Compliance Review Panel

This annual report of the Compliance Review Panel (CRP) summarizes requests for compliance review in 2010 which was an important year for the Compliance Review Panel (CRP) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Two issues dominated the agenda: the review of ADB's compliance in relation to the Fuzhou project in the People's Republic of China and the joint Board and Management review of the ADB Accountability Mechanism. In addition, the CRP concluded the fifth and final annual monitoring of the remedial actions for the Chashma project in Pakistan and conducted its fourth annual monitoring of remedial actions for the Southern Transport Development Project in Sri Lanka.

This annual report of the Compliance Review Panel (CRP) summarizes requests for compliance review in 2011 which was a productive year for the CRP. The fifth and final annual monitoring of remedial actions for the Southern Transport Development Project in Sri Lanka---the first compliance review request to complete the full compliance review phase under the 2003 Accountability Mechanism of the Asian Development Bank (ADB)---was concluded. The involvement of the CRP in this monitoring phase of the compliance review has (i) made ADB staff more aware of the safeguards policy and the need for better coordination with the government in its implementation; (ii) made ADB pay more attention to land-use planning and urban development; (iii) sparked improvements in the grievance redress mechanism within the project; and (iv) produced ideas for new, ongoing, and future road development projects in Sri Lanka.

The good hegemon : demanding accountability as justice for the multilateral development banks -- US norm entrepreneurship and the MDBs -- US hegemony for what? From accountability as control to accountability as justice for the MDBs -- Bank resistance to institutionalising accountability as justice -- Accountability as justice in practice : challenging the banks? -- Changing the banks and strengthening accountability as justice? -- Norm diffusion within the MDBs and insights beyond the banks.

At the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in May 2010, the President announced a joint Board and Management review of the Accountability Mechanism. This paper gives the summary of the review in which the main objective was to examine the scope for improvements in the Accountability Mechanism. The Accountability Mechanism provides a forum where people adversely affected by ADB-assisted projects can voice and seek solutions to their problems and report alleged noncompliance of ADB's operational policies and procedures. It consists of two separate but complementary functions: consultation phase and compliance review phase.

Describing how formerly secretive financial institutions have been slow to accept responsibility for the consequences of their investments - especially the problems that can result from projects in developing countries - she shows that financing institutions can cause significant social and environmental damage and argues that new accountability mechanisms are necessary to reduce or prevent such damage. Because such institutions operate on a global scale, only semi-judicial accounting mechanisms can provide the necessary accountability. It is time for the private financial sector to follow multilateral financial institutions in creating independent mechanisms, mediation procedures, and access to decision makers for people harmed or potentially harmed by projects financed by their institutions.

This volume scrutinises the main challenges faced by States in their current international economic relations from an interdisciplinary perspective. It combines legal research with political and economic analysis and favours dialogue among scientific disciplines. Readers are offered a series of in-depth studies on a rich variety of topics: how to reconcile States’ interest to benefit from economic liberalization with their need to pursue social goals (such as the protection of human rights or of the environment); recent developments under WTO law and regional integration processes; international cooperation in the energy sector; national regulatory developments in the banking sector, sovereign wealth funds and investor-State arbitration.

The book is the most comprehensive in its area and analyses many jurisdictions that have received little attention.