March 23, 2004

JICA's NEW ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL GUIDELINES TO GO INTO EFFECT SOON

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.

Posted by fukudan at March 23, 2004 12:00 AM