How to Engage the World Bank around Child Rights

The World Bank Group is one of the world’s most influential development finance institutions. As such, its worldwide operations can have an enormous impact on child rights, both positive and negative.

The How to Engage the World Bank around Child Rights tool aims to strengthen the capacity of civil society organizations (CSOs) to advocate for child rights in the context of World Bank operations and to hold it accountable for project-related harms to children. Bank Information Center developed this tool in the context of the How To Child Rights series, a set of practical, high-quality, tried and tested tools initiated by Save the Children in collaboration with a broad range of trusted partners to support effective and innovative programming for children’s rights across different sectors.

This How to Child Rights tool sets out the basics of how the World Bank functions, how World Bank policies address issues related to child rights, and how to use these policies to hold the World Bank accountable for impacts of its projects on children. It also offers guidance, illustrative case studies, and useful resources to help CSOs understand how to:

1. Influence the Bank’s lending positively for children;

2. Advocate for change within the framework of a specific project that might be directly or indirectly negatively affecting children; and

3. Seek remedy for children when harm has occurred as a result of a Bank project.