Mekong Watch CATFISH TALES
TOPIC: JICA's NEW ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL GUIDELINES TO GO INTO EFFECT SOON
Date: 23 March 2004/03/23
JICA's NEW ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL GUIDELINES TO GO INTO EFFECT SOON
--CONCERNS REMAIN REGARDING "RESPONSIBILITY OF STAKEHOLDERS" AND "CASES OF
EMERGENCY"--
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) began a process to
establish its Environmental and Social Guidelines in December 2002, and
this process is now drawing to a close. After JICA's draft guidelines were
released, public consultations were held in 4 cities in Japan, followed by
a 2-month public comment period, which ended in early February2004. During
this time, comments were also requested from aid-recipient countries, and
opinions were received from 27 countries. Participation in public
consultations totaled 69, and 27 comments were received during the public
comment period. JICA will revise the Guidelines based on the comments
received, and on April 1st, the new Environmental and Social Guidelines
will go into effect.
JICA is the agency responsible for the implementation of Development
Studies, Technical Assistance and some parts of Grant Aid-three forms of
Official Development Assistance (ODA). In 2002, JICA operations totaled
158.2 billion yen, or approximately 1.26 billion US dollars. While studies
such as Master Plans and Feasibility Studies make up 14% of JICA's budget,
many of these surveys are for projects which would have extensive
destructive impacts if actually implemented. In spite of this, JICA has
only applied its old environmental and social guidelines to the surveys'
methodology and procedures.
JICA is preparing the new Guidelines in response to strong criticism from
civil society and the Japanese Parliament to reform ODA and increase
transparency and accountability. The new Guidelines are expected to be
comprehensive in scope so that environmental and social damage from survey
results and project implementation can be prevented. For example, for
surveys expected to have large impacts, JICA will require broad information
disclosure at the request stage and consideration of alternative plans from
early stages, including a no project option. Requirements for consultation
with local people and other stakeholders are also emphasized
The drafting process for the Guidelines achieved a high degree of
transparency. A committee was established to make recommendations for the
Guidelines, and it was comprised of heads of relevant ministerial
divisions, scholars, development consultants, NGOs, and JICA
officials. Mekong Watch's representative director, Satoru Matsumoto, was a
member of this committee, and his input was crucial in achieving the
inclusion of certain important provisions in the Guidelines. The committee
met 16 times, and all submitted documents and minutes of the meetings are
public documents. The minutes document not only what was said during the
meetings but also record who said what. All discussions were open to the
public, and observers who were not committee members were also given the
same right to speak. A subcommittee drafted detailed recommendations for
the Guidelines based on the discussions, and after approval by the
Committee as a whole, the recommendations were submitted to JICA's
President, Sadako Ogata in October 2003. Based on these recommendations,
JICA drafted its proposed Guidelines and released the draft for public
comment from December 2003 to early February 2004. In addition, public
consultations were held in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Kita Kyushu and Okinawa.
According to a JICA announcement on 18 February, 69 people participated in
the public consultations and 27 comments were received on 217 points in
regard to the draft Guidelines. Some of the main comments are introduced
below:
--The JICA draft states that stakeholders participating in consultations
are expected to take responsibility for their statements. This implies
that people could be held responsible for any mistakes in comments they
make during consultations, and could discourage affected residents from
voicing their opinions. .
--In JICA's proposal, emergencies can be exempt from the full application
of the Guidelines. Several critical comments were submitted regarding this
exemption. For example, post-conflict restoration/rehabilitation is listed
as an example of emergency, but in post conflict times, there often remain
issues of ethnic strife and other social tensions which could grow into
conflict. Times like these require even more stringent attention to human
rights and consideration of social factors rather than less, and projects
expected to have large environmental or social impacts should not be exempt
from the Guidelines even in cases of post-conflict.
--JICA's draft Guidelines include provisions for information
disclosure. Some comments suggested that information disclosure is in
principle the responsibility of the project proponent and that JICA's role
in this should not be expanded.
--Global warming should be included in the scope of environmental impacts
to be examined.
--In regard to JICA's proposal to respect international human rights
principles, there were questions asking for clarification on concretely how
JICA intends to respect these standards.
--In JICA's draft, there was no mention of how the Guidelines would be
institutionalized. Questions were raised about how JICA will
institutionalize the Guidelines so that they are actually respected to
prevent environmental and social problems.
--The need for a complaints mechanism was emphasized.
--In JICA's draft proposal, a provision on information disclosure for
Detailed Design Studies says information will be disclosed, "to the extent
that it does not impact the bidding process." Several opinions expressed
that this clause could be too easily abused and should be deleted.
--The English translation did not accurately reflect the content of the
Japanese original.
Soon, JICA is supposed to put the 214 comments received regarding the draft
Guidelines and JICA's responses on their website, though only in
Japanese. JICA set up a follow-up committee after the advisory drafting
committee, which incorporated the comments into a final draft. Last
discussions regarding this draft were held on 18 February, and the 1st and
4th of March. The final Social and Environmental Guidelines will be
released and go into effect on 1 April 2004.
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