The Boards of Directors of the African Development Bank Group approved, on Wednesday 16 June, 2010, a revised version of the Operating Rules and Procedures of its Independent Review Mechanism (IRM) which has been operational since 2006.

The salient recommendations of the review adopted by the Boards are to improve the accessibility of the IRM and to strengthen the independence of the mechanism from the Bank's management and operations. The enhanced independence inter alia includes that the Boards will have more leverage in the appointment of the Director of the Compliance Review and Mediation Unit (CRMU) who administers the IRM and is responsible for the problem-solving function of the mechanism. The newly adopted rules also exclude the Director from being part of compliance review panels' investigations and decisions on whether or not the Bank is complying with its operating policies. This is essentially to avoid any possible conflict of interest, in particular for cases that in the first instance have been handled through a problem-solving exercise by the Director and at a later stage the same cases are referred to a compliance review.

Another important amendment of the IRM Operating Rules and Procedures is to facilitate access and use of the IRM by people and communities affected by the Bank's operations. In that regard, the outreach activities have officially been integrated as one of the most important functions of the CRMU, and the Bank's management will also be obliged to include information about the IRM in the Bank Group's policies and project documents such as the appraisals and environment and social impact assessments. Another key change is the approval of the flexible interpretation of the IRM rules such that people who would like to submit a complaint will no longer be constrained by the formats and the means of submitting their complaints to CRMU.

The CRMU Director, Per Eldar Sovik, after the Boards meeting expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the IRM review, in particular the strengthening of the independence of the IRM and the director's position in particular, and the clear division of the roles and responsibilities among the director and the expert members of the compliance review panels. He underscored the important role that the IRM can play in contributing to the development effectiveness of the Bank's operations.

The IRM was established on June 30th 2004 to respond to complaints from people and communities who are likely to be adversely affected by projects financed by the Bank Group. The IRM has over the past three years handled complaints regarding projects such as the Bujagali Hydropower and Interconnection projects in Uganda, the Gibe III project in Ethiopia and the Nuweiba Power plant in Egypt.

Contacts

Félix Njoku