World Bank response to IUCN and NGOs

The World Bank's Forest Policy Implementation Review and Strategy process (FPIRS) is entering its final stages. 

After learning that the World Bank would not release its draft strategy and policy until it has already been sent to Senior Management, some 84 NGOs wrote to the IUCN ( International Union for the Conservation of Nature), which was facilitating the consultation process, urging it to demand that the World Bank change the process.

The NGOs' letter was followed on 29 January by a letter from IUCN's Acting Director General Simon N. Stuart to Ian Johnson,  who responded to IUCN and NGOs as follows:

Dr. Simon N. Stuart
Acting Director General
IUCN - The World Conservation Union
Rue Mauverney 28
1196 Gland
Switzerland

February 7, 2001

Dear Dr. Stuart:

Thank you for your letter of January 29, 2001, in which IUCN provides feedback and recommendations to the World Bank on the next steps in the Forest Policy Implementation Review and Strategy (FPIRS) process. We agree that the FPIRS process has been a significant step forward for the World Bank in terms of openness, transparency, and willingness to seek out the views of multiple stakeholders. We continue to learn from the process. We also agree that the nine regional consultations were a constructive innovation and that the draft strategy discussion paper reflects much of what was heard in these consultations.

We want to thank IUCN for its continued role of supporting the World Bank in developing and implementing a FPIRS review process that we aim to keep transparent and open to all interested parties. However, as you acknowledged in your letter, it is important that the Bank seek peer review and build consensus both externally and internally. In doing so, there will be times when the Bank will need to deliberate internally or with advisors such as the FPRIS Technical Advisory Group (TAG). During those periods of deliberation, not all documents will be available externally. An example of such a period was from December 24, 2000, to January 18, 2001, during which peer review with the TAG was necessary before the documentation could be released on the Bank’s website.

That being said, I would like to emphasize that the World Bank remains committed to carrying out the activities described in the original "Consultation Process" document, posted on the World Bank’s FPIRS website.

As you know, the draft strategy discussion paper and associated annexes were discussed at the second FPIRS Technical Advisory Group (TAG2) meeting on January 8-10, 2001. The TAG2 meeting provided an important opportunity for peer review and for the Bank to hear feedback from TAG members, most of whom had actively participated in the FPIRS regional consultations. As discussed at the TAG2 meeting, the facilitators report being prepared by IUCN will be posted on the FPIRS website as soon as it is finalized, after receiving comments from the TAG participants.

On January 18 and 19, the Bank posted all the documents used in the TAG2 meeting. An e-mail "Forests Update" was also sent out to let interested stakeholders know that the documents were posted and available for public comment on the Bank’s external website, that the Discussion Forum space continues to be available for those who wish to post their comments in an open forum, and that comments can be sent by e-mail to the FPIRS e-mail account if preferred.

To provide additional time for feedback from the TAG2 meeting participants and for public discussion and comment, the timetable for internal meetings with OPC, CODE, and the Board has been pushed back from February – April 2001 to March – June 2001.

And finally, I would like to address the four recommendations that IUCN proposed in your letter of January 29, 2001:

1. IUCN recommends that the World Bank publicly release a complete draft text of any revised Operational Policy on forests.

The Bank remains committed to posting the revised version of Annex 5C (recommended revisions to OP 4.36 Forestry) on the FPIRS website as soon as this document is ready. We agree that it is important for various stakeholders to evaluate and provide feedback on these recommended revisions. A revised Annex 5C will be posted shortly.

2. IUCN recommends that the FPIRS team should extend the deadline for feedback beyond February 15^th.

We are encouraging interested individuals to send their comments as early as possible, with a suggested date of February 15, so that comments can be fully taken into account in the revisions currently underway. However, comments and feedback on the documents posted on the website are welcome at any time in the process and will be given serious consideration at all times.

3. IUCN recommends that the FPIRS team compile a registry documenting each of the comments received, how they are or are not reflected in the revisions, and the rationale for that decision.

We will continue to track and compile all feedback being received by e-mail and comments sent for posting in the FPIRS Discussion Forum. We have been and continue to compile a registry of comments received and how they are reflected in the revisions being made to the documents. We will post a registry, or summary, of comments on the FPIRS website.

4. If the Bank does all these things, it should meet the expectations that it created in the original consultation process design and the regional consultations. Nevertheless, the World Bank should go one step further…IUCN recommends…that the FPIRS team release the revised strategy and policy after they have gone to CODE and before they go to the Board.

It is our intention to make a revised strategy and policy available before the Board presentation.

We thank IUCN for its continued assistance, facilitation, and advice on the FPIRS process. The relationship between the World Bank and IUCN has been very productive, and, I believe, a model of cooperation. We look forward to continuing in positive and constructive dialogue with you and other partners and stakeholders as we move forward in finalizing and implementing a revised forest strategy and policy for the World Bank.

Sincerely,

Ian Johnson
Vice President
Environmentally & Socially Sustainable
Development Network

cc: 
James D. Wolfensohn, President, The World Bank
Marcus Colchester for the signatories to 19 January 2001 letter transmitted by the Forest Peoples Programme
FPIRS Technical Advisory Group Members c/o Elisabeth Pelletier