IF-EYE Newsletter
Issue #42
Thursday, July 02, 2009
A publication of the Bank Information Center (BIC)
Welcome to the July 2, 2009 issue of the IF-EYE – the Bank Information Center’s monthly synthesis of key developments concerning international financial institutions. This issue spotlights the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility's approval of the R-Plans for Guyana and Panama, civil society's questioning of IDB's commitments to development results, a Foreign Policy op-ed on the translation component of information disclosure at the World Bank, and a Q&A with civil society activist, Yahya Saleh Mohsen. Please send suggestions, contributions and subscription requests to: info@bicusa.org. Thanks for reading!
in this issue:
1. SPOTLIGHT: Forest Carbon Partnership Facility approves R-Plans for Guyana and Panama
2. SPOTLIGHT: Civil society organizations challenge IDB commitments to development results and sustainability
3. SPOTLIGHT: The Bank of Babel: Why the World Bank should stop (only) speaking English
4. SPOTLIGHT: Activist Q&A: Meet Yahya Saleh Mohsen
5. Civil society updates
6. IFI updates
7. Announcements and Resources
8. New at BIC! BIC welcomes Joe Athialy as South Asia Coordinator
1. SPOTLIGHT: Forest Carbon Partnership Facility approves R-Plans for Guyana and Panama
6/29/2009 Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF)
With the approval of the readiness plans for Guyana and Panama, the World Bank moves its Forest Carbon Partnership Facility forward despite civil society protests. The third meeting of the Participants Committee (PC) of the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) was held in Montreaux, Switzerland June 15-18, 2009. On the agenda for this meeting were readiness plans (R-Plans) from three countries: Guyana, Panama and Indonesia, as well as other points having to do with the template countries use to develop their R-Plans, the application of World Bank safeguards to FCPF projects, and the FCPF budget.
With regard to the three countries, while there was significant debate within the PC around weaknesses in all three R-plans, the political pressure to move the process forward won the day, with approval of the Guyana and Panama plans, and approval pending for Indonesia. R-Plan grants amount to a maximum of US$3.6 million, which includes a $200,000 grant which can be provided up front to support R-Plan development.
Read more (BIC website)
2. SPOTLIGHT: Civil society organizations challenge IDB commitments to development results and sustainability
6/30/2009 Amazon Watch and Bank Information Center
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is preparing a $100-200 billion capital increase proposal, and along with it, a new institutional strategy to justify what will amount to a doubling or tripling of current Bank capital. As member countries assess the 9th replenishment proposal advanced by the IDB on July 2 in Santiago, Chile, nine civil society organizations submitted recommendations on leadership steps the IDB should take in several critical areas before qualifying for any capital increase. These recommendations focus on two core areas of the IDB’s comparative advantage as a development bank in Latin America, Sustainability and Management for Development Results. The proposal is based on a series of conversations with Bank management and Directors, in addition to relevant research. The civil society proposal encourages Member Countries to ask the IDB to demonstrate improved performance in advance of the requested 9th capital increase.
READ an Amazon Watch and Bank Information Center Press Release:
Bank Information Center and Amazon Watch Press Release about General Captial Increase Recommendations - Bank Information Center and Amazon Watch, July 1, 2009 (PDF, 52KB)
Read more (BIC website)
3. SPOTLIGHT: The Bank of Babel: Why the World Bank should stop (only) speaking English
6/30/2009 Rebecca Harris, Bank Information Center
In January 2008, community groups in Yemen wrote to their local World Bank office, asking for an Arabic translation of the conditions placed on a $51 million grant to their country's government. This was a reasonable request, they thought, since past World Bank loans had prioritized macroeconomic stability over social services, such as healthcare and education. The civil society groups wanted to be sure that this time would be different.
The groups were surprised by the World Bank's reply: The country manager thanked them for their "high level of awareness" of the ongoing development process and explained that "like all other project documents -- [the loan conditions are] available only in English, since this is the official language to be used in all the transactions and contracts between the Government of the Republic of Yemen and the World Bank." He apologized for not being able to provide a translation and hoped that the civil society groups could translate themselves -- a rather daunting task in a country where literacy is just 57 percent, few read English, and the cost of translation (at about $1,800 or $2,000 for a single document) would eclipse the $930 per capita GDP of the average Yemeni.
Read the complete article (Foreign Policy website)
4. SPOTLIGHT: Activist Q&A: Meet Yahya Saleh Mohsen
07/2/2009 Bank Information Center
BIC highlights the work of Yahya Saleh Mohsen of the Yemen Observatory for Human Rights. Yahya played an instrumental role in bringing a case to the World Bank Inspection Panel involving the Bank's translation policies in Yemen and beyond.
Read more (BIC website)
5. Civil society updates:
Indonesia: Controversy over clean-up plans for Java’s biggest river
6/25/2009 Various organizations
Civil society groups are concerned about project effectiveness and corruption in the allocation of Asian Development Bank funding to clean up the River Citarum, one of the world's most polluted rivers.
Read more (IRIN news website)
Obama's schooling the Bank on transparency
6/23/2009 Bank Information Center
The Huffington Post recently published a BIC Op-ed contrasting the innovative transparency efforts of the Obama Administration with those of the World Bank. The piece argues that President Obama has made great strides in improving transparency within the U.S. government (USG). While implementation and translation of these new principles into policy may prove difficult, he's off to a promising start. World Bank president Robert Zoellick and his team of experts over at the Bank could stand to learn a thing or two from the USG.
Read the article in the Huffington Post
Obama's schooling the Bank on transparency, by Chad Dobson and Rebecca Harris, Bank Information Center, June 23, 2009 (Huffington Post website)
Protest at Kang Keng Airport ends peacefully, villagers say
6/18/2009 Various organizations
An airport expansion project in Cambodia is drawing strong criticism from NGOs and families facing eviction.
Read more (BIC website)
Yemeni civil society finally gets their translation
6/12/2009 Yemen Observatory for Human Rights
1.5 years after the Yemen Observatory for Human Rights first requested a translation of the World Bank's 2008 Development Policy Loan for Yemen, the Bank finally made this translation available, due to a recent case brought before the Inspection Panel.
Read more (BIC website)
6. IFI updates:
Is the Clean Technology Fund benefiting the poor or simply satisfying the energy needs of the rich?
6/30/2009 World Bank
The World Bank announced last month that Mexico, Egypt and Turkey are the first three countries to tap the new $5.2 billion Clean Technology Fund managed by the Bank- $250 million for Turkey, $300 million for Egypt and $500 million for Mexico. The three countries will combine the soft loans from the Fund with loans from other sources in order to implement low carbon projects in the sectors of renewable energy and transportation.
Read more (BIC website)
IFC & Climate: When the learning curve is long
6/28/2009 International Finance Corporation
After an abrupt about-face, the International Finance Corporation frets about its footprint.
Read more (The Economist website)
Comment period for World Bank Strategic Framework implementation
6/23/2009 World Bank
Submit comments to the World Bank online regarding the implementation of the Strategic Framework for Development and Climate Change until July 31st.
Read more (BIC website)
IFC withdraws loan from Brazilian cattle corporation, Bertin
6/1/6/2009 International Finance Corporation
Just two weeks after the publication of Greenpeace's report "Slaughtering the Amazon", the IFC halts a $30 million payment to the Bertin corporation which was using the IFC loan to expand further into the Amazon.
Read Greenpeace's report (Greenpeace website)
Read more (Irish Times website)
7. Announcements and Resources
BIC's Climate Change campaign page now available in Arabic
As we informed you in last month's IF-Eye edition, BIC launched its climate change campaign and associated webpage which is now available in Arabic. You can access it by clicking on the عربي tab in the upper right hand corner of the BIC homepage and clicking on the climate change logo in the Spotlighted items, or you can access the page directly here. For questions or concerns about this page or about our climate change campaign, please e-mail Erin Carey at ecarey@bicusa.org.
New report on gender and climate finance
A new short report by the Heinrich Böell Foundation North America, Gender and Climate Finance: Double Mainstreaming for Sustainable Development, looks at some of the gender implications of the new global climate finance architecture and financing mechanisms and offers several recommendations.
Read the report:
Gender and Climate Finance: Double Mainstreaming for Sustainable Development, By Liane Schalatek, Heinrich Böll Foundation North America, May 2009 (Heinrich Böell website)
8. New at BIC! BIC welcomes Joe Athialy as South Asia Coordinator
Joe Athialy was formerly the Campaigns and Communications Coordinator of Amnesty International (AI) in India, Joe steered AI’s national campaigns which included moratorium on the death penalty, promotion of housing rights and furthering corporate accountability. He was also responsible for editing its newsletters, developing and maintaining its website and coordinating its media work. He was a full time activist for the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save Narmada Movement), a grassroots formation that raised awareness of the social, environmental and economic impacts of large dams. Joe was also a member of the editorial team for Movement of India, a bi-monthly news magazine published by the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM). NAPM brings together nearly 200 peoples’ organizations from across India fighting corporate abuses and human rights violations while advancing people-centered development and collective actions for transparency and accountability.
Joe holds a degree in journalism. He was awarded a scholarship by Edberg Foundation (Sweden), which allowed him to pursue research at Clark University, USA focusing on free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) as it relates to people’s rights affected by mining and hydropower projects, and other large infrastructure investments.
Contact Joe at jathialy@southasia.bicusa.org