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ADB Appoints Chair and Two Members To Compliance Review Panel

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (15 December 2003) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has appointed a chair and two members to its Compliance Review Panel as part of a new accountability mechanism to address concerns of persons affected by ADB-assisted projects.

The ADB accountability mechanism, effective from 12 December 2003, consists of a consultation phase and a compliance review phase. In October 2003, ADB appointed Nalin Samarasingha as Special Project Facilitator, who is responsible for the consultation phase. The panel is responsible for the latter phase.

The new chair is Augustinus Rumansara, who is expected to assume office in February 2004. Mr. Rumansara is an Indonesian national, who is presently vice-president, Integrated Social Strategy, with British Petroleum in Indonesia. Before working in the private sector, he served as bioregional director at the Worldwide Fund for Nature from 1998 to 2001.

Mr. Rumansara has an extensive NGO background. He was a director at the Foundation for Entrepreneurship Initiative Development in Irian Jaya, a micro-enterprise development NGO in Indonesia, from 1996-1998. From 1991-1996, he was executive secretary of the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), where his work included facilitating advocacy activities of Indonesian NGOs with local and foreign governments and promoting INFID's concerns such as equity and justice, people's participation, and sustainable development.

Prior to working at INFID, he was from 1986-1990 executive director of the Irian Jaya Rural Community Development Foundation, an NGO focused on various activities such as the impact of the development process in the area on local communities through environment, land rights, and transmigration.

Mr. Rumansara's appointment is for a 5-year term, full-time for a minimum of one year. Before the end of the initial full-time appointment, ADB's Board of Directors will review the need for the work to be carried out on a full-time or part-time basis.

The two other panel members are Richard E. Bissell and Vitus A. Fernando. Mr. Bissell, a United States national, is executive director of the Policy and Global Affairs Division at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. From 1997-1998, he headed the interim secretariat of the World Commission on Dams, a joint initiative of the World Bank and the World Conservation Union.

Mr. Bissell was on the World Bank Inspection Panel from 1994-1997 and was chair from August 1996 to July 1997. From 1986-1993, he was a senior official at the U.S. Agency for International Development, directing the Bureau of Policy and Program Coordination and the Bureau of Research and Development. Previously, he held a variety of teaching and research positions in various universities in the United States, including Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Princeton University

Mr. Fernando, a Sri Lankan national, is working on a variety of institutional review and development issues with international agencies, including the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). He has over 25 years experience in senior management positions with the governments of Sri Lanka and the United States and two multilateral agencies (WMO and the World Commission on Environment and Development). He has also worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development and international NGO, World Conservation Union.

The appointment of Mr. Bissell and Mr. Fernando are for a 4-year term and a 3-year term, respectively, both part-time.

More at adb.org/media

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