Irreverence at the World Bank

For A Change, Dec-Jan, 1998

The World Bank is often criticized for approaching development in purely monetary terms. But even within this Temple of Mammon there are people who try to see their work in a spiritual dimension.

For the past 20 years a group of World Bank employees have been meeting over breakfast every Friday morning to discuss spiritual, moral and ethical values and how these are related to development. World Bank environmental adviser Robert Goodland tells me that the group has about 70 members, but because of their travels, only 15 or so are normally able to attend.

`The last few sessions we have been examining the lessons of Ogoniland, the sacrifice of Dr Ken Saro-Wiwa and what this means for oil development,' he says. `We discuss and seek to improve ourselves by learning from such discussions. We give each other a lot of mutual support, but we are not exactly an action group. The most we would do is to direct concerns to the best place for resolution or information.

`How are we viewed by the Bank? The Bank knows that we helped defrock the taboo against the discussion of excessive arms expenditures, and helped raise vulnerable ethnic minorities on the agenda of concern--as just two examples. They know that we are unofficial and powerless, but that we are at the same time a reliable catalyst for crucial needs that are unpopular, taboo or laughed off at first.

`We don't want to claim credit, but we have been a source of infection, a breeding ground or launch pad for many of the non-economic improvements in the Bank in the last two decades, all very behind the scenes.'

From a written statement about the group you learn that their meetings sometimes begin with unconventional speakers--such as a Russian activist released after years in the Gulag or a former Vatican economist--or with a reading from one of the major religions.

One of the topics the group has examined is decision making--for instance, the way the Quakers seek the corporate leading of the Holy Spirit and the way Botswanan village chiefs achieve consensus. How people arrive at decisions has become more important to the Bank now that it is seeking to involve communities in the design of the policies and projects from which they will benefit.

Sometimes members of the group make personal presentations about what has influenced their lives and career choices--compelling stories that one would rarely hear in the polite but impersonal atmosphere of the office later in the day.

The dominant mode of the meetings is one of listening and non-judgemental interaction. `And,' adds one of the founders, Sven Burmester, `you can say anything you want, with a bias for irreverence.'