Media Advisory
IFC New Environmental and Social Standards
Washington, D.C., February 21, 2006 -
The Board of Directors of the International Finance Corporation will adopt today (late afternoon) new environmental and social standards for the organization.
The new standards build upon the environmental and social requirements that IFC currently applies to private sector projects it finances in the developing world. The new standards cover more areas than the old safeguards and expand on areas already covered.
They will not only apply to all projects financed by the IFC, but also to projects financed by the Equator Banks, 40 leading commercial financial institutions, which collectively represent 80 percent of global project finance.
For more information, see the IFC website at
http://www.ifc.org/policyreview
Lars Thunell, Executive Vice President of IFC and Rachel Kyte, Director of the Environment and Social Development Department, will present the new standards to the press on Wednesday 22 February 2006 at 8.00 a.m. (Washington D.C. time) in room 11P142 of the IFC. Journalists are invited to attend the press briefing or to dial in.
EVENT: Press Briefing
DATE: Wednesday, February 22, 2006
TIME: 8.00 a.m. to 9.00 a.m. (Washington D.C. time)
VENUE: International Finance Corporation, Room 11P-142
2121 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20433
DIAL IN: (from US or Canada) 1-888-405-9176
(others) 1-210-234-0018
See instructions for the conference call below.
The coordinates are as follows:
1) All participants within the continental US and Canada will dial
**********************
*
1-888-405-9176 *
**********************
International Participants will dial
**********************
*
1-210-234-0018 *
**********************
2) Participants may begin dialing in to the conference 20 minutes before it's scheduled start time.
3) Participants will give the Password: 20428
4) Participants will identify the Conference Leader as: Manirakiza-Dogo,Lydia
5) For security reasons, the Password and conference leader's name will be required to join your audio conference call.
Special Instructions:
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It's quite possible during the audio conference call, a participant may loose their connections with the ongoing conference call. If this happens:
Domestic Participants-Using the touch tone pad on the telephone phone, the conference leader may press *0 which signals the conference operator to bridge on the active conference. Provide the conference operator with the participant's name and telephone number who dropped out of the active conference. The conference operator will dial the participant and bridge the participant into the active conference call.
New participants may also be added to the audio conference call at anytime during the audio conference session. Provide the conference operator with the new participants name and telephone number, and the conference operator will dial the new participant and bridge the participant into the active conference call.
For Assistance, International Participants may dial 415-228-5035 with the MCI confirmation number. The international participants may call collect to MCI. All collect calls will be accepted. We recommend that you send this information in your notification letter.
