25 October 2007 | Washington, DC
In a letter to the Asian Development Bank's Environment Division, non-governmental organizations raised substantial concerns about recent developments with the Safeguard Policy Update (SPU) process, calling into question the possibility of genuine participation by civil society organizations. It reminds the ADB to honour its previous commitments about the process of these consultations.
Forty-two non-governmental organizations have written to the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) Environment Division requesting that the ADB to delay the start of consultations on its Safeguard Policy Update (SPU) process.
The NGO letter raises concerns around the dates of the ADB's regional consultations, citing conflicts with the United Nations Climate Change Convention meetings; its inability thus far to provide translations of the draft Safeguard Policy Statement; and a general lack of information about the design and format of the proposed consultations. The letter calls for:
- a rescheduling of the Southeast Asia, East Asia, Central Asia and Mekong regional consultations;
- translation of the draft SPS into key national langauges, and translations made available at least 30 days ahead of the respective consultation;
- circulation of the full participants lists for all consultations; and
- more information on the structure and format of the consultations.
NGO Forum on ADB Safeguards Consultations Postponement Letter (Acrobat pdf, 33 KB)
For more information, please contact:
Hemantha Withanage, NGO Forum on ADB -- or
Mishka Zaman, Bank Information Center --