By William Easterly
The new World Bank blog People, Spaces, Deliberation has already achieved one milestone: it covers exhaustively the field of “governance” with little or no usage of words that have historically been prominent in such discussions (see chart).
How to get these numbers: Click on one of these words in the list of “tags” and count the number of pages with search results. No tags existed on ‘consent’ or ‘liberty.’
We were inspired by the new blog to translate one historical document that is now badly out of date and frame it as a practical roadmap for further engaging civil society:
|
Original |
Translation |
| We hold these truths to be self-evident | The mainstream consensus among experts is |
| that all men are created equal, | All efforts should be inclusive, |
| that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, | Development as a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative must be Broad-based and Community-driven, |
| that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. | Including Social Sector Goals, Participation, and the pursuit of Capacity-Building. |
This community-driven participator is unfortunately not adhering to Governance best practices set out by the authorities.
