Inter-organizational politics: the World Bank and the African Development Bank

The undisputed proliferation of international organizations has been interpreted in several ways by members of the scholarly community. Probably most see the explosion in numbers and kinds of actors as a peripheral development; in the realist and neo-realist tradition, the primacy of the state and the state system remains largely unaffected.1 Others are sceptical of what the trend means and so have developed research agendas examining more closely international organization influence on states2 and impact on issues.3 Yet few international relations scholars have paid attention to what this proliferation means for relations among various organizations and its effects on states. However, with so many of these organizations involved in economic development activities, it is very likely that these organizations willingly and sometimes unwittingly encounter each other particularly in Third World countries. Rumours abound of IGOs and NGOs 'stumbling over each other' in the capitals of Sahelian countries vying for the attention of too few government officials, leading to negative impacts on policy. In Indo-China, Gordenker finds 'increasing friction and clogging* from the rapid expansion of United Nations High Commission for Refugees activities, as they intersect with the International Red Cross, Unicef, and private voluntary organizations.4 Yet not all interaction is conflictual. Non governmental aid agencies in Thailand co-operate closely,5 as do the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Kenya.6 Based on these findings of the political relationship among both IGOs and NGOs in the field, it may be suggested that among the multilateral development banks, inter-organizational politics is a key, and heretofore understudied, process. In this paper we explore the relationship between the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development7 (hereafter World Bank, WB) and the African Development Bank group8 (hereafter ADB) during the 1980s. Involved in similar activities in one geographic arena (Africa), these two organizations interact in a way which sometimes leads to inter-organizational conflict and at other times produces co-operation. Why do these two organizations with similar overall objectives conflict? Under what conditions does inter-organizational co-operation occur? To answer these questions, both archival research and interviews were conducted in Washington, DC, and Abidjan, Ivory Coast, the headquarters of the African Development Bank.9