A Comparative Analysis on the Environmental and Social Safeguard Policies of the Multilateral Development Banks - Based on the Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

Large-scale development projects are characterized to be over US$ 1 million in the financial budget with a project lifespan across multiple years with a complex web of stakeholder groups and a high level of environmental and social (E&S) impacts and risks. Due to the dependence of the large-scale projects on financial support from international financial organizations such as the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), large-scale projects funded by the MDBs deeply incorporate the economic, environmental, and social aspects: the three pillars of sustainable development.

The involvement of the MDBs in large-scale projects and their potential to achieve sustainable development highlights the importance of evaluating the contents of their Environmental and Social Safeguard Policies that identify, minimize, and mitigate adverse E&S impacts and risks. In addition, as MDBs emphasize the consistency of their E&S safeguard policies to address the E&S impacts and risks while each disclosing its original documents for the E&S safeguard policies that differ in the thematic coverages and the depth of incorporating each topic, a comparative analysis on the E&S safeguard policies is needed.

In this study, focus has been made on the representation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and related themes in the documents comprising the E&S safeguard policies of the MDBs. 9 sets of E&S safeguard policies from the 8 MDBs have been chosen as the scope of this research. Thematic analysis and keyword consistency analysis have been performed to analyze and to compare the depth of thematic integration in the 9 sets of E&S safeguard policies to answer two questions: First, How do the 9 sets of E&S safeguard policies differ in the integration with the themes related to the SDGs? Second, How can the gaps in the thematic integration amongst the 9 E&S safeguard policies be closed?

The depth of the incorporation of the themes amongst the 9 set of E&S safeguard policies vary to a lesser extent under themes such as energy, climate change, and complaint and grievance. On the other hand, themes such as disaster management and ecosystems services displayed a high variation in the depth of the thematic integration. Furthermore, the variation in the incorporation of a theme amongst the 9 safeguard policies also depended on the absence or the presence of the topic in the definition of forced labor, Disability. Moreover, the E&S safeguard policies displayed regional characteristics in various themes related to the SDGs. In addition, the thematic integration among the 9 sets of safeguard policies in this study uncovered that the recentness of the established date of the safeguard policies did not ensure the increase in the breadth and depth of thematic comprehension.

An interpretation of the results of the comparative analysis focused on the two safeguard policies of the World Bank helps identify multiple measures that can be used to enhance the depth of thematic integration in a set of environmental and social safeguard policies. The measures taken to strengthen thematic incorporation include an enhancement of the thematic integration, additional organization of a separate section dedicated to a specific theme, including new themes, and further establishing original definitions.