Development dialogue kicks off in March 18

The World Bank Mission and the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CCD) will begin to hold a series of development dialogue programmes.

The first in the series, which is on the theme, ?Empowerment for Development?, is being held in close collaboration with the Ministry of Information and Presidential Affairs and the Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists (IFEJ)

The programme, which begins on Tuesday, March 18, at the Accra International Conference Centre, is meant to bring think-tanks and institutions in the country together to promote vibrant discourse on development policy choices. It is envisaged to be a programme of critical public discussions on issues of development.

The objectives of the programme are to create a forum where development thinkers, practitioners, beneficiaries and other stakeholders will engage in regular dialogue over the critical issues and challenges of development in Ghana.

Additionally, it is meant to provide rich inputs into public policy making, implementation and impact assessment.

According to World Development Report 2000 and 2001, attacking poverty presents a multinational view of poverty and underscores the importance of increasing poor people?s access to opportunity, security and empowerment for economic growth and poverty reduction.

Building on the report, the World Bank?s strategic framework paper identifies two priority areas for bank support to client governments, which are, building the climate for investments, jobs and growth and empowering poor people and investing in their assets.

There is ample evidence that there are linkages between empowerment and development effectiveness, both at the society-wide level and at the grassroots level.

Empowerment approaches can strengthen good governance, which in turn enhances growth prospects.

Experience also demonstrates that empowerment can improve development effectiveness and pro-poor impact at the individual project level.

According to the report, evidence shows that projects in countries with strong civil liberties- particularly citizen voice, participation and accountability ? significantly out-perform projects in countries with weak civil liberties.

However, there remain many questions about what empowerment means, how it applies to the bank?s work and what actions should be undertaken to move agenda forward. The final section of the report documents tools and practices that can support the implementation of an empowering approach to poverty.

The report underlines four key elements of empowerment that must underline institutional reform to include, access to information, inclusion or participation accountability and local organisational capacity.

Empowerment approaches focus on application of the empowerment framework in five areas, which include, provision of basic services, improved local governance, improved national governance, pro-poor market development and access by poor people to justice.

The World Bank?s comparative advantage in pursuing an empowerment agenda for poverty reduction lies in relations with governments around the world.

The bank convenes stakeholders to stimulate debate, consensus and coalition building for reform as well as support information disclosure, inclusion and participation, particularly the poor.

Finally, the bank can support the strengthening of civil society and government institutions at the local and national levels.