About the Review and Update

The Policy and Performance Standards on Social and Environmental Sustainability and Policy on Disclosure of Information, which came into effect on April 30, 2006, constitute the IFC sustainability framework.

The Board of Executive Directors, when approving the sustainability framework, requested IFC to review its experience in implementation after the initial three years.

In response to this request, IFC submitted the report entitled IFC's Policy and Performance Standards on Social and Environmental Sustainability and Policy on Disclosure of Information: Report on the First Three Years of Application [PDF] to the Board's Committee on Development Effectiveness (CODE). This report was discussed by CODE on July 29, 2009.

While in many ways, three years of application is not a very long timeframe in which to gain implementation experience, CODE agreed with Report's conclusions that there are clarifications and modifications that would improve its effectiveness, and approved IFC's proposal to initiate the review and update process of the sustainability framework. It is anticipated the process will take about 18 months and that the updated framework will come into effect in January 2011.