mottnow August 2000 - Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

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local communities in different countries, whileStoczkiewicz works in Brussels. Likewise, CEEBankwatch’s national coordinators also live in theirlocal communities in the 11 member countries.This blossoming of activist groups acrossCentral/Eastern Europe, as well as Central Asia, isalso welcomed by Johan Frijns, who works on internationalfinancial institutions for Friends of theEarth International (FOEI) in Amsterdam, rightacross a canal from Both ENDS.Frijns was one of the principal organizers ofthe activist trainings in Madrid, and his organizationwill help bring activists from their 61 membercountries all over the world to Prague.“It is very exciting to see that these groups aretaking the lead in this work,” he said. “I feel that allour work over the years has really paid off.”Lisa Jordan echoed this sentiment: “When theBerlin Wall fell, there was lots of excitement aboutthe future of civil society, some of which was neverfulfilled. But the CEE Bankwatch Network is amodel for holding decisionmakers accountable, andI hope it will be a harbinger of the future for othernetworks in region.”Terlecki points out that developing democraticcitizen organizations in this region still facenumerous bureaucratic and financial obstacles.“In many countries, the governments have noexperience in dealing with nonprofit groups. InLithuania, for example, activists are taxed even onexpense reimbursements. In both Slovakia andUkraine, the banks in which we kept our moneywent bankrupt.”But support is now coming from some unexpectedquarters, such as Lars Larsson, a seniorEBRD official who is the acting team leader for theNuclear Safety Account.“I feel that all ourwork over the yearshas really paidoff.”- Johan Frijns,Friends of the EarthInternational“CEE Bankwatch Network should take pridein what it has accomplished,” he said. “I have a lot ofrespect for them. They have been a key contributorto our work in financing safety improvements inexisting nuclear plants and replacing less safe plantsby developing energy efficiency and alternative energysources. We need an open debate, and I wish thatthey were even stronger.”— — —Pratap Chatterjee is a freelance journalistbased in Berkeley, California. In 1994-1995 he reportedon the World Bank and the International MonetaryFund for Inter Press Service, a Third World NewsService, in Washington D.C.Organizing Grows in Rural SlovakiaBy Pratap ChatterjeeThe offices of the Center for Environment andPublic Advocacy (CEPA) are in Ponicka Huta,a village of 300 people on the northern end ofthe Polana mountains in central Slovakia, about halfan hour’s drive from the city of Banska Bystrica.CEPA is a founding member of the CEE BankwatchNetwork and part of Friends of the Earth Slovakia.CEPA moved to Ponicka Huta in 1994, twoyears after the center was set up in the national capitalof Bratislava. Despite its remote location, theoffice is a hive of organizing on a local, national andregional level around three themes: public interestlaw, water and the global economy.Its activities include organizing seminars to“We needed to …help thecommon peopleunderstand whyit is importantto followeconomicglobalization.”- Juraj Zamkovsky,CEPA6
teach mixed race Afro-Slovak andRomany (gypsy) people abouttheir legal rights against raciallymotivated attacks. CEPA also hasheld regional trainings for activistsfrom eight Central/EasternEuropean countries in the damaffectedtown of Dubakovo onhow to challenge the internationalfinancial institutions.CEPA’s Global EconomyProgram, which was set up in1993, involves research, supportfor public participation in economicdecisionmaking, networkingand education on internationalfinancial institutions.“We understood the relevanceof globalization for thecountry. However, at that time itwas completely new, ‘impersonal’and too complex, and there wasliterally nobody dealing with it inSlovakia in a serious way,” saidJuraj Zamkovsky, CEPA chairman.“We needed to raise this issue within society and tomonitor several projects, which would help thecommon people understand why it is important tofollow economic globalization.”For example, seven years ago, CEPA joinedthe campaign of the Forest Protection MovementWolf, an environmental group in eastern Slovakia,to defeat a proposed World Bank loan for logging.Ongoing logging activities during the pastfew decades has caused Slovakia to lose much of its300-year-old primary forest, which was rich inorganic materials and supported a wide variety ofplant and animal life.The US$90-million proposed World Bankloan would have more than doubled logging activity,from 4.4 million cubic meters in 1991 to 11 millioncubic meters by 2030. The activists say the plansignored the poor state of existing Slovak forests.“The World Bank so-called ‘ecologization ofSlovakian forestry’ would have involved the buildingof major new roads, buying large quantities of heavyequipment, reduction and elimination of exportquotas, planting fast-growing forests, and paying offthe loan through exports,” Zamkovsky said.In order to prevent similar unsustainableproject loans, CEPA decided to tackle the WorldBank’s Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) for all ofSlovakia has lost much of its primary forests due to excessive logging and poor forestmanagement practices.Slovakia. This forced the Bank’s regional office inBudapest, Hungary, to meet with them twice thisyear.At a February meeting, the Bank offered thelocal groups a draft version of the strategy. CEPAwas ready with its own strategies, based on a seriesof recommendations it had compiled from localSlovak groups to address what it believed the Bankshould do in order to foster a sustainable economyfor Slovakia.To CEPA’s surprise when staff membersarrived for the second meeting, which was heldMarch 18 in Bratislava, the Bank appeared not tohave taken any of their suggestions into considerationbecause it offered no new strategy. In addition,one Bank official admitted they had little knowledgeof the real situation in Slovakia.One participant in that meeting said hebecame skeptical of the Bank’s intentions when heoverhead a Bank official saying after the meeting toa colleague, “These are the type of radicals who wereprotesting in Seattle last November.”“This raises the question as to why the Bankspent money for such expensive meetings to ‘consult’with us, when clearly none of the commentsand concerns of non-governmental organizations isbeing considered in the formulation of the CASdocument,” Zamkovsky said. “It certainly implies,7
Page 8 and 9: Partnerships between non-government
Page 10 and 11: Program Director Jon Blyth RetiresB
Page 12: strengthening and expanding philant

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