1. Promoting Civic Engagement Through Analytical Work in the The World Bank Meeting of the External Advisory Group on the Enabling Environment for Civic Engagement Work Program June 7 & Jeff Thindwa Social Development Department

2. Role of Civil Society in Development
Consensus for reforms
Human Rights – Equity Econ. Growth
Institutional Transparency and Accountability
Social Mobilizn, participn of poor
Service Delivery-Low Cost - Quality
Resource Manag & Env. Protection

3. Prioritizing Participation and Civic Engagement
1996 Participation Sourcebook: provided conceptual and operational framework
Participation embodied in Comprehensive Development Framework; PRSP approach
Empowerment framework: access to information, inclusion and participation, accountability, local organization capacity
15 Operational policies and directives
OED, QAG, DEC studies highlight benefits of participation

4. Conclusion:
Engagement of citizens and citizens’ organizations in public policy debate, or in delivering public services and contributing to the management of public goods, is a critical factor in making development policy and action responsiveness to the needs and aspirations of the people and potentially of the poor.

5. Operationalizing Civic Engagement
Tools, resources, capacity building, for social accountability
Tools, resources to facilitate diagnostic work on civil society
ARVIN
CSAT
Tools, resources to promote PM&E of poverty reduction strategies
Corporate advocacy and institutional guidance

6. Analytical Work on Civil Society
Attempts to answer four questions:
How can civil society fulfill these functions?
What kind of laws, regulations, policies, capacities, other institutional factors are necessary?
How can stakeholders deepen understanding of these factors
What actions can the Bank, partners, clients, other stakeholders, take to improve conditions for civic engagement?

7. Embracing Analytical Approaches to Improve Environment for Civic Engagement
Participatory Diagnostic Tool
NGO Law Handbook
Focus on Civic Engagement
NGO Focus
Focus on Broader Reforms
Focus on Regulation
Expert driven
Stakeholder driven
General audiences
Alignment with Bank Operations

8. Characteristics of the Tools and Methodology
Participatory and inclusive
Multi-stakeholder approaches
Action-Research orientation
Integrative (with other SD tools) and adaptive
Outreach/collaboration with peers
Focus on learning

9. A R V “ARVIN” Framework I N oice ssociation esource Mobilization
nformation
egotiation A V I N R
esource Mobilization
Legal & Regulatory Framework
Political & Governance Context
Socio-Cultural Characteristics
Economic Conditions
The objectives of the ARVIN framework are
to provide a conceptual and methodological framework for assessing and understanding the institutional conditions that impact civic engagement;
to guide Bank country teams in identifying and advocating policy and legal reform priorities and capacity building needs, in order to improve the conditions for civil society; and
to develop knowledge products and support the training of Bank task teams and external stakeholders in the enabling environment analytical work
The “ARVIN framework,” facilitates a detailed assessment of the institutional context of civil society by looking at four principal dimensions: the legal and regulatory, political and governmental, socio-cultural and economic.
These, in turn, directly influence five critical factors, or “enabling elements,” of civic engagement: the freedom of citizens to associate (A); the ability to mobilize financial and other resources (R); the ability to formulate and express voice, or opinion (V); the access to official information (I); and the existence of spaces and rules of engagement for negotiation and public debate (N).
The ARVIN acronym synthesizes this complex set of inter-related elements that determine the effectiveness of civil society in promoting economic, social and political development.
Each of the four dimensions of analysis in the vertical axis of the ARVIN framework, represented in the table below, influences each of the five enabling elements in the horizontal axis.

10. Civil Society Assessment Tool - CSAT
A tool – derived from ARVIN- to assess the nature of civil society’s internal and external dynamics; Type of engagement and roles; Strengths and weaknesses; Enabling factors; Opportunities and challenges …….
So that advice and strategies can be designed to enable it to play an effective role as a development actor, in different country contexts.
In the case of failed or weak states experiencing conditions of widespread conflict and social ungovernability, civil society organizations usually offer the institutional basis for public service delivery. Their links are vital gateways.
CSAT encompasses the enabling environment framework from the perspective of both the internal and external factors promoting civic engagement, as well as critical relationships between government and civil society and with other actors, as well as within civil society (vertical and horizontal relations).
CIVICUS is a unique analytical and diagnostic tool to increase
knowledge and raise awareness about civil society among the
public, government and other sectors of society

11. Application in Low Income Countries Under Stress - LICUS
Priority for the Bank in LICUS: Give attention to
-understanding the social and political economy factors,
-transferring knowledge
-to build capacity
Focus on analysis of civil society as part of the governance assessment of the CAS in LICUS or feed into TSS.
CSAT tool derived from the ARVIN framework

12. Some Key Issues
Are these approaches responding to the needs that you see in your work?
What are we missing?
What other actors should the Bank be engaging as part of the process to improve these tools?
What are the Bank’s comparative advantages, and how can we better play to them?