Annie Grier, Feedback Labs | March 28, 2023
How do you engage in good feedback practices when your stakeholder group is the entire world?
The World Bank is one of the world’s largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries and, through their Citizen Engagement and Social Accountability Global Solutions Group (CESA GSG), they have committed to better listening to those ultimately impacted by their investments in communities across the world. Aly Rahim, Yuri Park, and Carmen Malena of the World Bank presented on the successes and remaining challenges of listening to scale within a wide range of stakeholders and contexts.
In 2014, the World Bank created a strategic framework for mainstreaming meaningful citizen engagement – a two-way interaction between citizens and governments that fosters shared decision making. In 2015, the World Bank implemented an evaluation mechanism to assess not only project success, but also the incorporation of citizen feedback in that success. In addition to monitoring progress, they began to share reports on their impact of feedback on their work. The CESA GSG continues to lead these efforts.
Presenters from the World Bank engaged in a discussion focused on how to build buy-in from client governments, partners and internal stakeholders and use feedback to ensure that citizens’ voice guide their work. They opened the discussion with a bird’s eye view of World Bank operations and paired it with specific examples of projects from across the world, including one example in Cambodia where a cohort of thousands of youths are trained and serve as accountability facilitators on an initiative that aims to enhance the delivery of essential local-level public services across the country.
Participants shared strategies for how to create internal incentives for government partners successfully incorporating feedback from their communities, such as including at least one indicator of implementing feedback to close a feedback loop on every project. Participants dove deeper into existing feedback strategies, such as improving current participatory budgeting efforts and “scaling up” social media strategies for gathering feedback. At the conclusion of the event, presenters from the World Bank reflected on how to use the suggestions provided by attendees to enhance the quality and depth of citizen engagement and feedback.
Learn More About LabStorms
LabStorms are collaborative problem-solving sessions designed to help organizations tackle feedback-related challenges or share what’s working well in their practice.
Presenters leave the experience with honest, actionable feedback and suggestions to improve their feedback processes and tools.
To learn more about participating in a virtual LabStorm, please visit feedbacklabs.org/labstorms.
