BIC, behind the efforts of Senior Policy Advisor Vince McElhinny, now has an informational brief on lending trends with the World Bank available.
The document, replete with informational figures and facts, forecasts a further decline in safeguard coverage and points to signs of a return to to higher risk/reward lending. With these lending policies and processes, approached from a number of avenues, a number of themes became clearly evident: 1) Long-term lending trends indicate a steady decline in the coverage of Bank safeguards, now underway for some time; 2) the primary driver of this decline in safeguard coverage is the growth in non-investment lending instruments, often with their own weaker safeguard policies; 3) the Bank is increasingly moving towards high-risk/high-reward lending projects and practices that may eschew binding, consistent standards for social and environmental protection in favor of more flexible, customized and opportunist approach.
The full brief can be downloaded in PDF form here and is also available on our Environmental and Social Assessment page with additional resources.
BIC Info Brief on Trends in World Bank lending forecast Bank Information Center, October 2013