WorldBank_exesum

Introduction

On October 19-20, 2004, fifty participants, consisting of international and local foundations, government representatives, and World Bank staff, met in Bangkok to explore common areas of interest and potential entry points for collaboration around Thailand’s development agenda. The meeting was co-hosted by the World Bank’s Thailand Country Office and the Rockefeller Foundation’s Southeast Asia Regional office. It was the first in a series of Foundation-World Bank Country Dialogues being organized by the Bank’s Foundations Unit in collaboration with the International Committee of the European Foundation Centre (EFC) in Brussels.

The purpose of convening dialogues with World Bank Country Offices is to share knowledge, increase communication, and explore ways that the World Bank can work more effectively with philanthropic organizations. The dialogues are also aimed at enabling the World Bank to better understand how foundations work, provide foundations with information on how the World Bank works with governments and other partners, and improve communication and interaction among foundations operating in the countries involved.

The meeting was co-chaired by Ian Porter, World Bank Country Director for Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Thailand) and Dr. Rosalia Sciortino, Director, Rockefeller Foundation Southeast Asia Regional Program. In their opening remarks, the co-chairs both identified the dialogue’s goal as finding ways to help foundations communicate and work more effectively among themselves and with the World Bank and Thai government counterparts (especially on policy related issues) in order to have a greater developmental impact. The co-chairs observed that while there are many challenges in attempting such a collaboration, partly due to the diverse institutional mechanisms and perspectives of the workshop participants, these challenges may be outweighed by several advantages. For example, the various groups bring different information to share, they appeal to different constituencies, and, working together, they can have a broad effect by combining resources for more effective development.

The agenda was divided into two plenary sessions, followed by breakout sessions on specific topics. The first plenary session was devoted to a discussion of Thailand’s National Development Agenda (NDA). Dr. Porametee Vimolsiri, Executive Director, Macroeconomic Office, National Economic and Social Development Board, described the current social and economic status of Thailand, government poverty reduction policies and programs, and Thailand’s progress toward achieving the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In this context, Ian Porter addressed how the World Bank works with the government and supports the NDA, based on its four pillars of Human and Social Capital, Competitiveness, Poverty and Inequality, and Natural Resources and Environment, as well as the cross-cutting pillar of Governance. He also pointed out that since the World Bank has a very limited lending program in Thailand, its work is focused much more on knowledge sharing partnerships. The financial resources for such partnerships come from trust funds as well as government and World Bank resources.

The second plenary session addressed the promotion of philanthropy and partnership in Thailand, including international and local perspectives. Rien van Gendt, EFC delegate and Executive Director of the Van Leer Group Foundation in the Netherlands, expressed the EFC’s interest in contributing to the development of local philanthropy. Dr. Juree Vichit-Vadakan, Chair of the Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society (CPCS), gave a historical overview of philanthropy in Thailand and pointed out that local philanthropy is complex and must be understood within the particular socio-cultural context of the country. She also stressed that Thai civil society can be seen as a “large umbrella” that subsumes many types of organizations and that the sector is currently experiencing some tension with the government due mainly to their different views and approaches on how development policies and implementation can best help reduce poverty. Senator Mechai Viravaidya, President of the Population and Community Development Association (PCDA), addressed alternative approaches to sustainable fundraising for NGOs. He stressed that NGOs should not only depend on philanthropic efforts, but should also develop innovative fundraising approaches, redesign programs to include cost recovery, and generate income through business activities.

The breakout sessions were organized around the following five subjects representing common areas of interest: poverty, education, HIV/AIDS, governance, and environment. World Bank, government, and foundation representatives attended each breakout group where participants identified model strategies and suggested concrete opportunities for collaboration.

Suggestions and Recommendations

The dialogue established that the World Bank, Thai government, Thai civil society organizations (both grant makers and implementing agencies), and international foundations (both those with and without offices in Thailand) are interested in working closely together for the development of the country and the wider region.

In the sessions to summarize the breakout group discussions, moderated by the World Bank’s Foundations Coordinator, Eleanor Fink, several recommendations for how the World Bank and foundations can work together, as well as offers of support, emerged.

Information Exchange

• There is a need to better understand the types and activities of foundations working in Thailand and Southeast Asia and to promote information exchange among them and NGOs, by expanding and updating existing directories of foundations. An on-line database of organizations and their activities would be ideal. It was suggested that the CPCS and the Conference of Asian Foundations and Organizations (CAFO), in collaboration with EFC, could play a role in developing these tools.
• The World Bank and the Rockefeller Foundation are prepared to play a continuing role in future information exchange and coordination with local foundations. It was suggested that the World Bank, Rockefeller Foundation, EFC, and the CPCS meet from time to time in order to continue coordination and information exchange. In addition, it was proposed that the Bank and Rockefeller Foundation work together in the future to organize knowledge-sharing workshops on specific issues, such as migration.
• The World Bank will expand their civil society meetings to include more local foundations.
• Publications and other research material funded and produced by foundations and the World Bank should be more systematically circulated to foster knowledge sharing.

Promoting Philanthropy

• The World Bank could serve as a broker in bridging the gaps between the government and civil society and in helping governments understand the benefits of local philanthropy as a means of strengthening civil society, providing sustainability, and helping people help themselves.
• The EFC offered to provide information and guidance on defining and developing an enabling environment for local philanthropy, based on its research and experience in this area.
• The EFC proposed signing a collegial agreement with the CPCS in order to work more closely on the promotion of local philanthropy.

Technical Assistance and Grant Support

• Some foundations thought they could be helpful in working with the World Bank and Thai Government in monitoring and evaluation of progress on its poverty reduction program and achievement of the MDG’s.
• It was thought that foundations and the Bank could help NGOs better document their successes in order to present information to the government. The Bank could also provide NGOs with advice on developing business plans and marketable projects and share its development data and analytical reports on Thailand with NGOs.
• The EFC offered to help with professional development in the local foundation community, specifically with technical assistance and training on best practices for grant making and evaluation and monitoring of grants.
• CAFO also expressed its willingness to develop collaborative activities (such as research, trainings, workshops and study visits) directed at improving grant-makers’ skills and fostering an enabling environment for local philanthropy.
• Since the World Bank provides direct funding to civil society organizations in Thailand only through its Small Grants Program, participants suggested that the Bank consider expanding the amount of funding for grants in order to create more opportunities for the development of concrete partnerships and learning through collaboration.

Convening and Coordinating

• It was agreed that the current workshop was a valuable platform for stakeholders to come together. Such platforms can facilitate the exchange of ideas on strategies to promote effective philanthropy, such as through community foundations or the establishment of profit-making enterprises to fund foundation activities.
• The World Bank, Rockefeller Foundation, and the CPCS should work together and act as coordinators for ongoing workshops. In addition, the World Bank should take the lead, together with foundations, in getting grassroots NGOs involved in policy discussions and planning.

Engaging the Government

The World Bank could use its partnership with the government in several useful ways, including:
• forming a bridge between civil society and the government for possible scaling up from successful demonstration projects done at the grassroots level;
• promoting good governance in the public and private (corporate) and sectors;
• discussing with the government how social marketing campaigns can be strengthened through the involvement of NGOs with issue-specific expertise.

Regional Issues (Expanding Use of the Country Dialogue Model)

• The World Bank, Rockefeller Foundation, and the Thai Government are interested in facilitating cross-border and regional activity focusing on a range of topics. These three actors are interested in using the country dialogue as a model for a larger discussion on important issues for the entire Greater Mekong Sub-region.
• The dialogue in Thailand could be used as a model for similar dialogues in neighboring countries and as a platform for sharing the lessons learned through Thailand’s development programs.

Conclusion

All of the organizers (World Bank Thailand Country Office, Rockefeller Foundation Southeast Asia Regional Program, the European Foundation Centre, and the World Bank’s Foundations Unit), and the participants as a whole, thought the meeting was successful at generating several good suggestions for how the World Bank, Thai government, Thai civil society, and foundations can effectively collaborate.
Just as importantly, the dialogue generated enthusiasm for ongoing information exchange and networking. This process can help build trust within foundations for the World Bank and its government partners and improve communication among all parties. Continued dialogue and networking can also help to ensure that knowledge is shared and that effective grassroots development experiments are made known to the government, to help promote their scaling up and replication. In addition, the dialogues will help to continue the development of civil society as an important third sector of society, along with the public and private sectors. Because of the Bank’s and Rockefeller Foundation’s regional focus in Southeast Asia, the Thailand dialogue could also serve as a potential model for a future expanded dialogue in the neighboring countries of the Greater Mekong Sub-region.

The next World Bank-Foundations dialogue is scheduled from February 22-23, 2005 in Brazil.