Photo: © Kemal Jufri / Greenpeace
A letter from over 30 civil society organizations, delivered on May 7th 2014, urges World Bank President Kim to include Development Policy Lending (DPL) in the ongoing Safeguard Policy Review and conduct a thorough assessment of DPL performance in avoiding or mitigating social and environmental risks. The World Bank Board Committee on Development Effectiveness (CODE) is scheduled to review Bank Management’s first draft proposal of the safeguards on June 25th.
Over the past year, civil society organizations from around the world have requested that Bank Management expand the scope of the Safeguard Review to include all lending instruments. Expanding the scope of the review is necessary in order to ensure that similar environmental and social risks are treated the same, regardless of the instrument used.
Development Policy Loans (DPLs) account for fully a third of all Bank business but are governed by a policy (OP 8.60) that is not subject to the same safeguard policies that apply to investment project lending. CSOs have pointed to a growing list of recent policy loans that evidence inconsistent and often inferior standards for managing environmental and social risks compared to investment project lending safeguards:
- World Bank Accelerating Coal Development In Indonesia
- Brazil Sustainable Environmental Management DPL
- DRC Transitional Support for Economic Recovery Credit Operation (TSERO)
Unfortunately, the presentation given by Bank Management on April 12th at the World Bank Spring Meetings* indicated the Bank is seeking to adopt a safeguard framework that may fail to address the inconsistencies among the Bank’s instruments.
See panel presentation by BIC and Global Witness at the Fall 2013 Annual Meetings for a summary of CSO concerns and Management
The CSO letter asked President Kim to consider the following recommendations:
1. To include DPLs in the ongoing Safeguard Policy Review and leave open the possibility of integrating the DPL policy into the new Safeguard Framework;
2. To commission in FY15 a full independent evaluation by IEG of the last decade of DPL performance, with a focus on the effectiveness of DPL safeguards;
3. To commit to a concrete, time-bound review process of OP 8.60 that includes full consultation consistent with best practice standards (World Bank Stakeholder Consultation Guideline: Principles, Process, Practices), with the stated intent to revise the policy.
Contact your Government representatives or Executive Directors on World Bank Board of Directors to ask that the Safeguard Policy Review include DPLs.
*See April 12, 2014 Spring Meeting session video from 2:14:40 to 2:16:21at http://wbmswebcast1.worldbank.org/OPS/2014-04-17/CSO_Update_on_WBG_Safeguards_Review_Process.asf