The World Bank will on March 18, 2013 host a global conference tagged “Citizen Voices: Global Conference on Citizen Engagement for Enhanced Development Impact”.
The Conference aims to position citizen engagement agenda as essential for “effective development”; move from “knowledge to action” in implementing the agenda; establish concrete partnerships for scaling up at global and country levels; and advances the mainstreaming of citizen engagement and beneficiary feedback into Bank policies and operations.
Slated to hold at its Auditorium on 2121 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. in the United States, the conference will bring together tech innovators, development specialists, government officials, academics, civil society representatives, World Bank staff and the private sector where experience with client feedback systems is the deepest.
Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank, will declare the conference open while Caroline Anstey, World Bank Managing Director will be the chair of the conference. Jay Naidoo, Chair of the Board of Directors and Chair of the Partnership Council of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), will be the guest speaker.
Conference sessions will include discussions that explore how innovative uses of technology can be transformational, how governments can be more responsive and how to ensure robust citizen feedback. It will close by generating ideas for how to proceed as a collective in advancing the citizen engagement agenda.
The conference is designed to be lively, participatory and interactive. It will consist of a mix of discussion sessions where senior thought leaders, evangelists and practitioners can share their visions and experiences; “lightning talks” and gallery tours to showcase innovations; simulations; and break-out sessions to identify key challenges and how to address them.
The conference will be moderated by a media-savvy personality, who will ensure the conference moves at a rapid pace. Sessions will be linked to a wider external audience through social media (e.g., on line channels such as WB Live, Facebook, Google Hangout, Twitter, SMS, etc.).
The conference is seen as a follow-up of previous events including the ‘Open Up! Conference’ held in London on November 13, 2012 and the launch of the ‘Making All Voices Count: Global Challenge Fund’ held on December 5, 2012. It will add value by connecting these groups with government officials and development specialists grounded in the challenges of implementation, and help in identifying specific areas of action moving ahead.
The World Bank is hosting the global conference in collaboration with CIVICUS and InterAction
