16 September 2004
The International Finance Corporation is currently undergoing a process to review its social and environmental safeguard policies in addition to 70 technical pollutant standards contained in the World Bank Group Pollution Prevention and Abatement Handbook. On September 16, 2004, a letter signed by 121 civil society organizations was delivered to World Bank President, James Wolfensohn, and IFC Managing Director, Peter Woicke. Among other things, the letter highlighted the shortcomings of the IFC’s consultation process and its draft environmental and social performance standards. Civil society organizations note a major shift from environmental and disclosure standards that are “mandatory and compliance-based…to a mainly discretionary approach.” The letter also stated that the policy should be oriented towards better protection of people and the environment rather than towards “accommodating the needs of private sector clients.”
The main focus of the letter, however, was on the IFC’s “fundamentally flawed” review process that is already underway. The letter registered two major complaints: an inadequate timeframe and the lack of available materials. The limited timeframe of “a little over four months” is seen as insufficient for a “world wide debate…to reassess policies and standards which took years to formulate.” The letter makes note of documents such as the implementation guides, and the revised corporate procedures that the IFC have mentioned but have yet to disclose. Other key documents were not translated into the appropriate languages in a timely manner, thereby limiting the ability of Spanish or Portuguese speaking organizations to participate in the first, quickly approaching, consultation to be held in Rio on September 24th.
In addition to six recommendations for improving the consultation process, the letter makes the following three demands from the IFC:
- Suspend immediately the start of the consultation process on the Safeguard Policy Update until all relevant information has been made publicly available in all appropriate languages at least 30 days prior to the first regional consultation. This includes the implementation guides and revised IFC corporate procedures.
- Postpone the consultations on the disclosure policy until at least 30 days after the full draft revised policy is made available to the public in the appropriate languages.
- Extend substantially the period for consultation on the first draft consultation documents.
TO READ THE ENTIRE NGO LETTER INCLUDING ENDORSEMENTS, CLICK THE LINKS BELOW:
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE IFC’S REVIEW OF ITS DISCLOSURE POLICY AND ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL SAFEGUARD POLICIES, CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINKS: