Looking Back, Looking Forward: Civil Society Contributions to WTO Accountability

Since its inception, the WTO has significantly increased its transparency and active engagement with civil society, thereby enhancing the extent to which civil society can contribute to WTO accountability. Civil society has played an instrumental role in encouraging WTO to go further, through efforts to disseminate information and analysis about the WTO, as well as monitoring and evaluation of Member performance against commitments. Looking forward, WTO and civil society should expand on previous contributions to improving accountability in the areas of transparency, monitoring and evaluation, and consultation. Participants in a workshop at WTO in May 2011 identified opportunities for improving civil society contributions to WTO accountability, although many questions remain about the status of existing activities and the feasibility of the suggestions proffered.