ABSTRACT
One of the features that distinguishes the emerging post-Washington consensus from the neoliberal agenda that proceeded it is the attention that has been given to social issues in development. The dislocations caused by two decades of economic restructuring, along with pressure from anti-poverty, women’s, environmental and indigenous people’s movements, have prompted development institutions such as the World Bank to be more responsive to social concerns such as poverty and inequality. Under President James Wolfensohn, the Bank has undertaken a self-proclaimed “paradigm shift” that includes a commitment to helping marginalized groups such as women and indigenous minorities, promoting an equitable distribution of income, working to promote democratic participation with the people directly affected by its projects, protecting the environment, and increasing its lending for health and education. This stated change in direction marks a break from the neoliberal, economistic approach taken by the Bank during the past 20 years, exemplified most famously in a memo signed by former chief economist Lawrence Summers on the efficiency of shipping toxic waste to Africa, which dismissed potential criticisms as likely to be based on some fuzzy set of “social concerns” and “moral reasons” that had no legitimate place in the development conversation (Summers 1992: 66). Now, social concerns seem to be taking center stage at the Bank.
