10 December 2004
Civil society urged to weigh in on this Inter-American Development Bank policy review, which can have profound consequences on upcoming large-scale infrastructure projects in Latin America.
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Consultation process
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) set its final dates for its Regional Consultation Process for the Environment and Safeguards Compliance Policy:
- January 26- Barbados
- February 15- Brazil
- February 22- Panama
- March 3- Lima
The Bank will invite 40-50 participants from various sectors to each meeting. They are currently preparing a list of invitees, and there will be some (limited) funding available to finance participation of representatives from civil society organizations. They will circulate a proposal for an agenda and methodology soon. To see the IDB’s basic documents on the Policy and the consultation process visit their website: www.iadb.org/sds/env/site_5512_s.htm or link directly to the draft:
Preliminary Critique of the Draft policy
The Policy will replace the present policy of the Bank (the same they have had for over two decades) and will apply to all the projects and policy lending financed by the IDB. Since the IDB plays such a fundamental role in the IIRSA and PPP regional development projects, this policy can have extensive and profound consequences. It is very important that civil society take advantage of the opportunity to weigh in on its content. The legal language in environmental policy documents can be very precise. To help those interested in influencing this policy analyze and prepare to discuss the Draft, the following document compares the Draft IDB policy to similar policies at the World Bank and other institutions. We invite you to study it and to send your comments and additions to BIC so we might incorporate more observations.
Pre-consultation civil society workshops
BIC will hold preparatory workshops for those thinking of participating in the public consultations. The first will be at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil between January 27-31, 2005. For more information contact Eric Holt-Giménez: .
More on the IDB Environment Policy