Last week, the World Bank released a draft of its proposed new environmental and social safeguards.
While over a hundred civil society groups, development practitioners and professional associations denounced the draft as a significant roll-back of standards, Devex reported last week how Kyle Peters, vice president for operations policy and country services, defended the proposed new rules because they “will uplift sustainable development” and represent “a strengthening of existing policies.”
However, after a careful analysis of the draft, we think that Peters’ assertions are wrong.