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Dams and Development E-Paper Contents

p. -1 of 74 BACK | NEXT Home Page of Dams and Development Foreword I. Why an e-paper on dams and development? II. Assessing options III. Participatory processes IV. Social impacts V. Environmental impacts VI. Benefit distribution VII. Dam safety and sustainability VIII. Existing projects IX. Improving governance X. What other organizations say XI. ADB, Dams, and Development XII. References Contact Us

WCD recommendations - a Compliance Plan

This approach was echoed in the WCD report in policy principles 6.1 and 6.2:

'6.1: A clear, consistent and common set of criteria and guidelines to ensure compliance is adopted by sponsoring, contracting and financing institutions and is subject to independent and transparent review'. (p244)

'6.2: A Compliance Plan is prepared for each project prior to commencement, spelling out how compliance will be achieved with relevant criteria and guidelines and specifying binding arrangements for project-specific technical, social and environmental commitments'. (p244)

Further guidance on the role of a Compliance Plan is given in WCD Guideline No. 21. It notes the need to consider:

• The laws applicable to the construction of dams
• The use of voluntary measures
• The level of in-country institutional capacity;
• The use of performance bonds, supported by financial guarantees and trust funds
• The costs of compliance
• Performance indicators (p301)

Monitoring and evaluation of implementation performance against agreed indicators and benchmarks is an essential element of project management but one where resources are often lacking. The Regulation, Implementation and Compliance thematic review prepared for WCD saw a key role for civil society in monitoring activities:

'The following principles (most of which were developed in Panama, Buenos Aires, Colombia and Benin) have been found extremely useful in the designing of the monitoring role for civil society:

• Monitors should be highly respected people of unquestioned integrity;
• Monitors should possess (or have easy access to) the required professional expertise;
• where the local members of Civil Society do not possess the required expertise, they should promptly contract such expertise from outside, including where necessary from overseas; nonavailabilityof expertise means that problems may not be discovered, convincing professional corrective proposals may not be submitted, and the monitors may not gain the respect of the officials;
• individual Monitors should not be subject to a veto by Government;
• Monitors should have free and unlimited access to all relevant government documents, to all relevant meetings, and to all relevant officials;
• Monitors should first raise issues and complaints with the authorities, and only when no corrective action is taken within a reasonable period of time, be free to go public;
• Monitors should be prepared to offer a limited Pledge of Confidentiality regarding certain business type (proprietary) information;
• Monitors will have full access to, and be able to review the tender documents, the evaluation reports, the award selection decision and the implementation supervision reports (technical, financial, social and environmental); they should participate in meetings, and they should have the right to ask questions'. (p 39)

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