World Bank's Inspection Panel

The Inspection Panel
Inspection Panel Logo
Abbreviation	IPN
Formation	22 September 1993
Type	Accountability Mechanism
Location	Washington, DC
Members	Gonzalo Castro de la Mata (Chairman), Zeinab El-Bakri, Jan Mattsson
Parent organization	IDA, IBRD
Website	http://www.inspectionpanel.org/

The Inspection Panel is an independent accountability mechanism of the World Bank. It was established in September 1993 by the World Bank Board of Directors, and started operations on August 1, 1994. The Panel provides a forum for people who believe that they may be adversely affected by Bank-financed operations to bring their concerns to the highest decision-making levels of the World Bank. The Panel determines whether the Bank is complying with its own policies and procedures, which are designed to ensure that Bank-financed operations provide social and environmental benefits and avoid harm to people and the environment. The Inspection Panel was the first body to promote accountability among international financial institutions through this community-led, or “bottom-up”, approach which is complementary to the “top-down” forms of accountability, such as evaluation initiated by the World Bank itself. Building on this example, other multilateral and regional financial institutions have established similar accountability mechanisms as part of broader efforts at sustainable and equitable development.

Mandate

The Inspection Panels mandate allows it to investigate on Projects funded by the IBRD and IDA, both part of the World Bank Group, and to determine whether they are complying with their policies and procedures in the design, appraisal, and implementation of a project. These policies and procedures are not limited to the Bank’s social and environmental safeguard policies, but include other Operational Policies, Bank Procedures, and Operational Directives, as well as other Bank procedural documents.

The Inspection Panels Operation

The World Bank & Inspection Panel's headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Organization of the Inspection Panel

The Inspection Panel consists of three members who are appointed by the Board of Directors for non-renewable periods of five years. In addition to the three Panel members, an Executive Secretariat was established to assist and support all Panel activities. The Panel is independent of Bank Management and is provided with independent resources to discharge its functions.

The Inspection Panel Process

The Panel process begins when it receives a Request for Inspection from a party of two or more Requesters, claiming that the Bank has violated its policies and procedures. Most of the Requests submitted have concerned some of the Bank’s safeguard policies, such as the policies on environmental assessment, involuntary resettlement, or indigenous people. Once the Panel has received and registered a Request for Inspection, the Eligibility Phase of the Inspection Process commences. Beginning on the day of registration the World Bank’s Management has 21 days to provide the Panel with evidence that it complied or intended to comply with the Bank’s relevant policies and procedures. After receiving Managements response the Panel has 21 business days to determine the eligibility of the Request.

Once it has been determined that the eligibility criteria have been met, and after having reviewed the Management Response to the Request, the Panel may, taking other factors it may have discovered during a field visit into consideration, make a recommendation to investigate. In some cases, the Panel has promoted problem solving between Management and the Requesters to help mediate less contentious cases and lead to an earlier resolution of community concerns or policy compliance problems. An investigation is not automatic, and can only be authorized by the Board of Executive Directors. If the Board approves, the next step is the substantive phase of the inspection process when the Panel evaluates the merits of the Request. In the investigation phase, the Panel is focused on fact finding and verification. It visits the borrowing country and meets with the Requesters and other affected people, as well as with a broad array of people from whom it can learn in detail about the issues, concerns, the project’s status, and potential harmful effects. The investigation phase may take a few months, or more in complex cases.

Once the investigation phase is complete, the Panel submits its Investigation Report to Bank Management. The Board meets to consider both the Panel’s Investigation Report and Management’s recommendations, before deciding whether to approve the recommendations. The Board may ask the Panel to check whether Management has made appropriate consultations about the remedial measures with the affected peoples.

History of the Inspection Panel

Events Leading to the Creation of the Inspection Panel

During the 1980s the Bank had begun developing and committing itself to operational policies and procedures, including policies on involuntary resettlement (1980), tribal peoples (1982), and environmental assessment (1988). In the late 1980s and early 1990s however, widespread voices of concern and protest from civil society and project-affected communities questioned the social and environmental impacts of Bank-financed operations. A central element of this critique was that the Bank was not complying with its policy commitments which it had adopted to prevent these very types of adverse social and environmental impacts. Serious debates on these issues also took place within the Bank’s member governments and the Bank itself. In June 1992, the international community gathered at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro to chart a new cooperative approach to addressing interrelated issues of social development, economic development, and environmental protection. The blueprint for the creation of the Inspection Panel was developed in this larger context as a result of efforts from civil society, governments, and members of the Bank’s Board to establish a new and independent mechanism for greater accountability, participation, and transparency at the World Bank.

Creation of the Inspection Panel

The Panel was officially created by two similar resolutions of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Agency (IDA) signed by the Board of Executive Directors on September 1, 1993 (Resolution IBRD 93–10 and Resolution IDA 93–6). The Resolution specifies that the Panel has jurisdiction with respect to operations supported by the IBRD and the IDA. In 1996 and 1999 Clarifications were added to the Resolution.

References

The Inspection Panel at 15 Years
Inspection Panel Homepage.
Shihata, Ibrahim (2000), The World Bank Inspection Panel: In Practice, Oxford University Press.

External links

Central banks

Global

Global	Bank for International Settlements Basel Committee on Banking Supervision Financial Stability Board

By continent

Africa	Bank of Central African States Central Bank of West African States Bank of Algeria National Bank of Angola Bank of Botswana Bank of the Republic of Burundi Bank of Cape Verde Central Bank of the Comoros Central Bank of the Congo Central Bank of Djibouti Central Bank of Egypt Bank of Eritrea National Bank of Ethiopia Central Bank of The Gambia Bank of Ghana Central Bank of the Republic of Guinea Central Bank of Kenya Central Bank of Lesotho Central Bank of Liberia Central Bank of Libya Central Bank of Madagascar Reserve Bank of Malawi Central Bank of Mauritania Bank of Mauritius Bank Al-Maghrib (Morocco) Bank of Mozambique Bank of Namibia Central Bank of Nigeria National Bank of Rwanda Central Bank of São Tomé and Príncipe Central Bank of Seychelles Bank of Sierra Leone Central Bank of Somalia Bank of Somaliland South African Reserve Bank Bank of South Sudan Central Bank of Sudan Central Bank of Swaziland Bank of Tanzania Central Bank of Tunisia Bank of Uganda Bank of Zambia Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe

Americas	Central Bank of Argentina Central Bank of Aruba Central Bank of The Bahamas Central Bank of Barbados Bermuda Monetary Authority Central Bank of Brazil Bank of Canada Central Bank of Chile Bank of the Republic (Colombia) Central Bank of Cuba Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten Eastern Caribbean Central Bank Cayman Islands Monetary Authority Central Bank of Ecuador Bank of Guatemala Bank of the Republic of Haiti Central Bank of Honduras Bank of Jamaica Bank of Mexico Central Bank of Nicaragua Central Reserve Bank of Peru Central Bank of Suriname Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago Federal Reserve System (United States) Central Bank of the Uruguay Central Bank of Venezuela

Asia	Da Afghanistan Bank Central Bank of Bahrain Bangladesh Bank Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan Brunei Currency and Monetary Board Autoriti Monetari Brunei Darussalam National Bank of Cambodia People's Bank of China Hong Kong Monetary Authority Reserve Bank of India Bank Indonesia Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran Central Bank of Iraq Bank of Israel Bank of Japan Central Bank of Jordan National Bank of Kazakhstan National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic Bank of Korea Central Bank of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Central Bank of Kuwait Banque du Liban Monetary Authority of Macao Bank Negara Malaysia Maldives Monetary Authority Bank of Mongolia Central Bank of Myanmar Nepal Rastra Bank Central Bank of Oman State Bank of Pakistan Palestine Monetary Authority Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Qatar Central Bank Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority Monetary Authority of Singapore Central Bank of Sri Lanka Central Bank of Syria Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) Bank of Thailand Central Bank of Turkmenistan Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates Central Bank of Uzbekistan State Bank of Vietnam Central Bank of Yemen

Europe	European Central Bank (Eurosystem) National Bank of the Republic of Abkhazia Bank of Albania Central Bank of Armenia National Bank of Austria Central Bank of Azerbaijan National Bank of the Republic of Belarus National Bank of Belgium Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgarian National Bank Croatian National Bank Central Bank of Cyprus Czech National Bank Danmarks Nationalbank (Denmark) Deutsche Bundesbank (Germany) Bank of England Bank of Estonia Bank of Finland Banque de France National Bank of Georgia Bank of Greece Hungarian National Bank Central Bank of Iceland Central Bank of Ireland Banca d'Italia Central Bank of Kosovo Bank of Latvia Bank of Lithuania Central Bank of Luxembourg National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia Central Bank of Malta National Bank of Moldova Central Bank of Montenegro De Nederlandsche Bank Norges Bank Central Bank of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus National Bank of Poland Banco de Portugal National Bank of Romania Central Bank of Russia National Bank of Serbia National Bank of Slovakia Bank of Slovenia Gosbank (Soviet Union) Bank of Spain Swedish National Bank Swiss National Bank Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey National Bank of Ukraine

Oceania	Reserve Bank of Australia Reserve Bank of Fiji Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bank of Papua New Guinea Central Bank of Samoa Central Bank of Solomon Islands National Reserve Bank of Tonga Reserve Bank of Vanuatu

Policies and implementation

Policies	Capital requirement Contractionary monetary policy Expansionary monetary policy Basel II Basel III Basel 4

Implementation	Capital control Discount rate Interest rates Money creation Open market operation Sovereign wealth fund

Bretton Woods system

International Monetary Fund World Bank Group International Bank for Reconstruction and Development International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes International Development Association International Finance Corporation Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency

Lists

List of central banks Central banks and currencies of Africa Central banks and currencies of Asia-Pacific Central banks and currencies of the Caribbean Central banks and currencies of Europe Central banks and currencies of Central America and South America

Names in italics indicate non-sovereign (dependent) territories, former countries, or states with limited recognition

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