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Development projects must benefit community: CSO leaders
All governments need to ensure that development projects, including those financed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, benefit the people, Civil Society Organizations (CSO) leaders have stated
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span>All governments need to ensure that development projects, including those financed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, benefit the people, Civil Society Organizations (CSO) leaders have stated.
“All countries need to ensure that in every project financed by the World Bank or IMF, the main beneficiaries are the community, not just investors or project developers,” read the statement from the CSO leaders in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Wednesday.
The communique was issued at the closing of the “People’s Summit on Alternative Development: Voices on Equality and Justice, From the Past to the Future”, which was held in response to the IMF-World Bank
Annual Meetings in Nusa Dua, Bali.
Ah Maftuchan, executive director of Perkumpulan Prakarsa handed over the communique to IMF managing director Christine Lagarde and World Bank president Jim Yong Kim on Wednesday during the Civil Society Townhall event as part of the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings.
In the statement, the CSO leaders also called on the World Bank to establish an accountability mechanism to assess its performance, including for projects that have been completed in the past.
Meanwhile, in the case of Indonesia, the CSO leaders also called for an audit into projects and policies to find out which financing schemes were effective or not. “After, the government should renegotiate payments for bad debt, including the possibility of a write-off,” the statement added.
In addition, the CSO leaders also called on the government to stop using a one size fits for all approach in designing policy as it has been proven to be ineffective and even dangerous.
“All member states should consistently strengthen and implement human rights, anticorruption and environmental standards as a condition of accepting development funding from both the World Bank or IMF, as well as other international financial institutions,” it added.
Before issuing the statement, the CSO leaders gathered for two days at the Grand Inna Beach Hotel in Sanur, a 30 minute drive from Nusa Dua, Bali, where the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings are taking place.
During the gathering, the CSO leaders criticized the government for carrying out several infrastructure projects that ignored the welfare of the people, have environmental impacts and sometimes cause human rights violations.
As an example, the CSO leaders questioned the development of the Bali Mandara elevated toll road around the Benoa Bay in 2013. They said the development of the toll road, built in preparation for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit, went against environmental impact recommendations, as Benoa Bay has been declared a conservation area.
Moreover, the reclamation work for the expansion of the Ngurah Rai International Airport, in preparation for the IMF-World Bank meetings, violated the RIB 2010 plan for the airport.
At the gathering, the CSO leaders also invited Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko to speak at the event. The former commander of the Indonesian Military said the several infrastructure projects the government had developed in the regions, particularly in remote areas, showed that the government does not ignore the welfare of the people.
