Chantale Wong opened the session by observing that strong environmental and social safeguards are key to prosperous, inclusive, and sustainable economies. She highlighted the new stakeholder engagement standard in the draft Environment and Social Framework (ESF) to engage with people. The upcoming review of the ADB Accountability Mechanism would be a key means to assess the implementation of ESF. The review will have strong public consultation. Rayyan Hassan noted that the unclear wording of the ESF (such as “where applicable”) creates ambiguities and gives the borrowers/clients a lot of flexibility. This needs to be tightened, he said. His remarks were followed by four case study presentations covering a hydropower plant in Nepal; a geo-thermal project in Indonesia; a road project in Imphal, India; and a drainage rehabilitation project in Bangladesh. In each case, according to presenters, the safeguards mechanisms at ADB fell short in protecting the people from harm. These cases raise questions about the extent to which the ESF achieves its intended purpose of protecting people and the planet. The speakers urged ADB to pay more attention to consulting with and listening to affected people and to monitor the effects of the projects on people and the planet over a longer term. During the discussion, ADB representatives acknowledged that it is a hard road to get to where ADB wants to be on ESF implementation. It is working on protections for the LGBTQIA+ community and using a more inclusive risk-based approach. It is giving priority to the “do no harm” principle and improving its risk assessment and consultation processes followed by a mitigation plan and its implementation. ADB safeguards Director Bruce Dunn from the audience acknowledged the value addition of consultations during the ADB Safeguard Policy Statement review. Stakeholder engagement, especially gender, is a key component of ESF. Civil society representatives emphasized that ADB should consider refraining from lending in countries where ESF systems are not up to the standards. ADB is still working to make several changes to the existing draft, which will be shared for further public comments in July.

Content originally published at https://www.adb.org/annual-meeting/2024/events/protecting-people-planet