The Safeguard Policies, adopted in 1998, have served as the basis for IFC's leadership on social and environmental sustainability.
Under a new policy framework for managing the social and environmental risks of projects IFC finances in emerging markets, the Safeguard Policies have been recast as IFC Policy and Performance Standards on Social and Envrionmental Sustainabiilty:
“IFC Sustainability Policy” speaks to IFC’s roles and responsibilities in ensuring project performance in partnership with clients.
“Performance Standards” detail the requirements of clients necessary to receive and retain IFC support and clarify what is expected of clients.
IFC's Integrated Policy Review
IFC has undertaken an integrated review process to update the Safeguard Policies in a comprehensive way. The outcome is a new policy framework that comprises the:
Policy and Performance Standards on Social and Environmental Sustainability
The new Disclosure Policy speaks to IFC’s commitments and responsibility to disclose information about itself as an institution. Public disclosure requirements for clients are found in the proposed the Performance Standards as an integral part of directives to engage in early and ongoing engagement with community that are affected by projects.
The EHS Guidelines are technical reference documents that address IFC’s expectations regarding the industrial pollution management performance of its projects.
Supplemental Guidance/Implementation Materials
The new policy framework includes non-policy implementation documents that give direction to IFC staff and clients in implementing the proposed Sustainability Policy and Performance standards:
Guidance Notes, which provide helpful guidance to clients (and IFC staff) in fulfilling their roles and responsibilities under the Performance Standards.
Environment and Social Review Procedure, which gives direction to IFC officers in implementing the Sustainability Policy and assessing and monitoring private sector projects.
New working drafts of the Guidance Notes and ERS Procedure have been posted for public comment.
Finally, IFC regularly produces Good Practice Notes on specific topic areas, such as Resettlement, which provide guidance on emerging best practice in any area.
Goals of the Policy Update and Guiding Principles
The Safeguards Update was launched in October 2003 to update and improve IFC’s environmental and social safeguard policies. IFC expects the update to achieve the following goals:
Ensure understanding, acceptance and integration of the revised Safeguard Policies by IFC staff as a key component of IFC’s business processes
Promote the applicability of the Safeguard Policies to the private sector and support their efforts toward environmental and social sustainability
The Safeguard Policies update, which is taking the current policies as the baseline for the minimum standards, is guided by the following principles:
The policies must clearly state IFC's minimum requirements applicable to all IFC projects;
The policies must be streamlined and easy to use;
Policy gaps must be addressed as appropriate;
The policies should emphasize private sector considerations while ensuring compatibility with the World Bank safeguard policies;
The policies must incorporate the concept of sustainability.
