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KYOTO,
Japan—Civil
society organizations want Asian Development Bank (ADB)
president Haruhiko Kuroda’s strong commitment to resolve
the issues and concerns raised in some of the
Bank-funded projects as well as questions on its
safeguard and energy policy.
“For
years we have been concerned witnesses to and unwilling
recipients of the adverse effects of Bank-assisted
projects throughout the region,” the CSO delegation
noted in its petition presented to Kuroda on Friday
morning.
ADB is
holding its 40th annual meeting for the Board of
Governors and for a few years now has been holding
parallel dialogues with representatives from
nongovernment organizations as part of its consultation
process.
“Undoubtedly, there is a wide gap between the Bank’s
goal and on-the-ground realities. It appears the
overarching ADB goal of poverty alleviation is
farfetched and elusive. The influx of financial and
technical assistance that comes with the so-called
package of social reforms has truly come into fruition
only in the form of poverty escalation, loss of
livelihood and environmental degradation,” the group’s
letter added.
Kuroda
in a media briefing reiterated, however, that the Bank
continues to adopt a very stringent safeguards policy
particularly on projects with significant social and
environmental impacts.
“We
stick to [our] stringent safeguard policies… [but] it is
also crucial to involve as many stakeholders as
possible in the design and implementation of projects,”
he said, responding to a question posed by
BusinessMirror.
Civil
society representatives in their letter expressed alarm
on the impending lowering of ADB’s social and
environmental standards, as reflected in its draft
Safeguard Policy Update (SPU), due to pressure from
borrowers who do not want any safeguard strings attached
to loans.
There
are indications the SPU may simplify the requirements of
the three major safeguards on environmental assessment,
involuntary resettlement and indigenous peoples and
consolidate them into a single policy document, they
added. “If so this would be a tremendous step backward
for the institutional credibility of the ADB as a public
institution whose mandate is to support sustainable
development.”
On
specific bank projects, the group criticized ADB’s
indirect support to junta-ruled Burma, its controversial
post-tsunami rehabilitation efforts in
Aceh,
Indonesia,
its funding of destructive industrial aquaculture in
Indonesia, the Mae Moh Coal project in Thailand, Highway
1 Project in Cambodia and the Phulbari Coal Mining in
Bangladesh, among others.
The
group likewise sought a dialogue with the Bank on its
Eminent Persons Group Report so that questions, concerns
and recommendations can be inputted in response to the
report.
The
Eminent Persons has recommended that the bank’s future
lending support inclusive growth, environmentally
sustainable growth and a shift to a regional and
ultimately global focus for the Asia-Pacific region “to
complete its transformation to the next stage of
development.” |
