PTF will host a Lunch and Learn session at the 2019 GPSA Partners Forum on Wednesday, November 20th to discuss practical ways to maximize CSO engagement to accelerate progress towards SDG16 in operations funded by International Financial Institutions (IFIs).

This session will address what can be done to address the gaps between: (a) what CSOs can do using social accountability methods to improve governance and reduce corruption in IFI funded operations and what they are actually programmed to do; and (b) what is programmed and what is actually implemented. PTF will present ideas to kick-off the discussion drawing on its recent study, Expanding Civil Society Contributions to the Governance Agendas of Sustainable Development Goals and International Financial Institutions.

Speaker Bio 

Dr. Vinay Bhargava is the Chief Technical Advisor and Board member of the Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF). He has taught international development policy (MDG/SDGs) and practice (International Financial Institutions) courses at George Washington University, USA and at Kobe University, Japan. He is a former Country Director and former Director, International Affairs at the World Bank. He has delivered seminars and written books, articles and reports on fighting corruption particularly through citizen and civil society-led programs. He has served as a consultant to the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and U-4 Anti-corruption center.

2019 GPSA Partners Forum: Social Accountability and the Challenge of Inclusion
November 19 – 21, 2019
Preston Auditorium, World Bank, Washington, DC

The Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA) will once again convene its partners, a global network of practitioners and thought leaders from across civil society, governments, academia, foundations and business, alongside World Bank professionals to put the spotlight on the power of collaborative social accountability in addressing governance challenges and improving development outcomes. Now in its sixth year and hosted at the World Bank in Washington DC, the Global Partners Forum has become the convening event for the social accountability field, for taking stock of opportunities and challenges and pushing for even greater impact.

The 2019 GPSA Forum will focus on the role of social accountability in meeting the challenge of inclusion in public governance. New dynamics as well as continued evolution of the field, unpacked in the next section of this brief, call for social accountability practitioners, researchers and development partners to challenge themselves and think about what the foundation of their task is today and how the frontiers of social accountability are evolving. The aim of the 2019 GPSA Global Partners Forum is to equip GPSA stakeholders to promote, design and implement better social accountability mechanisms that can help to solve the challenge of asymmetries of power through more inclusive policy-making and implementation, building on social accountability’s foundations but with an eye toward its frontiers. The Forum will, in plenary discussions, highlight innovations and build shared perspectives; in partner-led breakout sessions, break new ground through knowledge sharing and capacity building; and, in key speeches, underscore the imperative of collective action to tackle exclusion in all its forms and build more inclusive governance. As a field-shaping initiative, the Forum will assess what opportunities social accountability processes have created thus far, where the challenges towards using social accountability for more inclusive and effective development lie, and, thus aim to inform the actions of governments, donors, civil society groups, and development partners.