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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.

UPDATE ON JICA's NEW ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL GUIDELINES

NOTE: This is a brief update on the "JICA Environmental and Social Guidelines Revision Committee," a committee established in December 2002 to draft recommendations for a new set of guidelines for JICA operations. Please see Catfish Tales Issue #9 for background information if necessary.

UPDATE ON JICA's NEW ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL GUIDELINES

Official recommendations for new environmental and social guidelines for the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will soon be complete, after a grueling series of 18 sessions. At the next meeting of the "JICA Environmental and Social Guidelines Revision Committee" on September 22nd, its Recommendations for the new guidelines will be finalized and submitted to JICA. The Revision Committee is a group comprised of JICA and ministry officials, academics, NGOs, and the corporate sector. The Recommendations have been written primarily by a group composed of several members of the Revision Committee, which has been taken section-by-section to the entire Committee for feedback and revision.

JICA will then write a first draft of the Environmental and Social Guidelines based on the Recommendations of the Revision Committee. JICA's draft is expected to be complete in October, and this draft will then be submitted back to the Revision Committee. The Revision Committee will then review JICA's draft, and may demand explanations for any differences or contradictions with its Recommendations. Revisions to JICA's draft may also be recommended.

After JICA revises the draft guidelines based on the Revision Committee's review, a second draft will be released for public comment. An English version of this second draft will also be available so that a wider range of comments can be collected.

We expect that public consultations will be held so that the public can give their comments regarding JICA's draft, and that additional revisions may be made based on the input from these consultations. After these revisions, a final draft will again be released for public comment and another set of public consultations held, where JICA will explain any changes made (or not made) and the reasons for them.

On 1 April 2004, the JICA's new Environmental and Social Guidelines will be enacted. We expect a discussion process to establish a complaints mechanism to be complete by the time of implementation.

At this time, it is no longer possible to influence the content of the Recommendations, but we hope that interested people from the Mekong Region and elsewhere will share their ideas once JICA's draft is available for public comment in October.

IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTICS OF THE REVISION COMMITTEE'S DRAFT

1) Early Project Categorization: Proposals for aid from developing countries will be screened at this early stage and categorized for each project's expected social and environmental impacts. This screening will be done before any decisions are made on whether or not to provide assistance for the project.

2) Information Disclosure: Brief descriptions of projects categorized as "Category A" (having significant environmental/social impacts) will be disclosed before decisions are made on whether or not to approve the project for assistance. Third parties can provide information about concerns and negative impacts to JICA. After projects are approved, more details of the project will be disclosed (regardless of categorization).

3) Broad inclusion of Social Impacts: A broad range of social impacts has been defined as within the scope of consideration when making decisions on a project. They include social capital, distribution of land, poverty, and land-related interests.

4) Political and Social considerations: Freedom of expression (or lack of) and regional conflicts have also been included as factors for consideration in deciding whether or not to approve a project, and how it should be implemented.

MEKONG WATCH'S INVOLVEMENT

The director of Mekong Watch has been an active member of the Revision Committee as well as the Drafting Committee for the new guidelines. Mekong Watch has participated in this process primarily with the hope that the resulting guidelines can be a useful tool for project-affected communities in the Mekong Region to either prevent or address negative impacts from JICA operations.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

If you would like more information about the Guidelines, please write to
JICA.