Inspection Panel Decision on Haitian Communities’ Complaint (February 2015)

Memorandum to the Executive Directors International Development Association

Notice of Non-registration and Observations Regarding the Policy Framework Applicable to Technical Assistance

In accordance with paragraph 17 of the Resolution establishing the Inspection Panel, I hereby inform you that on January 7, 2015, the Inspection Panel (the "Panel") received a Request for Inspection of the Haiti Mining Dialogue Technical Assistance (P144931) supported by the World Bank through a Extractive Industries Technical Advisory Facility (EI-TAF) trust fund. The Request for Inspection is included as Attachment 1 to this Memorandum.

The Request was submitted by Kolektif Jistis Min an Ayiti (the Haiti Mining Justice Collective), a "Collective" of Haitian civil society organizations, with both national and local constituencies, as well as communities that allege to have been, and continue to be, directly affected by the development and reform of the Haitian mining sector.2

The Requesters consider that the Bank's support for reforms in the Haitian mining sector "will result in serious social and environmental harms, including contamination of vital waterways, impacts on the agriculture sector, and involuntary displacement of communities. " They state that the Bank was not following its Social and Environmental Safeguard Policies in the context of this operation, which includes: "assistance with the drafting of new national mining legislation; capacity building for the Office of Energy and Mines (Bureau des Mines et de l 'Energie); assistance with the development of a mining cadaster; support for stakeholder engagement; and other activities related to the development of the mining sector." The Requesters asked the Panel to keep the annexes to the Request confidential.