Bretton Woods Project
11th September 2006

Despite the Bank's patchy track record on sustainability and current involvement in disastrous foresty, dam and genetically modified agriculture projects, President Wolfowitz announced in June that the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development department (ESSD) is to be disbanded and merged with the Bank's infrastructure and energy units.

The move has created uproar amongst civil society and Bank staff. Surrendering the structural independence of a department dealing with the environmental and social dimensions of development- including indigenous peoples, resettlement, and biodiversity- and merging it with a body working on infrastructure such as roads, ports, hydro-electric dams and oil pipelines risks sending a signal that the Bank is not serious about protecting ecosystems and livelihoods. The new department called the Sustainable Development Network will be led by the current head of the infrastructure department, Kathy Sierra, and a new position will be created for a "world class environmental expert". ESSD was established following some of the sharpest conflicts between the Bank and civil society over the disastrous environmental and social consequences of projects as the Sardar Sarovar dam project in India, the Chixoy dam in Guatemala and the Bulyanhulu gold mine in Tanzania.

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Posted by rjorr at September 11, 2006 9:06 AM