February 12, 2004

Mr. James Wolfensohn
President
World Bank Group
1818 H Street NW
Washington, DC 20433

HAND – DELIVERY / MELBOURNE

Dear Mr. Wolfensohn:

We write to you today in good faith and with genuine hopes for meaningful action towards our mutual goals of poverty alleviation and sustainable development.  As you know, Dr. Emil Salim has just completed the Final Report of the Extractive Industries Review (EIR).  We want to thank you for initiating this historic process in Prague more than three years ago, and for devoting significant World Bank Group (WBG) staff time and financial resources to the review over the last several years. 

We also want to thank Dr. Salim for his adherence to the principle that “genuine development requires partnership not only with governments and companies, but with civil society as well.”  Dr. Salim’s commitment in this regard allows us to endorse his recommendations to you, and to encourage you to adopt all of them without exception or reservation. 

The EIR correctly concluded that if the WBG intends to pursue its mandate of poverty alleviation, then it should not support extractive industries unless the broad set of enabling conditions outlined in the Report's recommendations are in place.  Furthermore, the EIR found that support for certain types of extractive activities does not represent the best use of the WBG's money to promote and support sustainable development, and thus that the WBG should phase-out its financing for these types of projects and reallocate its funds to other activities.

We will not view as sufficient the adoption of only a certain percentage of the EIR’s recommendations. The failure to meet any one of them can lead and has indeed led to a failure to contribute to poverty alleviation or sustainable development.

At your insistence, the EIR integrated World Bank Group staff at nearly every level, and the process and the Final Report were clearly richer for it. We certainly hope and expect that this integration of Bank staff and perspectives now translates smoothly into implementation of all the Report’s recommendations.  This was, after all, the premise upon which it was argued that Bank staff should be deeply involved in the EIR.

Those of us who have previously engaged in the Structural Adjustment Participatory Review Initiative and the World Commission on Dams review already have great reason to be skeptical – and that skepticism would only harden if the World Bank Group were to pick and choose only those recommendations from the EIR Report that are least challenging.  In the intervening time that it may take to fully adopt the EIR recommendations, we feel that a good faith gesture would be for you to instruct staff and management to immediately freeze any further action on policies or projects that are potentially affected by EIR recommendations.

We congratulate the EIR for recognizing climate change to be a profound threat to sustainable development and poverty alleviation and we strongly endorse the recommendation for the World Bank to immediately end its support for coal mining and to phase-out financing for oil projects by 2008.  By shifting financial support from fossil fuels to new renewable energy, the Bank could play an important catalytic role toward new renewable energy development in the South, in turn leveraging significant global benefits.

We would like to also highlight the EIR’s endorsement of the right of free, prior and informed consent for indigenous peoples and the importance of securing a “social license” from affected communities to operate before projects proceed.  While this right is already recognized for indigenous people under international law, other communities often have very little influence over project decisions despite the significant impacts that extractive industry operations have on their livelihoods and on the environments on which they depend.  Empowering communities is not only the right thing to do, it will also spare the Bank and project sponsors considerable reputational risk and added cost.

Recognition of and respect for human rights is one of the core elements of sustainable development.  Despite your best efforts to date, which we recognize and applaud, the World Bank is far behind many other intergovernmental organizations in accepting its human rights responsibilities, including the rights of workers, and in integrating these and other human rights- related issues into its operations and programs. As the EIR correctly concludes, this is not a matter of discretion but rather it is a matter of compliance with international law that is binding on the Bank; it is also sound development practice.  We are aware that you have expressed an interest in human rights and have promoted rights-related issues within the Bank.  We hope that now you will use all of your influence to demonstrate that commitment by adopting all of the EIR’s recommendations.

We are confident the EIR will be remembered as one of the most important initiatives of your tenure, and one of the cornerstones of your legacy as World Bank President.   We would submit to you that the true test of the World Bank Group’s willingness to place poverty alleviation and sustainable development above bureaucracy, corporate interests, corruption, and institutional barriers to change will be in your willingness to push to redefine the Bank and the way in which it approaches development.  The upcoming formulation and adoption of a concrete and specific EIR action plan will prove to what extent the World Bank is serious about ensuring that the twin goals of poverty alleviation and sustainable development are strongly upheld. 

Sincerely,

Levi Cammack
Instituto Tecnológico Iguazú
Argentina

John A. Asatryan
ECOPOL
Armenia

Artashes Sargsyan
NGO EcoTeam
Armenia

Kate Walsh
AID/WATCH
Australia

Paul Bourke
Australia Tibet Council
Australia

Vikki John
Bougainville Freedom Movement
Australia

Anne Lanyon
Columban Centre for Peace Ecology and Justice
Australia

Binnie O'Dwyer
Friends of the Earth Australia
Australia

Frances MacGuire
Greenpeace Australia Pacific
Australia

Igor O'Neill
Mineral Policy Institute
Australia

Rainforest Information Centre
Australia

Peter Murphy
SEARCH Foundation
Australia

Peter Morris
Greenpeace Australia Pacific
Australia/Pacific

Azad Aliev
Association of Sosial Economic Researches of Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan

Arup Rahee
LOKOJ Institute
Bangladesh

Mohammad Ziaul Ahsan
Organization for Social Development of Unemployed Youth
Bangladesh

Natasha Petrushkewich
Ecological Initiative "Belaya Rus"
Belarus

Natalya Ivanyuk
Ponimanie
Belarus

Liesbet Vander Ven
Boliviacentrum
Belgium

Pol Vandevoort
Coalition of the Flemish North-South movement
Belgium

David Nijssen
Ecosystem Management Research Group
Belgium

Berenice Muraille
FERN
Belgium

Karim Harris
Friends of the Earth Europe
Belgium

Bart Madou
GROS Zedelgem
Belgium

Claudine Loncke
Noord-Zuid Comité Middelkerke
Belgium

Veerle Ramoudt
North-South Comite Middelkerke
Belgium

Ann Martens
Oost-Vlaanderen
Belgium

Oxfam-Solidarité
Belgium

Stefaan Devarrewaere
Oxfam-Worldshop Roeselare
Belgium

Jan Glorieux
Pax Christi Kortrijk
Belgium

Filip Gheysen
People's Gardens
Belgium

Jan Cappelle
Proyecto Gato
Belgium

Agnes Voet
Stafmedewerker Noord-Zuidsamenwerking
Belgium

Sofie Van Belleghem
University of Antwerp, Department of Biology, Ecosystem Management Research Group
Belgium

Jorge Cortes
CEADES
Bolivia

Magnólia Azevedo Said
Centro de Pesquisa e Assessoria
Brasil

Kathia Vasconcellos Monteiro
Núcleo Amigos da Terra
Brasil

Alcides Faria
Rios Vivos Coalition
Brasil

Petko Kovatchev
CEIE
Bulgaria

Anelia Stefanova
For the Earth
Bulgaria

Michele Keegan
Altsean
Burma

Célestin Nsabiye
Global Village
Burundi

Edith Abilogo
Bubinga
Cameroon

Samuel Nguiffo
CED
Cameroon

Ndoumbe Nkotto Honoré
FOCARFE
Cameroon

Koueda Koung Jean
Global Village Cameroon
Cameroon

Roberta Frampton Benefiel
Friends of Grand River/Mista shipu
Canada

David B. Brooks
Friends of the Earth Canada
Canada

Pamela Foster
Halifax Initiative Coalition
Canada

Catherine Coumans
MiningWatch Canada
Canada

Fraser Reilly-King
NGO Working Group on EDC
Canada

Derek MacCuish
The Social Justice Committee, Canada
Canada

Djeralar Miankeol
CPPL
Chad

Remedios Fajardo Gómez
Organización Indigena Yanama.Grupo Etnico Wayuu
Colombia

Manuel Lopez
COECO-Ceiba
Costa Rica

Isaac Rojas, Gabriel Rivas
Friends of the Earth Costa Rica
Costa Rica

Emily J. Yozell
Justicia para la Naturaleza
Costa Rica

Tomasz Terlecki
CEE Bankwatch Network
Czech Republic

Martin Skalsky
Center for Citizens' Support
Czech Republic

Klara Sutlovicova Hnuti
Centrum pro dopravu a energetiku
Czech Republic

Pavel Pribyl
Hnuti DUHA/Friends of the Earth CZ
Czech Republic

Anna Pinto
Centre for Organisation, Research and Education
Denmark

Carlos Zorrilla
Defensa y Conservación Ecológica de Intag (DECOIN)
Ecuador

Jorge Acosta
Centro de Derechos Economicos y Sociales
Ecuador

Ricardo Navarro
Chair of Friends of the Earth International
El Salvador

Alex Wilks
Bretton Woods Project
England

Frances Carr
Down to Earth: the International Campaign for Ecological Justice in Indonesia
England

Marcus Colchester
Forest Peoples Programme
England

Mihail Dafydd Evans
Local Economic Accountability Network
England

Andrew Simms
New Economics Foundation
England

Simon Burall
One World Trust
England

Peep Mardiste
Friends of the Earth Estonia
Estonia

Toni Haapanen
Maan ystävät ry /Friends of the Earth Finland
Finland

Sébastien Fourmy
Agir ici
France

David Eloy
Association internationale de techniciens, experts et chercheurs (AITEC)
France

Jan Buelinckx
Attac
France

Jean Merckaert
Comité catholique contre la faim et pour le développement - CCFD
France

Damien Millet
Comité pour l'Annulation de la Dette du Tiers-Monde
France

Henri Persat
Ecologie des Hydrosystèmes Fluviaux
France

Jean-Louis Couture
General coordinator of EU regional programme
France

Jean-Paul Arpi
Peuples Solidaires
France

Annie Girard
Réseau Afrique Europe Foi et Justice
France

Sharon Courtoux
Survie
France

Jean-Patrick Razon
Survival International (France)
France

Hans Engelberts
Public Services International
France

Arif  IslamZadeh
Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN)
Georgia

Manana Kochladze
Green Alternative
Georgia

Ludmilla Klotz
IIZ/DVV
Georgia

Irène Mandeau
Amnesty International
Germany

Alois Moeller
Brot fuer die Welt
Germany

Uli Mueller
FoodFirst Information- & Action Network
Germany

Steffen Keulig
Friends of peoples close to Nature
Germany

Dorothy-Grace Guerrero
Projektkoordinatorin, Nachhaltige Entwicklung/Agenda 21
Germany

Knud Voecking
Urgewald
Germany

Ann Kathrin Schneider
WEED e.V.
Germany

Augustine Niber
Center For Public Interest Law (CEPIL)
Ghana

Santuah Niagia
Roots and Futures
Ghana

Richard Koranteng Twum Barimah
Volta Basin Development Foundation
Ghana

Tracey Wheatley
Energy Club
Hungary

Vera Mora
ETK Hungary
Hungary

B.T.VENKATESH
BUBBERJUNG & CO
India

Ashish Fernandes
Ecologist Asia
India

Joseph Rohmingthang Hmar
Hmar Indigenous Peoples Association (HIPA)
Hmar Student Association