Minutes of Spring meeting with Tom Scholar and UK NGOs in London
Human rights
Infrastructure
Background
IFC consultation with civil society on the safeguard review
Highlights of the IFC consultation with civil society on its revision of the WBG environmental and social safeguards
Environment
Background
EIR Update: highlights of civil society meeting with World Bank Group
Civil society meeting with the World Bank Group on the Extractive Industries Review update
Rights
Commentary
People’s assembly demands justice from World Bank
Villagers of Badin district in southeastern Pakistan are demanding compensation from the World Bank for a drainage infrastructure project that has wrought environmental devastation and led to the loss of lives.
Environment
News
IFC safeguard review integrity in question
Summary of concerns on process and substance of the IFC's on-going review of its safeguard policies
Environment
News
Italian bank dumps troubled World Bank Caspian pipeline
Italian bank pulls out of IFC-backed oil pipeline in the Caspian
Rights
News
Draft indigenous peoples policy riddled with loopholes
The previous draft policy on indigenous peoples failed to meet expectations of indigenous peoples and NGOs involved in the process. It was scrapped in 2002. The current revised draft has improved in terms of integrating some previous recommendations made by indigenous peoples but it remains riddled with legal loopholes and ambiguous definitions
Rights
News
IFC-backed mine violates Guatemalan law
One person was killed and ten were injured when the Guatemalan police and military took action to disperse protesters blocking a convoy of mining equipment destined for an IFC-funded gold mine.
Environment
News
West Africa gas pipeline approved
The World Bank's board of directors recently approved an investment guarantee for the US$590 million West Africa gas pipeline (WAGP)
Environment
News
Consultation extended for IFC safeguard review: doubts remain
World Bank environmental and social safeguard policies have long been a subject of contention. The Bank has now begun to shift from "explicit, mandatory policies, to which it can be held accountable, to flexible principles or national standards, permitting the investor and/or the borrowing government to determine the project's social and environmental requirements". This is illustrated most clearly by the on-going reviews of the IFC's Safeguard Policies and World Bank's Country Systems.