Both ENDS

News / 5 August 2015

Press release by 17 NGO's: World Bank should strengthen its rules!

This week, Both ENDS, together with 16 other environmental and human rights organisations from around the world issued a press release in response to the draft version of the ‘Safeguard policies’ of the World Bank. These are social and environmental criteria that a project must meet before it can be eligible for World Bank funding. An earlier draft version, released in July 2014, was strongly criticized by academics, experts from the United Nations, several banks and civil society organisations, because according to them the bank’s rules are becoming much too weak.

In the new draft that was just released, the rules have been liberated in such a way that the risk of human rights violations and environmental damage caused by World Bank projects will increase even more. Therefore, Both ENDS and its partners urge the bank to adjust this draft. World Bank policies should contribute to the goals the bank prides itself on, such as ‘ending extreme poverty, promoting shared prosperity and sustainable development’.

 

More information:

The joint press release (4 August 2015)

Weblog  of Pieter Jansen about the World Banks safeguards (5 August 2015)

Read more about this subject