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A group of Egyptian civil society organizations have submitted their recommendations to the World Bank as input to Phase 1 of the Social and Environmental Safeguard policy review process.
The document was endorsed by many of the same organizations that pushed the Bank to hold a civil society consultation in Cairo since such a meeting had not originally been scheduled to take place. The civil society organizations (CSOs) were successful in their efforts and the Bank held a consultation in March 2013 in which organizations from a variety of fields affirmed the importance of involving Egyptian civil society in the revision process and discussed their concerns and proposals to enhance the Bank’s policies in order to address those problems which seem to be systematic rather than limited to one specific project. As noted in the opening paragraph of the submission, this paper should be considered a follow up to that consultative meeting.
The submission includes sections on Environmental Impact Assessments; Involuntary Resettlement and the Right to Land and Housing; Rights of Indigenous Peoples; Labor Rights; The Protection of Children; and issues related to the scope of the Safeguards. The groups emphasized the need for transparency, shared responsibility and accountability between the Bank and borrowing governments, and the need for the Bank to align its standards with those of international standards and conventions, while remembering that safeguards should contribute to the Bank’s overarching goal of reducing poverty.
The submission was endorsed by the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions, Habitat International Coalition – Egypt, Egyptian Association for Collective Rights, Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, Egyptian Center for Civic and Legislative Reform, Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, Forum of Dialogue and Participation for Development, and the Arab NGO Network for Development.
Read the submission
Egyptian CSO Safeguards Submission – April 2013