Disequilibrium in development finance: the contested politics of institutional accountability and transparency at the World Bank inspection panel
This article examines the dynamic nature with which independent accountability mechanisms operate. Focusing on the World Bank, the authors argue that its Inspection Panel evolves according to internal and external pressures. In seeking to achieve equilibrium, and protect its authority and independen...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
2018
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/57138/ |
| _version_ | 1848799438829518848 |
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| author | Sovacool, Benjamin K. Naudé Fourie, Andria Tan-Mullins, May |
| author_facet | Sovacool, Benjamin K. Naudé Fourie, Andria Tan-Mullins, May |
| author_sort | Sovacool, Benjamin K. |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This article examines the dynamic nature with which independent accountability mechanisms operate. Focusing on the World Bank, the authors argue that its Inspection Panel evolves according to internal and external pressures. In seeking to achieve equilibrium, and protect its authority and independence, the Panel has gone through several distinct phases: negotiation, emergence, protracted resistance, assertion of independence and authority, renewed tension, and contestation. The core novelty of the article is its application of concepts from outside the field of development studies — notably institutional accountability from the governance literature, and judicialization from the legal studies literature — to the topic of the Inspection Panel. Examining the Panel in this way demonstrates that accountability mechanisms represent a hybrid of transnational governance influenced by a range of actors including project-affected peoples, national governments, managers and development donors. Accountability in development finance is about competing interests as well as competing conceptions and expectations of accountability. In such a complex and multi-scalar system, the Panel is not only concerned with delivering well-researched investigation reports; it is also an entity seeking to ensure its own survival, as well as an arbiter of its own brand of legitimacy and accountability. © 2018 The Authors. Development and Change published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Institute of Social Studies |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:35:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-57138 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:35:40Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | Blackwell Publishing Ltd |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-571382019-07-29T10:47:12Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/57138/ Disequilibrium in development finance: the contested politics of institutional accountability and transparency at the World Bank inspection panel Sovacool, Benjamin K. Naudé Fourie, Andria Tan-Mullins, May This article examines the dynamic nature with which independent accountability mechanisms operate. Focusing on the World Bank, the authors argue that its Inspection Panel evolves according to internal and external pressures. In seeking to achieve equilibrium, and protect its authority and independence, the Panel has gone through several distinct phases: negotiation, emergence, protracted resistance, assertion of independence and authority, renewed tension, and contestation. The core novelty of the article is its application of concepts from outside the field of development studies — notably institutional accountability from the governance literature, and judicialization from the legal studies literature — to the topic of the Inspection Panel. Examining the Panel in this way demonstrates that accountability mechanisms represent a hybrid of transnational governance influenced by a range of actors including project-affected peoples, national governments, managers and development donors. Accountability in development finance is about competing interests as well as competing conceptions and expectations of accountability. In such a complex and multi-scalar system, the Panel is not only concerned with delivering well-researched investigation reports; it is also an entity seeking to ensure its own survival, as well as an arbiter of its own brand of legitimacy and accountability. © 2018 The Authors. Development and Change published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Institute of Social Studies Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2018-06-19 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by_nc_nd https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/57138/1/dech.12427.pdf Sovacool, Benjamin K., Naudé Fourie, Andria and Tan-Mullins, May (2018) Disequilibrium in development finance: the contested politics of institutional accountability and transparency at the World Bank inspection panel. Development and Change, 50 (4). pp. 867-895. ISSN 0012155X http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/dech.12427 doi:10.1111/dech.12427 doi:10.1111/dech.12427 |
| spellingShingle | Sovacool, Benjamin K. Naudé Fourie, Andria Tan-Mullins, May Disequilibrium in development finance: the contested politics of institutional accountability and transparency at the World Bank inspection panel |
| title | Disequilibrium in development finance: the contested politics of institutional accountability and transparency at the World Bank inspection panel |
| title_full | Disequilibrium in development finance: the contested politics of institutional accountability and transparency at the World Bank inspection panel |
| title_fullStr | Disequilibrium in development finance: the contested politics of institutional accountability and transparency at the World Bank inspection panel |
| title_full_unstemmed | Disequilibrium in development finance: the contested politics of institutional accountability and transparency at the World Bank inspection panel |
| title_short | Disequilibrium in development finance: the contested politics of institutional accountability and transparency at the World Bank inspection panel |
| title_sort | disequilibrium in development finance: the contested politics of institutional accountability and transparency at the world bank inspection panel |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/57138/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/57138/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/57138/ |