ABSTRACT
The international campaign on Narmada has centered around influencing legislators, finance ministries, and the executive directors of the Bank's major shareholder countries, which are the United States, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany. A varied approach of international public pressure, advocacy, and lobbying has supported and taken direction from grassroots movements such as Narmada Bachao Andolan; opposed projects that are opposed by local people in borrower countries, and raised awareness in donor countries about adverse impacts of World Bank operations. By 1988, the Board was a target of the International Narmada Campaign and the Indian grassroots groups, and their complaints and appeals to the Board resulted in more frequent monitoring and scrutiny of the project by the Board. Gradually the Narmada campaign moved to more systematic lobbying of the executive directors. From the beginning, the Dutch executive director, Paul Arlman, took a keen interest in the project and began to chair informal meetings with Indian and international nongovernmental organizations.
