The World Bank Unveiled: Inside the Revolutionary Struggle for Transparency

In this book, former World Bank researcher David Shaman describes his own work to develop an internal and transparent communication medium within that institution. In so doing, he offers an in-depth analysis of why a culture of knowledge sharing and openness within the World Bank is critical to the institution's ability to reduce poverty. The book addresses questions including: What does transparency mean? How does the World Bank view initiatives to make it more transparent? How does transparency impact the Bank's work on poverty reduction?

As Shaman explains here, in 1999, he and his colleague David Wheeler launched B-SPAN, an internet-based broadcasting station that disseminated unedited videos of internal World Bank discussions and debates to the public. "We believed by doing so we would increase people's understanding of what the Bank did, increase opportunities for the Bank to be more accountable to its critics, reduce tensions on all sides and disseminate knowledge that was critical to fostering development and poverty reduction." B-SPAN conducted live webcasts of major Bank events, featured interviews with international development and economic figures, and broadcast policy events from sources outside the institution. By 2004, B-SPAN was reportedly attracting more than 200,000 visitors annually and had electronic mailing community of 18,000 subscribers. Shaman argues that, "[d]espite its success, the initiative had powerful adversaries inside a bureaucracy of fiefdoms." World Bank Unveiled elaborates on this claim.

Editor's note: The World Bank Unveiled blog is designed to enable readers to share experiences with the World Bank, and to share their perspectives on its transparency and accountability.