In March 2013, the World Bank organized a consultative meeting with Egyptian civil society organizations (CSOs) around the review of the Bank\u2019s 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\u2019s policies in order to address some of the problems which seemed to be systematic rather than limited to one specific project.<\/p>\n
Safeguards are the\u00a0guidelines\u00a0that any of the World bank\u2019s, IMF\u2019s, or any of the International\u00a0Institutions\u2019\u00a0projects\u00a0should\u00a0adhere to when being\u00a0executed, these\u00a0guidelines\u00a0are aimed to safeguard against any of the harmful side effects that comes before, during or after the\u00a0execution\u00a0of any major projects, such as pollution, environmental hazards, social impact on close-by inhabitants .. etc.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n