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CSO that are monitoring IFIs conditionalities organized during the WB-IMF Annual Meeting a seminar to examine in depth "What future for World Bank Conditionality". The Development Committee did agree to “regular monitoring to ensure consistent implementation at the country level [on conditionality] and for a report on progress next year.”

The Development Committee welcomed “the review of World Bank conditionality and endorsed the good practice principles the Bank has put forward”. The guidelines, which were modified during September following internal meetings and NGO advocacy, cover the need to:

• Actively reinforce country ownership by relying on clear evidence of ownership informed by analytic work

• Agree up-front with the government and other financial partners on a coordinated accountability framework which includes both policy actions and outcome indicators.

• Customize the accountability framework used to evaluate country performance under the program and modalities of Bank support to country circumstances and not use the framework to leverage additional reforms outside the government’s agenda.

• Choose only actions critical for achieving results as conditions for disbursement.

• Conduct transparent progress reviews conducive to predictable and performance based financial support. (WB 2005b)

Though a step in the right direction, these guidelines do not go far enough. Importantly, they are missing a call for a significant reduction in the number of binding and non-binding conditions. This is extremely important given growing evidence by the Bank and NGOs that the number of World Bank conditions have increased dramatically over the last four years.

The guidelines also fail to call for the concept of criticality to be applied to the use of benchmarks or non-binding conditions. This is a missed opportunity, given that these types of conditions appear to have increased the most. The guidelines also fail to call for an end to the World Bank imposing economic policy conditionality, particularly controversial conditions like trade liberalisation and privatisation, despite growing evidence that the poverty impact of these types of reforms is questionable at best. Finally, the guidelines fall to ensure that civil society and parliamentary actors are enabled to participate in the negotiation of conditions.

On a more positive note, however, the Development Committee did agree to “regular monitoring to ensure consistent implementation at the country level [on conditionality] and for a report on progress next year.” (DC Communiqué 2005) This is a huge victory for NGOs that lobbied hard to get vital accountability mechanisms in place to monitor Bank conditionality on a regular basis. A progress report is set to be delivered at the 2006 Annual Meetings. NGOs are calling for recipient countries and CSO submissions to be included in the report.

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