• 20.11.2024
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On 24 October 2024, as civil society organisations were submitting their comments to the Asian Development Bank’s Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) draft paper, an invitation to a consultation on a proposed Full Mutual Reliance Framework between the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) was circulated.

Recourse, along with the NGO Forum on ADB and 26 concerned organisations, has sent a statement of concern to the ADB regarding this proposed framework, which has a significant bearing on the draft ESF. We believe the two are incompatible and urge the ADB to withdraw the Full Mutual Reliance Framework while the ESF is being finalised and approved.

Read the full statement here, and download it on the right hand side.

The Full Mutual Reliance Framework proposes to use a lead approach, which allows project-affected people to approach only the accountability mechanism of the lead financier. This means that the ADB would not be accountable for the projects it invests in if they are not the lead, contrary to the commitments in its ESF.

It is unacceptable that we were given only five working days’ notice to consult on a proposal that directly contradicts the ESF we have spent the past few years engaging with shareholders and ADB management on. There are grave concerns around the issue of multilateral development banks delegating accountability to a lead financier, as outlined in the statement.

We urge the Asian Development Bank shareholders to intervene and uphold the highest standards that protect communities. The ADB’s ESF must be agreed upon, signed into policy, and come into practice before proposals relating to common approaches are considered. This request has some urgency as the consultations have already taken place on 30 October and 7 November and comments close on 20 November.

Image: The ADB headquarters in Mandaluyong City, Philippines. Available on Flickr under license CC BY-NC 2.0.