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[9:00am] Welcome everyone! This is our first live chat. We are sitting in a room in the IFC building in Washington DC, waiting for your questions. In the meantime, we will start with a few questions that were submitted earlier. Please refresh this page for the live discussion session as this is where questions and answers will be posted and updated as they come in. Q [9:03am]: Is the IFC planning on providing interim updates of the current review process prior to its finalization? In other words, will the comments or issues that are raised throughout the consultation be posted before the review is complete? A: Our goal throughout this process is to run a open, transparent, interactive process. With this in mind, we will publish summaries after each consultation period. In addition, the draft versions of the revised documents will be issued in tracked change mode so that potential changes can easily be seen. Q [9:07am]. How IFC is going to consult with local communities? A. Feedback from communities and individuals directly affected by IFC’s projects that have applied the Performance Standards is especially important and will be specifically solicited through in-country face-to-face meetings. IFC is in the process of analyzing its projects in order to select a representative sample of communities that: i) are from a variety of geographical locations; ii) collectively have encountered a range of environmental, social, and labor issues addressed in the Performance Standards; iii) are unique large, complicated projects; iv) are typical small, straight forward projects; and v) have not been surveyed multiple times by various other studies (Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, Independent Evaluation Group, for example.) We are thinking through the actual methodology of how best to conduct these consultations and would be interested in your views. Q [9:13am]. Why local communities were not consulted as part of the "Three Year Application Report" preparatory process? A. Given the life cycle of a project within IFC, it is still early days in terms of having a large enough sample of projects from which to draw conclusions. Right now, we have 35 Board approved projects that have completed 2 years of supervision (monitoring) under the Performance Standards. The number of projects in this sample will continue to grow in the coming months and IFC will be better able to assess the effectiveness of the Performance Standards. Q[9:19am]: IFC's Disclosure Policy presumes in favor of disclosure, yet when requests are made for information on projects, other than what is in the list of exceptions, IFC doesn't disclose the information or refers the requestor to the client. Will IFC disclose more project information as a result of this review? A. As part of the review and update process, we are evaluating the Disclosure Policy. Given that the review has just started, we haven’t determined how this Policy might change but it is likely that there are areas where we can go further. Q[9:24am]: How does IFC verify that the client is consulting with/has consulted with the affected community? A. Performance Standard 1 requires clients to undertake a process of consultation with affected communities that may be subject to risks or adverse impacts from the project. We then require the client to report on an annual basis to IFC on how this is going. IFC also conducts site visits which often include meeting with communities in order to verify that consultation is effective and ongoing. Q[9:30am]: Who is IFC consulting with over the next couple of months? A. IFC will consult on an ongoing basis with multilateral banks, bilateral banks, ECAs, commercial banks including the Steering Committee of EPFIs, trade unions, UN agencies, IFC clients and business organizations, communities directly affected by PS projects, international and local NGOs/Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), and the External Advisory Group. IBRD/IDA and MIGA colleagues will also be consulted throughout the process on areas in which further policy coherence and process efficiencies can be achieved, with a view to strengthening World Bank Group (WBG) collaboration. IFC will also work with WBG to explore the most efficient ways for linking the PPS consultation process with the WBG Environment Policy Update and any other consultation. We will consult with those stakeholders and general public using dedicated web page, live chats, open meetings in DC and select regions, and face-to-face by invitation sessions, and through a sample of project consultations (affected communities). Q[9:35am]. Is IFC updating the Guidance Notes and Environmental, Health, and Safety Guidelines? A. We will update the Guidance Notes as part of this process. The Environmental, Health, and Safety Guidelines will be updated at some time but separate from the Performance Standards. Q[9:41am]. How are interested stakeholders going to be informed about various consultation possibilities? A. Information on planned open meetings, live sessions, as well as regional consultation will be available on this webpage under “Upcoming Events.” We will also send e-mail reminders to those who registered at the consultation site: http://www.ifc.org/ifcext/policyreview.nsf/Content/ProvideInput Q[9:47am] Why does the process take so long (18 months)??? A. We agree that 18 months seems like a long time but in some ways it also feels very short. The Performance Standards issues are quite varied – from pollution to security forces to cultural heritage – and complex. The current state of practice is continuously evolving on all of these issues as well. We also anticipate a lot of interest from our stakeholders and so want to have enough time to hear everyone’s feedback. Q[9:53am] Are you planning for a detailed consultation schedule to be communicated to stakeholders? How can individuals participate besides the web based sessions (for instance, will you hold an open live session in Brazil?) Thanks A. The consultation schedule is continuously evolving. We will be holding live sessions in the regions and this will be communicated in advance via this website. It is likely that we will hold a session sometime over the 18 months in Brazil. Q[9:59am] Given the world has just been through (or is still in) an economic crisis, what did IFC learn about the Performance Standards? A. Good question. We learned that they help clients run efficient businesses especially in tough times. That said, when we developed the Performance Standards no one could have envisioned the depth of the crisis. We think that some of the provisions around retrenchment and non-employee workers need to be studied further. Q[10:05am] Will IFC also consult with environmental and social consultants mandated by commercial banks? Such consultants may have a better "on-the-ground" experience on the Performance Standards implementation than commercial banks professionals who simply review their reports. A. Yes, we would love to hear from you. Your experience is valuable. Just as with all interested stakeholders, there are a variety of avenues you can use to provide comments - either directly through IFC or through the commercial bank that you provide services to. Q [10:12am]. Are you interested at all in inputs from your clients? A. Absolutely, clients are our key stakeholders. We plan to provide you with opportunity to directly provide your comments (live sessions like this one). You can also provide feedback using the website. We will also be meeting with several business associations and employers organizations to solicit their views. So if you prefer providing comments through a respective sector association, it would be possible as well. Q [10:18am] Will the transcript of this live session be available later? A. Yes, the transcripts of all of our discussion sessions will be available on this website. Q [10:21am] Does the Disclosure Policy require IFC to inform communities that IFC is financing the project? A. The Disclosure Policy requires IFC to make our potential involvement known via IFC’s project website: http://www.ifc.org/projects It is fair to assume that not all communities would then be aware of our involvement. Performance Standard 1 requires our clients to consult and inform affected communities about the project but not about IFC’s potential involvement. This is an area we need to think about. Q [10:23am] In view of latest developments related to climate change, it seems that Performance Standard 3 requirements need to be revised? Any plans for this? A. This is a very good question. Climate change is a strategic priority for IFC and the review of the Performance Standards provide timely opportunity to explore possible approaches to more effectively integrate climate change consideration. We are planning to re-examine all Performance Standards through the lens of climate change, including of course Performance Standard 3. Q [10:26am] Will the reviewed policies toguether with the new guidelines and environmental and social parameters affect proyects already in course? Or the revised edition of the policies will only affect new proyects from its publication? A. We will establish a data by which all new projects entering the IFC project cycle will apply the revised Policies. We won't make existing projects change to the revised Policies as we have legal agreements in place that are tied to the Policies that were in effect when that project was agreed upon. Q [10:29am] Will you be having separate live chat sessions to discuss each Performance Standard? If yes, then are you planning on only one chat session per standard ? A. We aren't currently planning to have a chat session for each Performance Standard. We are planning to have several chat sessions so that all issues are covered. In addition, the website is structured so that you can give comments and see other people's comments on individual Performance Standards. Patty and Piotr [10:30am]: Thanks to everyone for helping to make our first live chat session a good one! Our next session has been scheduled on November 4, 9:00am-10:30am (Eastern Standard Time). Please keep checking back to this website to stay up-to-date with the process, to submit questions beforehand, and to provide comments directly. You can also contact us at: http://www.ifc.org/ifcext/policyreview.nsf/Content/ContactUs Thank you! | |||||||||||||||||||||
