Office of the Special Project Facilitator

Relationship between Consultation Phase and Compliance Review Phase

Complaints relating to an ADB-assisted project under the new Accountability Mechanism will first go to the consultation phase without seeking to establish ADB's accountability under the compliance review phase. The reasons for this sequence are as follows:

• the filing of complaints about a project is not necessarily contingent upon the alleged non-compliance by ADB with its operational policies and procedures
• the objectives of the consultation phase are to listen to complaints from project-affected people and to facilitate the resolution of the problem on the ground, whereas the objectives of the compliance review phase are to establish whether the direct and material harm complained of by the project-affected people is the result of ADB's failure to follow any of its operational policies and procedures in the course of the formulation, processing, or implementation of the project.