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Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

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Chapter 2.3: International Advocacy with Companies <strong>and</strong> Their Investors<br />

187<br />

the most well-known being the US-based Bank Information<br />

Center. 42 The multinational development banks also have<br />

their own environmental <strong>and</strong> social st<strong>and</strong>ards, forced upon<br />

them by NGOs arguing that their developmental role should<br />

mean they do less harm. In the case of the World Bank, they<br />

are the called the safeguards <strong>and</strong> sustainability policies, which<br />

include a policy specifically on indigenous peoples (known as<br />

Operational Policy, or OP, 4.10). 43<br />

Even though World Bank has this policy it has, to date,<br />

failed to include free, prior, informed consent (FPIC) as a<br />

requirement in its policies pertaining to indigenous peoples.<br />

This is despite its role as a specialized agency of the United<br />

Nations <strong>and</strong> strong recommendation from the EIR, <strong>and</strong> also<br />

one from the earlier World Commission on Dams. 44 The<br />

Bank opted to include the significantly lower st<strong>and</strong>ard of<br />

“Free Prior Informed Consultation” resulting in broad community<br />

support, although its private sector arm, the IFC in<br />

the latest update of its safeguards has felt the need to recognize<br />

the UN Declaration on the Rights of <strong>Indigenous</strong> <strong>Peoples</strong>,<br />

<strong>and</strong> therefore, FPIC in certain circumstances. 45 Both the<br />

European Bank for Reconstruction <strong>and</strong> Development <strong>and</strong><br />

the Asian Development Bank, have, in recognition of the UN<br />

Declaration, included requirement to obtain FPIC; although<br />

the Asian Development Bank includes a definition of consent<br />

as “broad community support.” 46<br />

Even with this lower st<strong>and</strong>ard, <strong>and</strong> a cavalier attitude to accepting<br />

its human rights responsibilities within its safeguards,<br />

the World Bank <strong>and</strong> IFC safeguards are useful in attempting<br />

to hold a Bank-financed project to account. There are even<br />

complaints mechanisms: for the IFC <strong>and</strong> MIGA, this is the<br />

Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO); for the Bank, it is<br />

the Inspection Panel. 47 In February 2012, of 20 projects with<br />

open cases at the CAO, the IFC’s accountability mechanism,<br />

nearly a third are from extractives projects. They included<br />

projects affecting indigenous peoples in the <strong>Philippine</strong>s,<br />

Peru <strong>and</strong> Chad-Cameroon. 48 Again, partner NGOs <strong>and</strong> networks<br />

can advise on these complaint mechanisms, although<br />

certainly the CAO has done its best to ensure that making a<br />

complaint is straightforward. Advice on complaints to either

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