.

First and foremost, the World Bank has been lobbyingfor increasing aid flows, especially for Africa. In fiscal year2002, International Development Association (IDA)approvals for Africa exceeded US$3 billion for the firsttime. The IDA fund for providing subsidized credits for

low-income countries has just been replenished, and itnow includes a grant window.

We also support the New Partnership for Africa’s Devel-opment (NEPAD) and work on debt relief. The region hasprovided debt relief to 20 countries. There are, however, eco-nomic constraints that stem from the lack of funds from theOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD) member countries.

Conflict ResolutionIn the area of conflict resolution we have a very rapidlyexpanding program of conflict prevention, for countries inconflict, and for post-conflict reconstruction. We have pro-grams in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, SierraLeone, and Rwanda. A large multimillion dollar reintegra-tion program for combatants in conflict zones throughoutAfrica has just been approved. We have also raised $500million worth of trust funds.

Community-Driven DevelopmentA third of World Bank lending in Africa goes toward com-munity-driven development. These resources typically godirectly to poor communities and to the lowest level oflocal government. Our CDD agenda in the region alsoincludes capacity building of communities and local gov-

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5

Overlap between WCAR Action Steps and the Bank’s Role

Hans Binswanger, Senior Advisor,

Office of the Regional Vice President,

Africa Regional Office (AFR)

ernments, reform of state institutions in support of decen-tralization, and reform of sector institutions in support ofdecentralization, participation, and empowerment. Anexample of CDD is the ability of parents associations toactively become involved in their children’s education bybeing able to replace teachers who do not perform their jobwell.

Market AccessMarket access is a big problem for countries in Africa,which are mostly agricultural. You cannot have rural devel-opment without agricultural growth, and you cannot haveagricultural growth without better access to OECD mar-kets. I think we’ve been at the forefront of denouncing theadverse effects of the agricultural trade restrictions and sub-sidies of OECD countries. The World Bank is providinganalytical support to African institutions for their partici-pation in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and we arenow increasingly focusing on support of real agricultureand food trade, but also on other trade among African

countries. There are, of course, agricultural policy reformproblems in some countries, but we are assisting them withthese problems.

Transfer of TechnologyThe World Bank is, at the moment, leading an effort toreform the financing system for agricultural technologygeneration and adoption in Africa. As part of our supportto NEPAD we are designing a multicountry financing pro-gram for this area, to be managed jointly with an Africaninstitution, the Forum for African Agricultural Research(FAAR).

Health, HIV/AIDS, and EducationThere already are 62 million people in Africa who haveeither died become infected, or are orphaned because ofthe disease. Infection rates are climbing at 3–4 million ayear. Now, by any standards in the world, that is ten timesthe number of people who died in the Holocaust, and itrivals the transatlantic slave trade in terms of impact onthat continent. Yet what is the response of the internationalcommunity and even, for that matter, of the governmentsthemselves? It is extraordinary. U.N. Secretary General KofiAnnan put together a global fund for HIV/AIDS, tuberculo-sis, and malaria, which should be, even without financinganti-retroviral therapy, funded at $10 billion dollars a year


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Photo: Ami Vitale

Photo: Eric Miller

at the very least; today it has about $1.8 billion for three orfour years. This shows the dramatic unwillingness to pay.

We at the Africa region are trying to reform the way wedeal with health by making it less centralized and placing agreater emphasis on community-driven initiatives.

Programs such as Education for All have made educa-tion a major focus area in the region.

Infrastructure DevelopmentInfrastructure development continues to be one of themainstays of the World Bank program in Africa. We had a

relatively successful run with the Chad-Cameroon pipelineand the Bujagali power dam project, and we will continueto support large and complex infrastructure projects suchas these. These are very important programs for Africa todevelop.

World Bank programs have undergone a radical trans-formation in the last five to six years. These changes areconsistent and supportive of the Durban Declarationagainst racism, but we are not done; additional focus onspecific actions against racism should be explicitly includedin our programs.

OVERLAP BETWEEN WCAR ACTION STEPS AND THE BANK’S ROLE

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DURING THE COURSE OF THE FORUM, Durban PlusOne: Opportunity and Challenges forEthnic/Racial Inclusion in Development, informaldiscussions took place in which both the atten-dees and the participants discussed the issues

that concerned their work and the implementation of theDurban Program of Action. The following are the mainissues and conclusions that were part of said discussions.

Data CollectionData collection proved to be an important topic in the dis-cussions following the presentations as well as in the pre-sentations themselves. The collection of disaggregated dataon marginalized groups is essential in the development ofprograms to aid said groups, as well as in their eventualinclusion. To illustrate the importance of census data, Shel-ton Davis stated that there are between 80 million and 150million Afro-descendents throughout Latin America and theCaribbean, but that “it has been extremely difficult for vari-ous historical, sociological, and political reasons to get anexact estimate (or even a rough guess) of the Afro-descen-dant population in the region.” Hermine de Soto alsoaddressed the need of data collection on the Roma popula-tion in Albania.

Community-Driven DevelopmentThere is a major push in LCR and the Africa region to usethe instrument of accountability, one of the four instru-ments of empowerment, in order to try and work with thelocal authorities to ensure that as much of its project fundsare made available directly to the communities and thatthese, in turn, have a say in choosing which projects are tobe implemented, and in designing and implementing them.

Land TitlesLand titling is always a difficult issue, but there are ways inwhich progress is being made. Gobind Nankani recountedhis recent trip to a project in India, in the State of Kar-nataka, in which a unit in the government has been able toestablish land titles for poor farmers in an area and com-puterize all this information. “But when the large landown-ers woke up to this fact,” explained Mr. Nankani, “it wastoo late. It was a small unit. They used technology. Wetalked to the farmers. And I was there and I was able to seebasically farmers with very little education get copies oftheir land titles by requesting this information.”

There is a lot of resistance from vested interests, typi-cally including large landowners, but as Mr. Nankaniexplained, there are ways of doing these projects, and

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6

Main Issues and Discussions

certain information technology using computers in someparts of the world has worked.

Visibility, Exclusion, and Policy ReformThose present at the forum expressed the view that invisibil-ity exists that clearly leads to exclusion and that a greaterunderstanding is needed of the dynamics of policy reforms inrelation to the affected groups. . In Afro-Latin communities,for example, these dynamics were what have brought aboutprograms such as the land titling program in Afro-descendantcommunities in Colombia. It is also important to internalizethe demands of Afro-Latin populations at both the nationaland international levels. In the Latin America and CaribbeanRegion the work has begun, but more needs to be done.

There is a consensus that concretization is needed inshaping the message (of the institutions present at theforum) and strengthening civil organizations. Includingexcluded groups in the development agenda was seen, bysome, as not only a technical process, but a politicalprocess as well.

As noted by David de Ferranti, “Exclusion exacts toohigh a price for individuals, communities, and the nationaleconomy. Exclusion based on racial and ethnic discrimina-tion has such devastating consequences for countries andindividuals that we simply cannot ignore it.”

Evaluation of the PRSP ProcessThe discussion on the PRSP process was centered on eval-uation of the process and possible improvements that couldbe made to it. Speaking on this issue, Hans Binswangerstated that:

“What is striking is that whenever you go to any oneof the countries where the PRSP has been run, thereis almost universal buy-in into the process, and Ithink the agenda is now to strengthen the participa-tion, because these things are going to happen everythree years. So we need both to have very strongquantitative and qualitative monitoring of participa-tion in the various elements, and we need to focus onhow do we support especially marginal and excludedgroups for participation in those things. So I don’tthink we are there yet. I think we have good inten-tions and we’re moving, but think of this like a hugeocean liner that has to be turned around, and it’s notgoing to happen immediately. It’s not like changingaround a small little boat.”

Poverty Reduction and EmpowermentThe new World Bank strategy for poverty reduction isbased on accelerating investment and growth, the recogni-tion of macroeconomic stability as a precondition, and theneed for targeted programs and empowerment. Empower-ment is defined as the expansion of assets and capabilitiesof poor people to participate, negotiate, control or holdaccountable the formal and informal institutions that affecttheir lives. Five key empowerment elements needed tounderlie institutional reform were introduced. These are:access to information; access of poor groups to credit, edu-


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Photo: Eric Miller

cation, land, and a predictable flow of fiscal resources;inclusion and participation; accountability; and local orga-nizational capacity.

Strengthening of Democratic Institutions and GovernanceStrengthening democratic institutions and governance, asdiscussed in the forum, were actually two separate head-ings. The focus of the World Bank in these areas centers onparticipation and decentralization—participation at thebroader policy level but also at the community level.Accountability and governance are pursued with a varietyof World Bank instruments, including the dialogue aroundthe PRSPs and the Poverty Reduction Support Credits.

Cultural PropertyThe World Bank is supporting efforts in this area at a mod-est level through the Global Environment Facility (GEF)programs.

GenderThrough a number of capacity building investment instru-ments, World Bank programs are helping to strengthen thecapacity of women in the regions. Participants concludedthat gender discrimination has an extremely negativeimpact on growth and poverty.

MAIN ISSUES AND DISCUSSIONS

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Photo: Shehzad Noorani.

LOOKING BACK, THE IMPACT OF THE DURBAN PROCESS hasbeen positive. The issue of discrimination is on thetable. Durban has given voice to groups such as theAfro-descendants in Latin America, and it has alsoresulted in country commitments. Good things have

been happening in the region after all. Just two examples.One is affirmative action in Brazil, including governmentscholarships for universities and the foreign service.Second, just last week in the Mexican Congress a very com-prehensive anti-discrimination law was presented byPresident Fox. So countries have been active in promotinginclusion and I believe that this is the consequence of theDurban process. You (the activists) should all feel veryproud of this.

What is social inclusion at the IDB? Or what do weunderstand by exclusion? We believe that exclusion has acore economic component. But we also recognize thatthere is a social dimension to exclusion. Exclusion isembodied in social interactions. It has a cumulative effect,disadvantages accumulate, and it has both a spatial and atime or an intergenerational dimension. Exclusion meansphysical separation, and it usually gets carried over gener-ations. A final key feature is that it is a group phenome-non. It is not only that individuals are excluded, but alsogroups, and this group feature carries a group identity,

which is one of the “good” features, in a sense, of exclu-sion. The group identity can lead to activism when groupsidentify their own exclusion, and this can be very power-ful in mobilizing inclusion policies.

What are we trying to do? At the Bank for a number ofyears now we have a very strong indigenous peoples pro-gram, and we have been working on women’s and genderissues as well. More recently, however, and in conjunctionwith Durban, we have broadened our inclusion agenda toencompass Afro-descendants, persons with disabilities, andpersons with HIV/AIDS. And we are using a broaderumbrella concept of inclusion when we consider all thesedifferent groups.

What is our objective? It is to help governments dointelligent public investments that are designed to correctimbalances in the access excluded groups have to servicesand products as well as political resources and justice; Iwant to underline the part on political resources because Ithink it is very important.

What are some tools? We have an internal action plan toguide the Bank’s work in this area. In addition, as part of aprocess where we are defining institutional strategies forthe IDB, we have emphasized both the goal of social inclu-sion and the need to track how well we fare in terms of thisobjective. So, we will be held accountable for what we are

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7

The IDB’s Approach to Economic and Social InclusionMayra Buvinic, Chief, Social Development,

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

doing in terms of social inclusion. We also have a newdiversity plan.

Inclusion for us is, as I said, is an umbrella concept. Wewish to take advantage of the lessons learned from theexperiences of different excluded groups. We also wish tohelp build broad-based support across excluded groups.But this umbrella concept needs to maintain the unique-ness and group identities of indigenous peoples issues aswell as the issues faced by Afro-descendants, women, andpeople with disabilities, among others. I think it will be abig challenge to formulate one inclusion strategy that pre-serves the individual histories, identities, and diversity ofthese groups. In addition to helping build a broad base of

support, there is a conceptual basis for this umbrella notionof social inclusion grounded in common features thatexcluded groups share. And what are they? I will walk youvery briefly through several common features and sharewhat we have learned from our experiences that could beuseful to other groups.

The first feature—which has already been mentionedhere—is that all these groups are invisible in the statistics.We know more about the diversity of our industrial pro-duction in Latin America and the Caribbean than we knowabout the diversity of our peoples. From “Todos ContamosII,” a collaborative event we just had with the World Bankon including race and ethnicity in censuses, as well as frompast work with women’s issues, we have learned, first, thatwhen we work with statistics, we need to work with apackage of instruments. We cannot rely on just having onestatistical instrument, for instance a census that will meas-ure prevalence of these groups. Because what if the censusdoes not give you reliable information? The political costfrom one erroneous number could be huge. What is calledfor is a package of statistical instruments where we com-bine census information with household survey informa-tion and with qualitative measures.

Secondly, we learned that the excluded groups have tobe full partners in the design of the statistical instrumentsthat will be used to measure them. It was wonderful to seethe constructive dialogue between statisticians and repre-sentatives from excluded groups in “Todos Contamos II”and this is a key lesson.

We also learned that we need more than one definitionfor the excluded. We cannot rely only on self-identification.The IDB supported research by Grupo de Análisis para elDesarrollo (GRADE) in Peru where an index for racialintensity was designed to measure exclusion—scores wereassigned from one, being white, to ten, being indigenous orblack. They found an interesting, likely very common,effect: the people themselves always ranked themselves asmore white than the observers ranked them. When certainethnic or racial characteristics are not valued in societypeople will not wish to self-identify themselves as such. Soit is very important not to rely only on self-identification toget reliable estimates of the size of excluded populations.

The second shared feature of excluded groups is thatthey are overrepresented among the poor. This is not new,but what we have learned at the IDB—and this is research


30


that Claire Nelson, who is here with us today, coordi-nated—is that targeting the poor alone does not necessar-ily mean that you reach the excluded. The excluded arepoor, but the nature of their poverty is different. So tai-lored, specific measures are required to reach them. And,very importantly, because poverty is so key to exclusion,there is a need to especially focus on labor market inter-ventions to help bring the excluded into the economicmainstream.

Another typical characteristic shared by excludedgroups is that they suffer both stigma and discrimination.Interesting lessons in terms of stigma and discriminationcome from research and advocacy of people withHIV/AIDS. Other excluded groups can learn useful lessonsfrom this work. A key insight is that power differences areat the core of stigma. Powerful groups in society are seldomsubject of stigma. So to combat stigma and discriminationthere is a need to shift power relations by empowering theexcluded. People with HIV/AIDS have been very good atempowering themselves and being very strong advocates;other excluded groups could learn from the strategies theyhave used.

The multiple disadvantage of excluded groups isanother shared characteristic. Gender, for example, inter-acts with and deepens other forms of exclusion. As a result,in terms of gender issues, we need to start shifting fromfocusing on general gender inequality to striving to increaseequality among women, and particularly to focus on themultiple disadvantage of excluded women. This could havepotential political costs because we would be losing part ofthe base of support for gender issues. Our task should beto demonstrate that, by focusing on poor and excludedwomen, benefits accrue to all women. So we have to builda gender base of solidarity and support.

Exclusion is economics, but exclusion also goes beyondeconomics. Exclusion has an origin in social relations;exclusion really means intolerance. Inclusive policies needto go beyond welfare; they need to be based in the princi-ple of solidarity and strive to change the culture of soci-eties, promoting both fairness and diversity.

THE IDB’S APPROACH TO ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL INCLUSION

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Photo: Ami Vitale.

THE WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM was, first andforemost, I think, an awareness raising process. Notonly were we made aware of the problems faced byAfro-descendants, women, Roma, and other groups,but also of the need to build strategic partnerships

and interact with other institutions in order to effectivelycombat racism and discrimination.

I would like to first address the changes that have takenplace at OHCHR, notably the new Commissioner, and lateroffer what I think are the basic recommendations for coop-eration between the World Bank, the OHCHR, and otherorganizations in terms of implementing the Durban Programof Action. I think that there is a tremendous opportunity forour organizations to work together because, in a sense, theOffice of the High Commissioner has the policymakers andthe social dialogue with Nongovernmental Organizations(NGOs). But that dialogue and those goals have to be trans-lated into action, and that is really where the World Bank andthe regional development banks can make a tremendous dif-ference.

As I already mentioned, we have a new High Commis-sioner for Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello. He hassaid publicly that his top three priorities are combatingracism, gender discrimination, and protecting civilians inarmed conflict. I think that although he may have a slightly

different style from the former High Commissioner, MaryRobinson, he is fully committed to following up on theDurban process.

I would like to really second the presentation made byHans Binswanger. I thought he made a very interestingobservation, and I share it because in a sense I have twohats. I have worked in my career in human rights. I startedhere in Washington as a civil rights lawyer. Then I wentoverseas and worked in international development, mainlyindustrial development, in Africa and Asia. And then Icame back to human rights in the International LabourOrganization (ILO) and the Office of the High Commis-sioner. And I can tell you, human rights people have a verylimited knowledge of what development banks do, espe-cially the World Bank and regional development banks. Inoticed this during the last seven years I have worked withthe Office of the High Commissioner, and I was reallystruck by it.

We’ve had the benefit of having World Bank experts intwo regional seminars we’ve held in follow-up to Durban:one in Mexico City in July and one in Nairobi in Septem-ber. And these World Bank experts have really contributedan enormous amount to the richness of these seminars.And so my first recommendation is a very strategic one,which almost mirrors exactly that of Hans, and involves

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8

The Durban Program of Action and Implications for International Financial

and Development InstitutionsRobert Husbands, Manager, Anti-Discrimination Unit,

United Nations Office of the High Commissioner

for Human Rights (OHCHR)

closing the gap between human rights organizations anddevelopment banks.

As the head of my unit, I attend many seminars andevents, and find that the information that is shared at theseevents does not get out to the people it needs to get out to.It does not get out to the members of governments, theCommissioner of Human Rights, or the governments thatattend the General Assembly. It just does not get out. AndI think that in building strategic partnerships betweeninstitutions we should consider this problem and createeffective mechanisms to disseminate information.

Now, I was going to tell you a little bit about our pro-grams at UNHCR with regard to the Durban Program ofAction and its implementation. Following the WCAR, aworking group of people of African descent has been cre-ated. It met at the end of November 2002 and plans tomeet again in February 2003. We are aware of three coun-tries, Sweden, Norway, and Argentina, that have developednational plans of action to combat racism. We expect thatnumber to rise substantially in the next 6 to 12 months.

With respect to reporting on implementation of the Pro-gram of Action, there is a process in place that requires theHigh Commissioner of Human Rights to report to theCommission for Human Rights and to the General Assem-bly. The Secretariat also regularly sends out communica-tions requesting information from governments, NGOs,national human rights associations, U.N. bodies and inter-national development institutions such as the World Bank.This information is compiled, and is made available tothese institutions. Furthermore, our office prepares anannual consolidated implementation report—the firstshould be out in January—that is destined for the public.

This year we’ve had the opportunity to hold tworegional seminars, called Implementation of the DurbanProgram of Action, that were an exchange of ideas on howto move forward. This is part of an ongoing politicalprocess, and we are planning on holding three more sem-inars next year, hopefully in Finland, in Eastern Europe ata location to be determined, and probably in Bangkok.We will also be having a joint workshop with the UnitedNations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO) in Paris in February with a view to having a

joint publication out in three languages and with a gooddistribution worldwide, and will be working with our col-leagues and our geographic team for Latin America andthe Caribbean on an affirmative action workshop, hope-fully to be held in Montevideo in March. In terms of pub-lications, we are developing a publication on bestpractices and updating our publication on the genderdimension to racial discrimination. Our office is alsogoing to fund some grants programs next year for youthand NGO groups that will be used for human rights edu-cation and for national human rights institutions to eitherput in place or reinforce programs to combat racial dis-crimination.


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The World Conference Against Racism, RacialDiscrimination, Xenophobia and RelatedIntolerance established a clear global consensus toimplement an internationally coordinated strategyto end the scourge of global institutionalized

racism. This consensus recognizes three significantinsights: (1) race and poverty are interconnected in themanner that the impact of racism is ultimately the depriva-tion of the comprehensive right to human and social devel-opment; (2) the spatial dynamics of social division withinsocieties governed by hierarchical inclusion regimes, andthe persistence of disparities in capabilities, particularly inagency and voice, among stratified social groups, createssocial tensions that undermine the stability of human andsocial development; and lastly, (3) that the development ofuniform measures of social inclusion is a priority to estab-lishing a monitoring mechanism capable of guiding andaiding the coordination of international human and socialdevelopment strategies.

I argue that there are two fundamental insights uponwhich operative understanding must be based in undertak-ing the development of uniform measures. First, the devel-opment of uniform measures to address theinterconnection between race and poverty requires a para-digm shift, from the predominant welfare economic frame-

work of measuring human and social development basedon a distributive paradigm, to an analytical frameworkbased on a deliberative paradigm. Second, this new welfareeconomic framework based on a deliberative paradigmmust have the utility for addressing the multitude of socialdivision and hierarchical inclusion regimes appearing inthe global context.

The model for uniform measures of social inclusion thatI propose sets forth a welfare economic framework for eval-uating inclusive democracy within an assumed “GlobalMeta Power Structural Dynamic.” This structural dynamiccan be described as a spherical conceptualization of societycontained within and shaped by seven “Meta” power struc-tural arrangements that are interactive and interdependentwith one another; the most important being the “PrestigeStructural Arrangement.” The prestige structural arrange-ment might be characterized as the predominant value sys-tem of a society, comprised of social, cultural, andeconomic attitudes that are inextricably intertwined. Theseattitudes influence the distribution of social capabilitiesand opportunities among distinct and cognizable socialgroups within the society, to the advantage or disadvantageof particular social groups depending on their level of affin-ity with the predominant value system. Prestige structuralarrangements can be observed at every level of society—

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9

Structural Social Exclusion and Development of Uniform Measures of

Race and Poverty IntersectionLindsay Jones, Institute of Race and Poverty,

University of Minnesota Law School

local, national, and international. It manifests in a multi-tude of complex social divisions and hierarchical inclusionregimes based on intersections of skin color, gender, class,and ethnicity. Ethnicity is complicated by specific culturetraits and influences such as language, geography, history,and religion.

While the prestige structural arrangement is the criticalpillar upon which societies at all levels are shaped andmaintained, it is by no means the only influential powerstructural arrangement. Four secondary categories of struc-tural arrangements can be observed and may be catego-rized as legislative, juridical, regulatory, andcommunicative power structural arrangements. These foursecondary power structural arrangements are mutuallyreinforcing of one another, as are they of the primary powerstructural axis, and vice versa.

The proposed model assumes that the deconstruction ofinstitutionalized social division and hierarchical inclusioncritically relies upon human and social development strate-gies that deliberately and effectively democratize the GlobalMeta Power Structural Dynamic. To this extent, the modelidentifies two outcome measurable goals that are supportedby progressive evaluative indicators to guide and evaluatehuman and social development policies and initiatives. Thefirst outcome measurable goal is the functional equalizationof “empowerment voice” and preservation of social groupintegrity for all distinct and cognizable social groups com-prising a society. The second outcome measurable goal is

the establishment of a normative equal protection guaran-tee to the comprehensive right to human and social devel-opment. Whereas the first goal measures the level ofinclusion, the second goal measures the level of democracy.

The proposed model also assumes that a social group’sagency and voice capabilities can be evaluated through thequalitative characterization of the capabilities as falling intoone of three categories: protest voice, empowerment voice,and transformative voice. These categories are progressiveas well as comparative, and can be employed to guidehuman and social development investments and establishuniform measures to evaluate progress in democratizingthe Global Meta Power Structural Dynamic. A social groupexhibiting “protest voice” is generally lacking the capabilityto organize under required institutional forms and com-mand required institutional languages. They are in terms ofthe vernacular, “socially excluded.” Empowerment voicemight be characterized as a social group exhibiting somelevel of situational capability to access the Global MetaPower Structural Dynamic through its institutional lan-guages and form requirements and directly engage in itsmediation processes. While not directly bringing about thedemocratization of the Global Meta Power StructuralDynamic, protest voice may evolve into “empowermentvoice” through increased situational capability gainedthrough receiving human and social development conces-sions in response to protest visibility.

Ultimately, the democratization of the Global Meta PowerStructural Dynamic is dependent on the functional equaliza-


36

Diagram 1. Global Meta Power Structural Dynamic Model

Financial StructuralArrangement

Regulatory StructuralArrangement

Prestige StructuralArrangement

Security/Policing StructuralArrangement

Communicative StructuralArrangement

Legislative StructuralArrangement

Diagram 2. Global Meta Power Structural Dynamic Model

Financial StructuralArrangements

Regulatory StructuralArrangements

Juridical StructuralArrangements

Prestige StructuralArrangements

tion of empowerment voice and preservation of social groupintegrity for all distinct and cognizable social groups com-prising a society. The realization of this structural capabilitywithin the Global Meta Power Structural Dynamic estab-lishes societal capability for pluralism and understanding of“complex interdependence.” This transcendence signifies theemergence of transformative voice, which might be charac-terized as a single collective mantra, “democratize the powerstructures.” Transformative voice seeks to secure social groupdifferences through the functional equalization of theirrespective agencies and voices for equal consideration andaccommodation in the mediation processes of the GlobalMeta Power Structural Dynamic.

In as much as I am attempting to invoke the trans-formative voice before this audience, I am calling upon

the community of multilateral development agencies toreflect upon their respective roles within the interna-tional financial power structural arrangement and theircommitment, both internally and externally, to decon-structing institutionalized social division and hierarchi-cal inclusion. In closing, let me express my sincereappreciation for those who are responsible for this gath-ering through this metaphorical summary of our mis-sion—Blessed are the hands that come together toweave and transform the segregated quilt into an inte-grated tapestry, in which the color, texture, and thick-ness of its individual threads are preserved withintegrity, for such is the fabric and swaddling fromwhich our humanity emerges from its infancy andbecomes self-actualized.

STRUCTURAL SOCIAL EXCLUSION AND DEVELOPMENT OF UNIFORM MEASURES OF RACE AND POVERTY INTERSECTION

37

THERE HAVE BEEN MANY DEVELOPMENTS since the WorldConference Against Racism, Racial DiscriminationXenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR). Boththe World Bank and the Inter-American DevelopmentBank (IDB) have been working to identify and imple-

ment programs and projects, drawing from their experiences insupporting indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants, Roma,women, and other victims of discrimination. The purpose of thisDurban Plus One forum was threefold: to update participants onthe Durban Program of Action; to link race, ethnicity, and diver-sity to measurable indicators such as the “MillenniumDevelopment Goals (MDGs)”; and to stimulate dialogue on oper-ational implications of the WCAR for multilateral institutions.

In terms of the conceptual design and how we arrived atit, you will be pleased to know that we did this in consul-tation with, and with inputs from, the many folks that youheard here today. We designed the theme and focus bymaking sure that the nexus between diversity and racialand ethnic exclusion and the linkages with the MDGs werethorough and apparent. I believe this came through as youheard from the various presentations.

A lesson that can be drawn from this forum is that wehave moved to action. This was apparent in the presenta-

tions from the operations units in the Bank (AFR, ECA,LCR) and at the IDB. The sensitive issue of ethnic and racialinclusion is no longer a taboo. We can no longer ignore itor hide it. We have placed racial and ethnic inclusion onthe radar screen. Moreover, this issue enjoys a strong com-mitment from the leadership of the Bank Group in generaland from the Operations Vice Presidents.

Yet another lesson that can be drawn from this confer-ence is the linkage and relevance of racial and ethnic inclu-sion to the MDGs. One thing that came through in thepresentations is that the MDGs would not make any senseif they exclude anyone based on race or ethnic affiliation.

At the end of the day, exclusion is really about peopleand their lives. It is about education, health, sanitation,and economic and social opportunity. We are talkingabout voice and participation. It is about the lives of mil-lions of Afro-descendants in Latin America and theCaribbean, thousands of Roma, a growing number of peo-ple impoverished and afflicted with HIV/AIDS, andcountless others that are marginalized and excludedthroughout the world. In short, we are talking about peo-ple. The challenge for all of us is to translate today’s dis-cussions into operational results.

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Closing RemarksAklog Birara, Senior Advisor on Racial Equality,

Office of Diversity Programs

Structural Social Exclusion and Development of Uniform Measures of Race and Poverty Intersection, page 35

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