C O O P E R A T I O N
The thin tail of hair sticking out the back of Petr Hlobil's smart shirt is a sign that he could be part of the civil society organisation (CSO) movement. But aside from that, the young coordinator of CEE Bankwatch Network could blend in easily with other delegates from international organisations, banks and the policymakers, who comprised the bulk of those assembling at the Aarhus conference in June. Although he stresses that campaigning against bank policy is not all about image, Hlobil believes that to achieve results CSOs must learn to work with those organisations which they protest against. That involves learning to negotiate effectively and understanding just how to influence funding or policy decisions from the inside. "I would not say that we are welcome at the table but we do have a dialogue with people at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank," Hlobil told Insight. Bankwatch, which is present in nine Central and Eastern European countries, is a critical environmentalist eye for projects funded by multilateral development banks, namely EBRD, the World Bank and European Investment Bank. As well as preparing studies on bank funding strategies the organisation trains CSOs to prepare themselves for meetings with bank decisionmakers and provides workshops on public participation and decisionmaking. According to Hlobil, environmental organisations often go wrong at their meetings with banks. "CSOs don't understand the structure of the bank, what exactly the target of their meeting is and what they can change by talking to the specific person they have arranged to meet with," he explains. Getting hold of the right person is a particular problem which CSOs can learn to overcome. Just having a contact at the World Bank is not necessarily an advantage, since the organisation has thousands of employees, working on separate, unrelated issues, points out Hlobil. "I would say that 80 percent of the time the problem is that they talk to the wrong person." As part of Bankwatch training to CSOs, the organisation took participants to an EBRD annual general meeting, where they had a chance to put the theory they had learnt in the classroom, into practice. "They could actually meet with bank staff and raise questions with them," he explains. Bankwatch will often sit into CSO-Bank meetings, to help assist an organisation achieve its expectations but after the training some groups feel ready to go it alone. CSOs in Russia and Georgia have successfully begun dialogues with banks as a result of bankwatch initiatives. Hlobil points out that following up the meeting is crucial for reaching long-term goals. In the end, the whole process, from planning the meeting through to contact with the person, correspondence through to confirming letter and further meetings, can take up to three months, he says. "We want to empower them to achieve what they want to achieve." To do that CSOs must understand how to work the law or international policy in their favour. It is up to environmental groups to learn what conventions and protocols such as those signed in Aarhus mean to their operation and to use that information in their arguments against funding institutions. As Swedish Environment Minister Anna Lindh warned "It's important to remember that the role of CSOs is not just to oppose." Growing up is the most painful phase of all.
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