23 August 2004
IDB Executive Vice President Flannery recognizes need for improvement in IIM.
On July 21,2004, the IDB´s Executive Vice President, Mr. Dennis Flannery, responded to a letter presented to him by the Bank Information Center and Sobrevivencia. His answer included two main conclusions:
- Following a series of presentations made by the Bank Management to the Board of Executive Directors, in which inspection mechanisms of other MDBs were analyzed, IDB Management decided that its own mechanism must state more clearly its purpose, scope, eligibility requirements, institutional structure, administrative aspects, and public consultation process aspects.
- An inter-departmental working group has been tasked with reviewing in detail the inspection functions of the Bank´s comparators and the lessons learned from the Bank´s experience with the Mechanism to date and proposing appropriate revisions. These discussions will result in specific guidance on the process that would be used to solicit and consider comments from civil society.
The Bank Information Center, along with its associated partner Sobrevivencia, sent a letter to the IDB´s Executive Vice President, Mr. Dennis Flannery, to request a clarification of the process that will produce the new policy and procedures for the Independent Investigation Mechanism (IIM). Since the IIM enables those individuals and communities affected by a Bank funded project to seek recourse actions, BIC believes that the consultation process should allow for the latter´s participation. Furthermore, a consultation process that enables a wide range of societal actors to state their views needs to be implemented, so as to ensure that the review process benefits from the lessons learned by civil society in working with the mechanism.