World Bank safeguards
In the financing of development aid by development banks and lenders, World Bank Safeguards describe guidelines of the World Bank Group that serve to maintain social standards. The term safeguards is used in the English-speaking world and by international organizations to denote "security measures" in the sense of protective mechanisms.
Safeguards in lending
At the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, as well as at a number of other multilateral development banks, the safeguards (actually "Safeguard Policies") are administrative regulations that set the legal framework for lending and thus secure it. The safeguards regulate the disbursement of funds to the borrowing country as well as the administration of the loans and actually set certain minimum banking standards. This is v. a. the case with the IMF safeguards.
World Bank administrative regulations
The World Bank has developed a number of safeguards that set certain environmental and social standards when granting loans for projects and programs in the recipient country. These safeguards are formulated in the form of so-called Operational Policies (OP), which are binding for financing by the World Bank, both for the borrowing country and for the World Bank itself, which is usually heavily involved in project development.
The safeguards have evolved from various regulations. These include the statutes of the World Bank ("Articles of Agreement"), service instructions and internal "Best Practices" guidelines. The safeguards are subject to constant modernization. They are a contractual part of the loan agreement for World Bank loans. Violations by the borrowing country can delay or interrupt the disbursement of the following loan tranches. If the World Bank itself violates its safeguards, the independent "Inspection Panel" can be called.
Among other things, the safeguards regulate when and how environmental impact assessments are to be carried out, how to proceed in cases of resettlement, how indigenous peoples are to be protected, when and how consultations with the affected population are to be held or how biotopes and habitats are to be treated within the framework of projects.
The most important safeguards are the following 10:
- Environmental Assessment (OP 4.01)
- Natural Habitats (OP 4.04)
- Pest Management (OP 4.09)
- Involuntary Resettlement (OP 4.12)
- Indigenous People (OP 4.20)
- Forests (OP 4.36)
- Safety of Dams (OP 4.37)
- Projects on International Waterways (OP 7.50)
- Projects in Disputed Areas (OP 7.60)
- Management of Cultural Property in Bank-Financed Projects (OP 11.03)
various
The safeguards are widely recognized, even by the harshest critics of the World Bank. On the initiative of the World Bank subsidiary International Finance Corporation ( IFC ), 94 major banks from 37 countries (as of 2019) have committed to the so-called equator principles , such as the voluntary acceptance and implementation of the World Bank safeguards.
Individual evidence
- ↑ The World Bank: Bank Policy - Investment Project Financing, Catalog Number OPS5.03-POL110, September 30, 2018 (administrative regulation; [1] )