Safeguards

ADB's safeguard policy aims to help developing member countries address environmental and social risks in development projects and minimize and mitigate, if not avoid, adverse project impacts on people and the environment.

In the Spotlight

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Safeguarding Livelihoods in Lao PDR

In Lao People's Democratic Republic, ADB has supported an infrastructure project that not only drives economic growth and sustainable development but ensures that livelihoods of affected communities are protected.
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57th ADB Annual Meeting: Enhancing Safeguards - From Better Policy to Better Implementation

This institutional event focused on ways environmental and social safeguards support inclusive, sustainable, and resilient development and solicited recommendations from the participants on ADB’s draft Environmental and Social Framework.
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Futures Built on Safeguards

Three projects in Bangladesh, Georgia, and Uzbekistan showcase ADB's and its clients' commitment to protecting people and the environment while driving climate-resilient economic development and regional connectivity.
Development Asia

Making and Telling Stories with Indigenous Peoples

About 95% of Metro Manila’s drinking water is sourced from the Angat system or Umiray-Angat-Ipo. Built in the early 1960s, the Angat dam, reservoir and tunnel system conveying water from the Angat reservoir to treatment plants are in many cases, reaching the end of their design lives.

Safeguard Policy Statement

Approved by ADB’s Board of Directors in July 2009, the Safeguard Policy Statement (SPS) builds upon the three previous safeguard policies on the environment, involuntary resettlement, and indigenous peoples, and brings them into a consolidated policy framework that enhances effectiveness and relevance. The SPS applies to all ADB-supported projects reviewed by ADB’s management after 20 January 2010. ADB works with borrowers to put policy principles and requirements into practice through project review and supervision, and capacity development support. The SPS also provides a platform for participation by affected people and other stakeholders in project design and implementation.

Available in:

Operational Manual for the Safeguard Policy Statement

The SPS supersedes ADB's Involuntary Resettlement Policy (1995), Policy on Indigenous Peoples (1998), and Environment Policy (2002). To obtain copies of these superseded policies, please contact the Safeguards Help Desk.

Safeguard Policy Review

Draft Environmental and Social Framework (ESF)

ADB proposes the ESF which will comprise of: (i) Vision; (ii) Environmental and Social Policy; (iii) Environmental and Social Standard (ESSs); and (iv) Prohibited Investment Activities List. Ten Environmental and Social Standards establish the mandatory performance standards that borrowers/clients are required to meet throughout the project cycle.

The public comment period for the draft ESF closed on 6 May 2024.

Draft Environmental and Social Framework

Country Safeguard Systems

ADB’s safeguard policy statement is the comprehensive articulation of ADB’s safeguard provisions in three areas: environment, involuntary resettlement, and indigenous peoples. Country safeguards systems are composed of the policies, practices, legal frameworks and institutions that a country puts in place to avoid, minimize or mitigate potentially adverse environmental and social impacts of development activities. ADB believes that the application of country safeguards systems to development projects reduces transaction costs, enhances country ownership and helps ensure long-term sustainability of development efforts.

Use of country safeguards systems is neither automatic nor mandatory. Country safeguards systems cannot be used on projects that ADB considers highly complex or sensitive.

Learn more

Environment Safeguards

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.
Involuntary Resettlement

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 if it is not managed well.
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 encroach on areas they traditionally own, occupy, use, or view as ancestral domain.