Inter-American Development Bank
Source: Wally Gobetz (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
A group of +25 organizations, members and allies of the Coalition for Human Rights in Development, sent a letter to the Inter-American Bank Development (IDB), to strengthen the review process of its Access to Information Policy (AIP) and present their recommendations.
The IDB began this review on August 29 with the intention of aligning its Access to Information Policy with international standards. However, the organizations identified several shortcomings in the consultation that hinder the meaningful participation of communities and civil society impacted by the bank’s projects.
In order to promote inclusion in the AIP review process, the organizations shared these recommendations with the IDB:
- Update and organize the information regarding the consultation process in one place on the IDB website.
- Incorporate a 30-day public period to submit comments and recommendations to a second draft of the AIP.
- Proactively solicit input from stakeholders to facilitate their participation in consultation processes.
- Remove barriers that exist in the consultation plan to ensure effective participation.
- Confirm, and disseminate in advance the calendar with the dates and places of the face-to-face consultations planned for phase 2.
- Open the implementation of guidelines for the future AIP to comments from the public.
- Meet with civil society at the IDB Group Annual Meeting in Panama 2023.
« The IDB still needs to foster an institutional culture that allows consultation processes to be not only robust, meaningful, and inclusive; but also be receptive to interactions and constructive criticism from civil society and affected communities”
Carolina Juaneda, Bank Information Center
The complete letter can be consulted here:
Members and allies of the Coalition for Human Rights in Development that adhered to the letter:
- Accountability Counsel (United States)
- Asociación Ambiente y Sociedad (AAS, Colombia)
- Asociación Centro de Estudios de la Diversidad Sexual y Genérica (AMATE, El Salvador)
- Asociación Interamericana para la Defensa del Ambiente (AIDA, Regional)
- Asociación Unión de Talleres 11 de Septiembre (Bolivia)
- Bank Information Center (BIC, United States)
- Centro de Asistencia Legal a Pueblos Indígenas (CALPI, Nicaragua)
- Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL, United States)
- Coalition for Human Rights in Development (Global)
- Conectas Direitos Humanos (Brasil)
- Coordinadora de Comunidades Afectadas por TRECSA (Guatemala)
- Derecho, Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (DAR, Perú)
- Ecologia e Ação (ECOA, Brasil)
- Foro Social de la Deuda Externa y Desarrollo de Honduras (FOSDEH, Honduras)
- Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (FARN, Argentina)
- Fundación Cambio Democrático (FCD, Argentina)
- Fundación CAUCE: Cultura Ambiental – Causa Ecologista- (CAUCE, Argentina)
- Fundación para el Desarrollo de Políticas Sustentables (Fundeps, Argentina)
- Instituto de Estudos Socioeconômicos (Inesc, Brasil)
- Instituto Maira (Brasil)
- International Accountability Project (IAP, United States)
- International Rivers (Brasil)
- Plataforma Internacional contra la Impunidad (PICI, Guatemala)
- Protection International Mesoamérica (Regional)
- Sociedad y Discapacidad (Sodis, Perú)
- Sustentarse (Chile)
- Wetlands International (LAC)
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