On March 20, 2015, the Reverend Jesse Jackson addressed an open letter to the African and Caribbean Members of the World Bank’s Board of Governors requesting that they address the longstanding issue of racial discrimination at the institution. He expressed his complete support for the four-point proposal set out by Washington DC Civil Rights Coalition, which was established for the sole purpose of addressing institutional racism at the World Bank. Over a dozen African Diaspora civil society organizations wrote to the World Bank Board in support of the DC Civil Rights Coalition’s Proposal, stressing the need to hold both senior management and the Tribunal accountable for the denial of due process to complainants of racial discrimination.
The Reverend Jackson has expressed concern before about this problem at the world’s flagship development institution, and does so again in this recent letter. He refers to the repeated declarations of a commitment to eliminate racial discrimination in Bank operations, and the repeated failure to do so. Similar to the conclusions reached by others who have studied the issue, he determines that: “…there are cultural, institutional, judicial and operational factors that are organically averse to change.”
The four-point proposal presented by the Coalition is hardly a radical request. It is achievable through administrative and board actions.
First, the proposal calls upon the Board to resolve Dr. Yonas Biru’s Administrative Case. Dr. Biru was the Deputy Global Manager of the International Comparison Program (ICP) for six years, with a consistently outstanding record of performance, but when he applied to become the Global Manager of ICP, he was not selected. Two attorneys familiar with the Bank’s hiring, promotion and retention practices who could not speak publicly, told GAP unequivocally that Dr. Biru’s was the worst case of racial discrimination they had ever seen. And early in the adjudication process, the committee charged with resolving the situation could find “no business reasons” to explain decisions made in the case by the Bank. The Committee recommended binding mediation, but the Bank refused, and Dr. Biru was never appointed.
Secondly, the proposal calls for a: “Fast Track Affirmative Action Program for Blacks in General and for African Americans in Particular.” This year, after over 30 years of programs and initiatives, the Bank has yet to adopt a meaningful practice to address racial discrimination in hiring, promotion and retention. In GAP’s report about the issue, released more than five years ago, we found:
… the World Bank has adopted high-visibility measures to raise awareness about the issue. The Bank has convened task forces, launched a Racial Equality program, created an Office of Diversity Programs, announced a zero tolerance policy for racial discrimination, approved diversity targets, and adopted an antiharassment policy. However, procedures to enforce a prohibition of racial discrimination have yet to be implemented, and meaningful measures to improve retention of black staff members are lacking. Although the Bank has set racial diversity targets in each department, it fails to scrutinize and improve the recruitment and promotion decisions of departments that do not meet them.
Therefore, the Coalition is asking for an aggressive affirmative action program with specific hiring targets for the appointment of Black staff members to managerial positions. Results of the exercise must be monitored, acted upon and publicly released.
Third, the proposal calls for the establishment of a “High-Level External Commission” to examine the problem impartially and make further recommendations. The Commission must be fully independent from the Office of Human Resources and it must have direct access to the President of the Bank. Terms of reference for the Commission must focus on two related issues:
- the inadequacy of the administrative tribunal in rectifying discriminatory personnel decisions;
- the resulting systemic and sustained racial discrimination in the employment practices of the Bank.
Finally, the Coalition’s plan proposes access to external arbitration for Bank staff members who allege they are the victims of racial discrimination. This point is in part a consequence of GAP’s 2009 study. In that research we found that although numerous internal studies empirically documented racial discrimination at the Bank, the Administrative Tribunal, which ultimately rules on formal complaints, failed to validate a single allegation of discrimination in any of the 21 such cases that it reviewed during the 12 year period scrutinized.
In short, the Reverend Jackson and the Coalition are calling for more than rhetoric from the Bank about this issue. Action must come now. The World Bank has repeatedly designated Africa as a priority region for development and, over a period of years, has been expanding its activities in the region. The Bank must, therefore, consider its own treatment of Afro-descendant employees. If the institution continues to fall short on recruiting and retaining these employees and in enforcing its promise of “zero tolerance” for any form of discrimination or racial bias, it will inevitably undermine its mission in Africa and throughout the world.