Social & Environmental Safeguards, Egyptian Civil Society Recommendations to World Bank

In March 2013, the World Bank organized a consultative meeting with Egyptian civil society organizations (CSOs) around the review of the Bank’s Safeguard policies. The participating organizations affirmed the importance of involving Egyptian civil society in the revision process. The meeting was attended by a number of CSOs with expertise in different topics ranging from labor rights to land tenure rights and other topics. The organizations discussed their concerns around certain projects financed by the World Bank in Egypt and presented a number of proposals to enhance the Bank’s policies in order to address some of the problems which seemed to be systematic rather than limited to one specific project.

Safeguards are the guidelines that any of the World bank’s, IMF’s, or any of the International Institutions’ projects should adhere to when being executed, these guidelines are aimed to safeguard against any of the harmful side effects that comes before, during or after the execution of any major projects, such as pollution, environmental hazards, social impact on close-by inhabitants .. etc.

This attached paper reflects a number of interventions and remarks made by the Egyptian CSOs at the consultative meeting and it represents the positions of the organizations listed on the final page of the document.

Egyptian CSOs Submission to WB:  Safeguards Review – Phase 1 (English)