Safeguards

A cornerstone of our support to poverty reduction is social and environmental sustainability of projects, which ADB expects to achieve by applying our safeguard policies on environment, Indigenous Peoples, and involuntary resettlement

Safeguarding the environment

Sound environmental management is critical to sustainable development and poverty reduction in Asia and the Pacific. Without committed efforts to safeguard the environment, pressure will continue to build on the region's land, forests, water systems, wetlands, marine ecosystems, and other natural resources—assets many of the poor depend on for their livelihoods.

ADB's Environment Policy requires environmental considerations to be integrated into ADB-supported projects. The Policy requires borrowers to identify project impacts and assess their significance; examine alternatives; and prepare, implement, and monitor environmental management plans. It also requires borrowers to consult people likely to be affected by the project and disclose relevant information in a timely manner and in a form and in language(s) understandable to those being consulted.

Safeguarding Indigenous Peoples

Nearly three quarters of the world's Indigenous Peoples live in Asia and the Pacific. Their rights are increasingly threatened by development programs that could infringe into areas they traditionally own, occupy, use, or view as ancestral domain.

ADB's Policy on Indigenous Peoples aims to ensure affected Indigenous Peoples share equitably in development benefits and that interventions affecting them are consistent with their needs and aspirations; compatible in substance and structure with their cultural, social, and economic institutions; and conceived and implemented with their informed participation.

For projects with significant impacts on Indigenous Peoples, the Policy requires borrowers to prepare an Indigenous Peoples Plan. The plan includes measures to ensure Indigenous Peoples benefit, and adverse impacts are prevented, and where this is not possible, impacts are mitigated.

Safeguarding resettled people

Involuntary resettlement under development projects can give rise to severe economic, social, and environmental risks, and result in long-term hardship and impoverishment of affected people.

ADB's Involuntary Resettlement Policy emphasizes avoidance or at least minimization of risks from involuntary resettlement, and covers both physical and economic displacements caused by acquisition of land and restriction on land use.

The Policy requires borrowers to explore alternatives to ensure affected people will at least have the income and living standards they would have had in the absence of the project. The Policy also calls for informed consultation with affected people; compensation of losses and provision of special measures for the poor and vulnerable; and preparation, implementation, and monitoring of time-bound resettlement plans.

Safeguard Policy Update

ADB is updating our three safeguard policies to strengthen their relevance and enhance their effectiveness. The update is intended to

• improve Safeguard Policy clarity, coherence, and consistency;
• balance a front-loaded procedural approach with one also focused on results during implementation;
• adapt Safeguard Policy implementation to an evolving range of ADB products and services;
• harmonize safeguard practices with development partners and align safeguard approaches to client capacities; and
• improve internal safeguard processes and resource allocation.

Initiated in 2005, the update involved an extensive and transparent consultation process that included 14 country and subregional workshops in 2007 and 2008, and a series of consultation workshops in Manila in late 2008.

The draft policy paper was discussed by ADB's Board of Directors in February 2009, and the final policy paper is expected to be considered by the Board in June 2009.