Substantive Issues
Concerns raised by indigenous leaders and organizations about the new draft policy include:
- It still does not respond adequately to some of the most important recommendations made by indigenous peoples in the first and second rounds of consultations concerning application of the policy, including: the right to prior and informed consent, indigenous monitoring of compliance, fair 'mitigation' requirements.
- Requirements concerning indigenous land issues are ambiguous and limited in scope. The OP does not apply to adjustment loans and does not require governments to recognize customary land and resource use rights.
- Provisions for legal protections are now optional instead of mandatory.
- Provisions for peoples affected by protected areas are not strong enough.
- It does not prohibit World Bank funding of projects which may violate internationally-recognized human rights and environmental obligations. The World Bank (Specifically the Vice President for Environmental and Socially Sustainable Development) agreed that it would be necessary to hold a legal round table for further discussion. Unfortunately the World Bank legal department refused to hold a serious roundtable discussion with indigenous legal expert to advance dialogue on this concern.
- Rather than requiring Free Prior Informed Consent, the policy obligates Free Prior Informed Consultation, which is considerably weaker and not clearly defined. (See section below)
- Third-party reviews and minimum standards for Borrower-prepared social impact assessments are not required.
- The Revised policy is weaker in that it requires consultation instead of ‘informed participation’ which was a substantially stronger standard that requires active involvement in decision-making. This is a concern because the Board of Directors called for the new policy to be, at a minimum, consistent with the Directive, and certainly not weaker.
Free Prior and Informed Consent
Indigenous peoples consistently demand that the new IP policy recognize and require their right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC). FPIC, recognized in a number of national laws and international agreements, can be described as the consent of indigenous peoples determined in accordance with their customary laws and practices. The ‘free’ is important because it clarifies that there can be no coercion. FPIC was also recommended to the World Bank by the World Commission on Dams and, in 2004, by the Extractive Industries Review, but the WB responded with a clear rejection. The Bank has now failed to incorporate FPIC into the latest draft of Operational Policy 4.10 on Indigenous Peoples (OP 4.10) and the International Finance Corporation’s draft Performance Standards, both of which are under discussion and pending approval by the WBG Board. Instead, the WBG approved, in its decision on the response to the EIR in August/September 2004, that the standard to be adopted and applied will be “free, prior and informed consultation resulting in broad community support.”
The revised policy does state that the Bank will not proceed with projects unless indigenous peoples’ communities have expressed their broad community support for the project in the initial stages of project processing. Unfortunately, broad community support is not defined, and it is not clear how this requirement pertains to subsequent stages of a project. Also, there is no mechanism for verification of and complaints about broad support. Indigenous people would like the definition to reflect local customs, and they would like to guarantee effective participation in verification procedures.
In June 2004 Bank Information Center coordinated an unprecedented briefing on FPIC for World Bank Executive Directors. The objective of the event was to encourage Board members to include FPIC in their policies affecting indigenous peoples and local communities. The full notes and agenda are available here:
Consultation Process
The external consultation process regarding the new policy (OP/BP 4.10) is in its last stages. The process has been weak in many areas, but WB staff eventually engaged in important discussions with indigenous leaders throughout the world. Initially, BIC learned that Bank staff intended to conduct an internet-based public comment process and a few international consultation meetings from July through October, 2001. The draft was then to be revised and approved by the Board of Directors before the end of that year.
Public pressure led the World Bank to make the following changes to the consultation process:
- The WB extended the consultation period from October 2001 to February 15, 2002. (The draft was released to the public on July 15, 2001).
- The WB released a matrix comparing OD 4.20 and the new draft for indigenous participants to evaluate the extent to which their concerns voiced during the 1998 round of consultations were incorporated into the draft.
- The WB finally agreed to indigenous demands to complete the Bank's own internal evaluation of the current OD before finalizing the policy (see OED review section, below).
- WB agreed to release the revised draft for 90 days of public review before presenting it to the Board of Directors.
The World Bank executive Directors received a briefing from Indigenous leaders on FPIC. The World Bank released the final draft for public review on December 2, 2004. It is accepting comments on the draft until February 28, 2005. At the end of the consultation period, the World Bank will summarize comments and forward them with the draft revised policy (OP410) to the Board of Executive Directors for their consideration. The Bank is expected to approve the policy in March, 2005, or soon thereafter.
Comments may be e-mailed to or mailed to:
Indigenous Peoples Coordinator
Mailstop MC5-523
World Bank
1818 H Street
NW Washington DC 20433 USA
COMMENTS ON THE WORLD BANK'S DRAFT POLICY FROM CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS
Roundtable Group
An unprecedented roundtable discussion was held between indigenous leaders and World Bank senior management at World Bank headquarters on October 17 - 18, 2002. The meeting was hosted by the World Bank Vice President for Environmental and Socially Sustainable Development, Mr. Ian Johnson. Fifteen indigenous delegates from around the world participated in two days of discussions with bank management, staff, and members of the legal department regarding the revised Indigenous Peoples Policy and the obligations of the World Bank under international law, in particular human rights law. The indigenous participants were self-selected through a process facilitated by the International Alliance of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (http://iaip.gn.org ). The indigenous delegates presented a statement listing their concerns about the process and the content of the proposed Indigenous Peoples Policy (see below).
At the end of the meeting Vice President Johnson publicly agreed to a number of longstanding indigenous demands regarding the on-going revision of the World Bank Indigenous Peoples Policy.
The roundtable group, which includes participants from a series of consultations with the WB, continues to engage the World Bank on issues of concern to indigenous peoples, and a second roundtable focused on the relationship of the IP Policy to international indigenous rights law is in the works.
OED Implementation Review
As mentioned above, the Operations Evaluation Department, which is an internal assessment unit in the World Bank, launched an implementation review of the relevance, efficacy and efficiency of the Bank's existing IP policy (OD4.20) in March 2001. The World Bank had insisted that the review was separate from the policy revision, but stakeholders argued that the OED findings should logically be reflected in the revised policy.
After much external pressure, OED decided to complete a first phase of the study-a desk review of about 916 closed investment projects in 34 countries over the last ten years-by December 2001, so that it could feed into the revision process. A second phase of the study-based on field assessments in a few selected countries-was expected to feed into a best practices sourcebook for WB staff. At the Roundtable Group meeting (see above) the Bank accepted indigenous demands that the OED findings were relevant to the policy revision process and agreed to make it available before the policy is finalized. The completed studies are now available from the World Bank.
Conclusions consist of important recommendations including recognition of customary land rights and inclusion of baseline data on indigenous communities in the periodic Country Assistance Strategies (CAS). Controversial OED recommendations include using government identification of indigenous peoples, and separating the Indigenous Peoples Development Plans from the safeguard aspects of the Policy.
World Bank Global Fund for Indigenous People
At the May 2003 meeting of the United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues, World Bank Vice President Ian Johnson announced the creation of a new Bank-supported Global Fund for Indigenous People. This US$600,000 fund will support three components:
- A dedicated small grants facility for indigenous peoples with the UN Permanent Forum and the WB serving on an Advisory Board. Grants of between US$10,000-$50,000 are to be used for indigenous economic development. While the grants are to be administered directly to indigenous organizations, relevant country governments must first give their approval.
- Direct support for the UN Permanent Forum.
- A training program for indigenous leaders, starting with a pilot in the Andean region.
During fall 2003 WB staff developed the terms of reference for the grants facility with an ad-hoc committee of Roundtable Group participants and a UN Permanent Forum member (ex-oficio). It began functioning early 2004.