Stefania Bazzoni
Stefania Bazzoni is the Chief of Staff at the Council of Europe Development Bank, responsible for promoting social justice and social cohesion across Europe. She has extensive experience working with international financial institutions, such as the Inter-American Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, where she evaluated the impact of multilateral financial institutions on various projects.
What we learnt
Stefania Bazzoni discussed the evolution of international financial institutions and their increasing focus on involving stakeholders in decision-making processes. She emphasized the importance of government ownership and community participation in project design and implementation, particularly in relation to environmental and social standards.
One of the key points that Stefania emphasizes is the benefits of community involvement in project outcomes, which are more commonly observed in developed countries. However, she acknowledges the challenges involved in achieving community ownership and participation in countries with less developed systems of relations. Despite these challenges, involving local communities in project planning and implementation is essential for sustainable development.
Stefania also discusses the process of building a road and resettling people living around the land, highlighting that consultation with the community was previously done to avoid future trouble. However, now there is a new step where the community is involved in deciding if the road is necessary, where it should go, and if it aligns with a gender lens. She emphasizes the importance of considering the implications of the road on the community.
Throughout the conversation, Stefania stresses the need for a collaborative approach to decision-making and provides insights into the importance of stakeholder engagement. She also talks about city resilience projects, such as Barcelona Superblock, that aim to strengthen a city's resilience, including climate change. However, participatory processes, which involve the local community, require a mature and decentralized government. This can be more challenging in countries where the system of relations is less developed.
If you had a magic wand…
‘I am a firm believer in the power of education, and I think it should be accessible to everyone. However, it's important to note that education alone is not enough. People also need to be well-fed and nourished in order to learn effectively. In this sense, providing access to education is the best way to give people a chance in the world.’‘
Key quotes
‘So your first question is why doesn't the money go to create more impact? It's a financial consideration linked to risk. Even those who claim to want to finance impact do want a return for that risk. That is not compatible with the return on investment.’
‘For example, we understand that sometimes we cannot finance housing for very low-income people; we go to medium income because we want a mixture in the neighborhood. But then we make sure that some of the policies or the percentage that we want goes to whoever else. When we have an agreement, we also look at how we fund all of this, but the two are separate.’
‘Starting with pilots is a way to involve the community and increase learning. If the pilots are successful, then they can be scaled up and reproduced. Doing a big project makes it much more difficult to involve the community. In the past 10-15 years, there has been a shift towards developing these pilot projects instead of one big project with money given to the government without any follow-up. Empires have thrived and replicated by scaling up these pilot projects.’
‘We've seen many flexible variations, building schools in India and Africa where there were none before, but people don't always understand why they need to go to school or what it is. There has been an evolution in thinking; before, the idea was to build, but now the idea is to look at what is necessary for the building to happen, so your kids can go to school. Sometimes we discover that adding things that seem obvious, like the possibility for kids to stay overnight, makes it possible. So, it's important to understand the reality, but this is very time-intensive, resource-intensive, and clearly very costly.’