Coloniality of Epistemic Power in International Practices: NGO Inclusion in World Bank Policymaking

ABSTRACT

Are international organisations’ inclusive practices better than top-down ones? This article analyses an attempt to dismantle formal hierarchies to integrate civil society actors in development policymaking at the World Bank. It argues that inclusive practices have not fully challenged the coloniality of epistemic power in North/South relationships because they did not democratise the capacity to influence meaning negotiation. Not only did the Bank not fully democratize its formal policymaking processes, but when it includes NGOs, the coloniality of power mediates their capacity to influence meaning-making. Therefore, despite “better” (liberal) practices of inclusion, interactions between the organisation's employees and NGOS workers are still mediated through remnants of colonial and racial devaluation. By adopting an international practice-based approach, this article analyses colonial epistemic violence through informal rules and practices. The case studied is the inclusion of NGOs at the World Bank under the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (1999–2014), with data from 31 publicly available interviews from the Bank’s Oral History Project, 41 first-hand interviews (realised between 2017 and 2019), and archival material (speeches, memoirs, memos, and internal reports).

KEYWORDS:

• International practices
• World Bank
• coloniality of power
• epistemic violence
• NGOs

Acknowledgements

For their careful reviews of this research, I would like to thank Alice Chessé, Jutta Joaquim and Leonie Holthaus. I also wish to thank Christiane Cromm and Christian Volk for organising this Special Issue, as well as all the participants of the 2022 “Democracy and Practices of Global Order” workshop in Berlin (Germany).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Interview 9, 9 June 2017; Interview 21, 19 July 2017; Interview 28, 15 August 2017.

2 This does not mean that formal colonisation ended everywhere (Palestine being a prominent example), but that where it ended, colonial thinking has endured.

3 Interview 26, 24 July 2017; Interview 34, 8 November 2017; Interview OHP Winston Temple, 25–26 October 2000.

4 Interview 26, 24 July 2017.

5 Interview OHP Paul Cadario, 4-17-22-30 April 2013.

6 Interview OHP Paul Cadario, 4-17-22-30 April 2013.

7 Board discussion paper, R99-241, 10 December 1999

8 Minutes of meeting, 20 December 1999.

9 Minutes of meeting, executive board, 20 December 1999.

10 Minutes of meeting, executive board, 20 December 1999, 13.

11 Interview 10, 13 June 2017.

12 Interview 14, 26 June 2017.

13 Interview OHP Peter Woicke, 7 March 2005.

14 Interview 10, 13 June 2017.

15 Interview 5, 25 May 2017.

16 Interview 15, 27 June 2017.

17 Interview 5, 25 May 2017.

18 Interview 11, 15 June 2017.

19 Interview 11, 15 June 2017; Interview 26, 24 July 2017.

20 Interview 26, 24 July 2017.

21 Interview 11, 15 June 2017.

22 Interview 26, 24 July 2017, emphasis added.

23 Interview 26, 24 July 2017.

24 Interview 9, 9 June 2017.

25 Interview 10, 13 June 2017.

26 Interview 4, 10 May 2017.

27 Interview 20, 17 July 2017.

28 Interview 7, 29 May 2017.

29 Interview 18, 16 July 2017.

30 Interview 5, 25 May 2017.

31 Interview 32, 6 November 2017.

32 Interview 26, 24 July 2017; Interview 41, 21 November 2017.

33 Interview 26, 24 July 2017.

34 Interview 5, 25 May 2017.