July 30, 2014

Leaked World Bank report proposes relaxation of safeguards for people and environment

editor:	Vanessa Ellingham

Devastating plans for the World Bank to roll back some of the tougher conditions for lending funds to developing countries have been revealed in a leaked report.

The leaked draft containing the Bank's 'safeguard policies' documents a proposed relaxation of the conditions which exist to protect the environment, indigenous peoples and the poor from the negative effects of projects to which the World Bank lends up to 50 billion USD every year.

Under these relaxed safeguards, the report shows that indigenous peoples will no longer have consultation on projects such as palm oil plantations in the Sumatra (seen in the image above) and large dams which will take place on ancestral land.

Logging and mining will be allowed in ecologically sensitive areas under the new "light touch" rules, which would allow states free access to areas of biodiversity which are currently protected.

World Bank watchdog groups including the Bank Information Centre (BIC), the Ulu Foundation and the International Trade Union Confederation have condemned the proposed changes, saying they are an attempt to avoid accountability, leaving governments and businesses to operate at their own discretion.

"The Bank and its member countries have an obligation to ensure that investments in dams, roads, or other projects don’t result in forced evictions, labor abuses, or other rights violations. Instead, the Bank appears to be moving to a blank-check system, where communities will have no clear protections and little ability to seek recourse if their rights are violated," said Bank on Human Rights coalition coordinator Gretchen Gordon.

The draft report containing the proposed policy changes will be discussed by the World Bank's board next week, where a vote on whether to make the report public for discussion is likely to take place.