Roads, water schemes, markets and energy projects financed by development banks come with environmental and social conditions. Payments, extensions and future contracts can depend on meeting them. The requirements are not complicated, but they must be planned, done and recorded.
The frameworks behind the conditions
Most World Bank-financed projects approved since 1 October 2018 use the Bank's Environmental and Social Framework. It sets ten Environmental and Social Standards:
- Assessment and management of environmental and social risks and impacts
- Labour and working conditions
- Resource efficiency and pollution prevention
- Community health and safety
- Land acquisition, restrictions on land use and involuntary resettlement
- Biodiversity conservation and sustainable management of living natural resources
- Indigenous Peoples and historically underserved traditional local communities
- Cultural heritage
- Financial intermediaries
- Stakeholder engagement and information disclosure
The African Development Bank, other lenders and private investors using the IFC Performance Standards apply similar requirements. In Uganda, projects must also meet the National Environment Act, 2019, and its environmental and social assessment regulations, overseen by NEMA.
The documents that turn standards into obligations
At project level, the standards become a set of documents. Know which ones apply to your contract:
- Environmental and Social Commitment Plan: the government's commitments to the lender, with deadlines.
- Environmental and social assessment and management plans: the risks and the measures to manage them.
- Stakeholder Engagement Plan: who will be consulted, how and when, and how complaints are handled.
- Labour Management Procedures: rules on contracts, wages, hours, age, health and safety, and a grievance mechanism for workers.
- Resettlement plans: where land is taken or access is restricted.
- Plans for gender-based violence and sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment: codes of conduct, training and referral pathways.
What a contractor needs on site
- A contractor's environmental and social management plan, approved before work starts
- Signed codes of conduct for all workers, and induction training on them
- A health and safety plan, protective equipment and incident records
- Written contracts, wage and hours records, and proof that no child labour is used
- A workers' grievance mechanism, and a link to the project's community grievance mechanism
- Named environmental, social and health and safety staff
- Prompt reporting of serious incidents, as the contract requires
The common failure is records, not intentions. In supervision missions, gaps are most often found in grievance logs, training attendance, signed codes of conduct and consultation minutes. If it is not written down, it did not happen.
What districts and project teams need
- Safeguards staff with time and budget to supervise contractors
- A functioning grievance mechanism that communities know about and use
- Records of consultations, including who attended and what was agreed
- Regular environmental and social monitoring reports, on time
- A referral pathway for gender-based violence cases, agreed with local service providers
Getting it right early
The cheapest time to fix safeguards is before work starts: agree the plans, train the people, set up the registers and test the grievance mechanism. An independent review partway through a project helps find gaps before the lender's supervision mission does.
This brief is general information. Always follow the specific instruments and contract clauses for your project.