Prizma

As noted earlier, GRI and ICMM launched the new GRI Metals and Mining Sector Supplement during the annual mining convention of PDAC in early March 2010. The new Sector Supplement integrated many references to the IFC Performance Standards and suggests increasing convergence amongst these internationally recognized guidelines. (more…)

The IFC Performance Standards require that projects with potentially significant impacts conduct ‘Free, Prior, Informed Consultation’ (FPIC) and demonstrate ‘Broad Community Support’ (BCS). Will these requirements move towards the concept of ‘Consent’ particularly in the context of Indigenous Peoples? (more…)

The IFC Performance Standards on Social & Environmental Sustainability have emerged as the de facto benchmark for developing and financing responsible extractive projects in emerging markets. The Canadian government’s March 2009 CSR Strategy for the Canadian International Extractive Sector, Building the Canadian Advantage, also includes the IFC Performance Standards. In this article, I review the genesis, significance and key challenges associated with the IFC Performance Standards, using also input from participants of over 20 workshops and training courses delivered in Canada, China, Panama, Peru, UK and Venezuela since 2006. (more…)

Prompted by client questions, I revisited IFC’s Report on the First Three Years of Application of IFC’s Policy and Performance Standards on Social and Environmental Sustainability and Policy on Disclosure of Information. IFC’s client surveys shows that 21 percent said the cost of PS implementation might negatively influence future decisions to work with IFC. (more…)

Used to more user friendly disclosure practices of multilateral financial institutions like the IFC or the EBRD, advocacy groups lament lack of deal transparency by Equator Banks. Although there is room for improvement, I wonder if the existing market transparency is already being leveraged enough. (more…)

Generating credibility and trust is the sustainability reporter’s quest for the Holy Grail. Do GRI Check or 3^rd Party Check of the GRI Application Level declaration help report makers and user find the Holy Grail? (more…)

Last week, over 100 NGOs  from around the world called for major reforms of the Equator Principles. Are these Principles, adopted by major project finance banks and export credit agencies (ECAs), really the failure they are made out to be? (more…)

Are some of the heated discussions around the Canadian Bill C-300 designed to regulate the CSR performance of Canadian extractive companies operating abroad a storm in the tea cup? (more…)

The current IFC Performance Standards emerged in 2006 as one of the major outcomes of the World Bank Group’s self-critical Extractive Industry Review. Is it really time to revise the IFC Performance Standards, which is now under way, instead of focusing more on their broader adoption and application? Are we allowing the perfect to be the enemy of the good? (more…)

An extractive company (mining ‘unobtainium’), a botched resettlement program and heavy-handed interventions by security forces provide the backdrop in the SciFi movie “Avatar” played out on the fictional planet of Pandora. What lessons can this movie provide about IFC Performance Standards relating to Land Acquisition & Involuntary Resettlement for extractive projects here on Earth? (more…)