World Bank Group Invites Applications for Inspection Panel Member Position

The World Bank Group is inviting applications through June 17, 2019, for an Inspection Panel member position that will become available in mid-November when Jan Mattsson completes his five-year term. Interested parties should submit in electronic format a resume with compensation history, and a cover letter outlining reasons for their interest in the position to Mr. Derek Wilkinson and Ms. Betsy Roach. More

Imrana Jalal Re-Elected as Panel Chair

Members of the Inspection Panel have unanimously elected Imrana Jalal as Panel chair for a second year. Ms. Jalal was first elected chair in April 2018 with an effective date of December 16, 2018. She succeeded Gonzalo Castro de la Mata following the end of his five-year term on the Panel. Ms. Jalal will begin her second year as Panel chair on December 16, 2019. A gender specialist, lawyer and development practitioner, Ms. Jalal joined the Panel as a member on January 1, 2018. A Fiji national, she brings to the Panel more than 30 years of experience across diverse geopolitical and multicultural environments in the private and public sectors. Ms. Jalal was Principal Social Development Specialist (Gender and Development) for the Asian Development Bank from 2010-2017. More

Panel Extends Term of Executive Secretary Dilek Barlas through June 2021

The Inspection Panel has extended the term of Executive Secretary Dilek Barlas for an additional two years, through June 30, 2021. Ms. Barlas became the Panel’s Executive Secretary on July 1, 2014, and her term was due to expire on June 30, 2019. In her capacity as the Executive Secretary, Ms. Barlas provides strategic support and advice to the Panel Chair and Panel members; manages the Panel's Secretariat, its staff, consultants and resources; and maintains the Panel's relations with internal stakeholders (the Board of Executive Directors, its committees, World Bank senior management and staff) as well as external ones (Requesters, civil society organizations, academia and the media). Ms. Barlas was the Panel's Deputy Executive Secretary from 2007 to 2014. She joined the World Bank in 1992. More

CASE DEVELOPMENTS

UGANDA: Water Management and Development Project and Energy for Rural Transformation Phase III Project – Panel Submits Investigation Report to Board

The Inspection Panel has submitted to the Board of Executive Directors its Investigation Report in response to two Requests for Inspection of the projects. The Investigation Report will be made public after the Board has met to consider it, along with Bank management’s action plan in response to the Panel’s findings. The management report is due on June 14, 2019. The Requesters raised concerns about potential harm caused by the construction of the Isimba Dam and the consequent flooding of a part of the Kalagala Offset Area (KOA) in Uganda. Although the World Bank is not financing the construction of the dam, the Requesters claim environmental and social harm from the flooding of the KOA, which was established as a requirement of the earlier Uganda Private Power Generation (Bujagali) Project. More 

INDIA: Amaravati Sustainable Infrastructure and Institutional Development Project – Panel Submits Eligibility Report to the Board

The Panel has submitted to the Board its Third Report and Recommendation on whether an investigation is warranted in response to a 2017 Request for Inspection filed by landowners from the area proposed for the construction of the Amaravati capital city in Andhra Pradesh. A Board meeting to discuss the Panel’s recommendation is scheduled for July 23, 2019. The Requesters allege harm from a land pooling scheme used to assemble the land required for the city, as well as from other project activities. The Panel has twice deferred its decision on whether to recommend an investigation of the project. The Board approved the Panel’s second deferral in July 2018. More

INDIA: Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project for Low Income States – Investigation Under Way

A Panel team will visit India in late June and early July as the Panel conducts its investigation of the project. The Panel had received two Requests for Inspection from tribal community members who raised concerns, respectively, about a water treatment plant (WTP) and an elevated storage reservoir (ESR), both of which are part of water schemes financed by the project. The Requesters claim the WTP and the ESR are being built on land that has historical and cultural significance to their tribal communities. They raise concerns about losing access to community resources, as well as about the environmental and economic impact of the schemes. They allege a lack of consultation and disclosure of information. The Board approved the Panel’s recommendation to investigate the project on March 1, 2019. More

KENYA: Transport Sector Support Project and its Additional Financing – Board Approves Panel Recommendation to Defer Investigation Decision

The Board on April 5, 2019, approved an Inspection Panel recommendation to defer for up to six months its decision on whether an investigation is warranted of the project. The Panel received the Request for Inspection on December 17, 2018, from three members of the project-affected community in Webuye, Kenya. The complainants allege harm from the construction of the Webuye interchange, which is part of the Webuye-Kitale road works. They raise concerns about environmental impact, health and safety issues, impact on livelihoods and inadequate working conditions, as well as consultation and information disclosure. The Panel recommended the deferral to await both the implementation of additional actions to address the concerns of the Requesters and the completion this summer of an expanded Resettlement Action Plan audit. More 

KENYA: Nairobi Metropolitan Services Improvement Project – Panel Issues Notice of Registration

The Panel on May 13, 2019, issued a Notice of Registration for a Request for Inspection of the project. The Panel received the Request on April 12, 2019, from three residents of the Muthurwa area of Nairobi. The Requesters’ concerns relate to plans to redevelop the area in which they live. They allege, among other things, that such plans are being financed under the project and will result in evictions of community members and the demolition of cultural and historical facilities, which they claim are of “sentimental value” to the community members. A Panel team will visit Kenya later in June in advance of a Panel decision on whether to recommend an investigation of the project to the Board. More

KENYA: Natural Resource Management Project (NRMP), Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture Project (KCSAP), Urban Support Program (USP) – Panel Issues Notice of Non-Registration

The Panel on May 31, 2019, issued a Notice of Non-Registration for a Request for Inspection of the projects. The Panel received the Request on April 15, 2019, from seven community members who live and represent others in the Cherangany Hills in Kenya. The Requesters consider themselves indigenous and raised concerns about the lack of recognition of their indigenous identity, which in their view has contributed to the loss of their traditional lands and territories. They also alleged a lack of consultations in the design and implementation of the KCSAP and USP, and ethnic discrimination and exclusion from the benefits of those two projects. The Panel did not register the Request after determining the claims regarding the NRMP were inadmissible under the Panel rules because the project is closed. In regard to claims against the KCSAP and USP, the Panel did not find any discriminatory elements in the projects and a plausible link between the harms alleged by the Requesters and the projects. More


Bank Management Update – Action  Plan Implementation Report


World Bank management in May released its latest report on the implementation of its action plans. The action plans were developed in response to findings in Inspection Panel investigations, and have been approved by the Bank’s Board of Executive Directors. Management, as requested by the Committee on Development Effectiveness of the Board, began submitting these biannual implementation reports to the Board in April 2016. In line with its Updated Operating Procedures and to promote transparency, the Panel publishes the management reports on its website. More

Panel Welcomes Summer 2019 Interns

The Panel this month welcomed its interns for the summer of 2019: Claire Weisner of Arcadia University, Miranda McDermott of Brown University and Akshayaa Chittibabu of the University of Connecticut. They will be assisting the Panel on research and other casework through August. More

Panel Co-Sponsors Spring Meetings Event on Stakeholder Engagement

Panel Chair Imrana Jalal spoke at an event titled “Stakeholder Engagement in the Face of Shrinking Civil Society Space and Reprisals Against Community Representatives” at the Civil Society Policy Forum on the sidelines of the World Bank Group Spring Meetings. The event, which the Panel co-sponsored with the Bank Information Center (BIC), was moderated by World Bank Executive Director Juergen Zattler and also included remarks by BIC Executive Director Elana Berger and Charles Di Leva, the World Bank’s chief environmental and social standards officer. Ms. Jalal told the session that citizen access to the Panel as an avenue of remedy from harm is fundamental to both the Panel process and the quality of World Bank projects. More

Panel Participates in Shanghai Workshop on FI Accountability

Panel Chair Imrana Jalal and Executive Secretary Dilek Barlas on May 20 and 21, 2019, took part in a regional workshop in Shanghai on the potential for establishing accountability mechanisms for Chinese intermediary banks that lend money to the developing world and the type of social and environmental safeguards that might be applicable to their work. Ms. Jalal moderated a panel discussion on the topic of “Best Practice on Grievance Redress/Accountability Mechanisms for Banks and Financial Intermediaries (FIs),” and Ms. Barlas was a panelist at a session that discussed the challenges faced by international financial institutions in regard to safeguard compliance and accountability of FIs. The workshop, sponsored by the Asian Development Bank in partnership with the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, was attended by 250 representatives of China’s government, Chinese banks and financial intermediaries, state-owned enterprises, multilateral development banks, international organizations and civil society. While in Shanghai, Ms. Jalal and Ms. Barlas, together with other independent accountability mechanism representatives, met with the New Development Bank’s management and staff.

Panel Conducts Stakeholder Outreach in Haiti, Ethiopia and Fiji

The Inspection Panel took part in four events this spring to explain its mandate and operations to civil society stakeholders. Panel staff held video conferences on April 23, 2019, and May 2, 2019, respectively, with civil society representatives in Haiti and Ethiopia. Panel Chair Imrana Jalal, in Fiji to participate in events at the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), met with Fiji civil society members in the capital Suva on April 26, 2019, and with representatives of Asia-Pacific civil society in Nadi on May 3, 2019.

ABOUT THE INSPECTION PANEL 

The Inspection Panel is an independent complaints mechanism for people and communities who believe that they have been, or are likely to be, adversely affected by a World Bank-funded project. The Board of Executive Directors created the Inspection Panel in 1993 to ensure that people have access to an independent body to express their concerns and seek recourse. The Panel is an impartial fact-finding body, independent from the World Bank management and staff, reporting directly to the Board. The Inspection Panel process aims to promote accountability at the World Bank, give affected people a greater voice in activities supported by the World Bank that affect their rights and interests, and foster redress when warranted.