In an interesting review of the World Bank’s policy to conduct all business in English, Rebecca Harris, a service coordinator at the Bank Information Center, points out some major flaws.

Community groups in Yemen, for example, petitioned for an Arabic translation (the national language) of the conditions placed on a $51 million grant to their government. The World Bank denied the translation, suggesting they translate it themselves—a cost double that of the average Yemeni’s per capita GDP.

Harris argues that by denying translation to its constituents, the World Bank will lose credibility among those it serves. The World Bank’s published documents aren’t exactly easy to access in the first place, undermining interested parties’ capability to be part of the process.

This argument holds not just in Yemen but across the approximately 140 eligible borrowing countries where the World Bank is in the business of trying to help the poor (with whom it, ironically, often cannot communicate). It is in the Bank’s interest to cut down its language barrier and talk to the real people. Civil society understands the local realities that will propel a project either to success or failure far better than any expatriate could.

Harris urges the World Bank to adopt a more participatory and transparent system, or else it will lose public support. Click here to read more.