WASHINGTON, 23 January 2004
- The World Bank Group (WBG) welcomed on Friday the completion of an extensive independent report on stakeholder views regarding the development institution’s role in the extractive industries and commended Dr. Emil Salim for his leadership in preparing the review.
The independent stakeholder report is the final part of a multi-year appraisal process that was supplemented by several internal reviews and audits of WBG performance in extractive industries projects.
The Management of the World Bank Group has committed to responding to all the reports within 90 days. The next step in the process will be a discussion of a draft Management Response by a subcommittee of the Bank Group’s board of executive directors, the Committee on Development Effectiveness. Following that, the full Board of Executive Directors, which represents the 184 shareholder nations of the Bank Group, will review the Management Response and determine which policy, procedural, and institutional proposals should be accepted.
“Dr. Salim has performed a valuable public service for the Bank Group,”
said
James Wolfensohn
,
President of the World Bank
,
“this is one of the most varied and complex areas of the Bank Group’s operations. However, he was able to create a transparent, independent, and inclusive process that helped raise awareness regarding the extent and nature of our operations and solicit views on our future role.”
The World Bank Group helps governments and private sector clients in the developing countries in numerous ways, such as providing investment capital for new capacity, technical and advisory services on project design, and environmental and social standards for extractive industries projects as well as lending for public sector reforms and privatization, environmental rehabilition, mine-closures, investments that increase local ownership or ownership by previously disadvantaged groups, and “linkage” programs that bring small and medium enterprises into extractive industries supply chains.
In response to concerns about its role in some extractive industries projects, the Bank Group agreed in 2000 to a comprehensive review of its activities in the sector that would include various stakeholders, including governments, industry, indigenous peoples, nongovernmental organizations and other civil society entities.
The stakeholder consultation process led by Dr. Salim included:
-
Five regional multi-stakeholder workshops (Africa, Asia, Europe/Central Asia, Latin America, Middle East/North Africa);
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A large number of ad hoc meetings with a wide range of stakeholder groups;
-
Internet posting of submissions and views from interested groups;
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Project site visits;
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Research on select issues, such as a collection of indigenous peoples’ experiences with extractive industries projects and an in-depth review of the views of two mining communities in Europe and Latin America.
Additonal information about the various extractive industries reviews can be found at the following web addresses:
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The independent consultation with stakeholders led by Dr. Emil Salim: http://www.eireview.org;
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The internal joint review by the World Bank Group’s evaluation units (OED/OEG/OEU) of past activities of the WBG in the sector is available at
http://www.ifc.org/oeg
.
-
The review by the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman’s office of eight recent private-sector investment projects by the International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guaranty Agency, the private-sector lending arms of the World Bank Group is available at
http://www.cao-ombudsman.org/ev.php.