[Ftffacilitationteam] Fwd: Sign On by 10/28: Letter Appeal to the High Level Panel on Infrastructure at the G-20

Vie Oct 28 04:59:34 UYST 2011

Dear all,
I think we may to endorse this statement. What do you say about that?
Yours.

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From: Heinrich Boell Foundation <info en us.boell.org>
Date: 2011/10/27
Subject: Sign On by 10/28: Letter Appeal to the High Level Panel on
Infrastructure at the G-20
To: chluisa en gmail.com

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      The Heinrich Boell Foundation North America has added its signature to
a letter campaign taking issue with the lack of transparency and cooperation
with civil society surrounding the G-20 High Level Panel on
Infrastructure's upcoming report and recommendations for the G-20 Summit in
Paris.  Please read the request below.
 * *
* *
*Urgent: Sign on Requested*
-Apologies for Cross Posting-

Dear Colleagues,

Please consider signing your organization on to the letter below to the
Chair and Members of the G-20 High Level Panel (HLP) on Infrastructure.  *We
apologize for this late notice: Please send sign-ons no later than the end
of this Friday, October 28. *

The letter takes issue with the HLP for formulating a report to be submitted
to the Leaders at the G-20 Summit in France in the absence of any
consultation with civil society, and with virtually no transparency.  The
letter requests that the draft HLP report be disclosed and consultations
held with civil society organizations prior to submission of the report to
the G-20 Leaders.

The HLP report is important because it is expected to recommend criteria for
Multilateral Development Bank and G-20 support for infrastructure projects,
to prioritize specific large and harmful infrastructure projects for
support, and to propose new financial mechanisms to advance these projects.
We fear that these large infrastructure projects may benefit primarily the
elites while creating unsustainable development paths that saddle countries
with poverty and debt, violate human rights, and cause harmful environmental
impacts, including global climate change.

Initial signers include Pacific Environment, International Rivers, CRBM,
Cornerhouse.
Signers are kindly requested to send *name, organization, and country*.
  Please send sign-ons to Doug Norlen, Pacific Environment, at
dnorlen en pacificenvironment.org by the end of this Friday, October 28!

Groups in G-20 countries are kindly requested to prepare to send a copy of
the final letter to their heads of state and finance ministers next week.

Thank you!

Nancy Alexander
Director, Economic Governance Program
Heinrich Boell Foundation - North America

Letter follows*:*
*******************
[Date]
Tidjane Thiam
Group Chief Executive of Prudential plc.
Chair, High Level Panel for Infrastructure
Group of Twenty (G-20)

Members
High Level Panel for Infrastructure
Group of Twenty (G-20)1

RE:  Concern Regarding Lack of Consultation and Transparency by the High
Level Panel for Infrastructure

Mr. Thiam and Members of the High Level Panel for Infrastructure,

We are writing to request that the High Level Panel for Infrastructure
(HLP), which is referenced in the February 2011 G-20 Finance Ministers and
Central Bank Governors Communique, disclose its draft report and hold
consultations with civil society organizations prior to submission of the
report to the G-20 Summit on 3-4 November 2011.
As civil society organizations, we are deeply concerned about the lack of
transparency and consultation in the HLP’s process of formulating the
report, especially since the process has been ongoing for a year, since the
November 2010 G-20 Summit.
We are profoundly aware of the importance of appropriate infrastructure in
the developing world. Undertaken correctly, infrastructure projects can
promote the well-being of current and future generations of people while
protecting the environment. Undertaken incorrectly, large infrastructure
projects can benefit primarily the elites in developing and developed
countries, while creating unsustainable development paths that saddle
countries with poverty and debt, violate human rights, and cause harmful
environmental impacts, including global climate change.

In their recent Communique, the G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank
Governors: "call on the MDBs, working with countries involved to pursue
implementation of transformational regional infrastructure projects
following the *criteria set by the HLP and to prioritize project preparation
financing*" [emphasis added].2 We believe that identifying such criteria and
selecting projects that meet the criteria are processes that should be
carried out in public, involving Parliamentarians and civil society
organizations, particularly those in the host countries.

Transparency, accountability and public participation are particularly
important for public works sector projects that the HLP may be considering.
Transparency International has found that "the problem of corruption is
particularly prevalent in public works and construction," and that it is
"often responsible for the funneling of scarce public resources to
uneconomic high-profile projects, such as dams, power plants, pipelines and
refineries, at the expense of less spectacular but fundamentally important
infrastructure projects, such as schools, hospitals and roads, or the supply
of power to rural areas."

We hope that the HLP observes standard public participation processes and
ensures prioritization of a pipeline of projects that have appropriate
public interest safeguards and have as their chief goal to reduce poverty in
low income countries.

We are concerned that the HLP could interpret environmental, social and
human rights safeguards as "bottlenecks" and fail to integrate these with
poverty reduction objectives. According to a recent World Bank Independent
Evaluation Group report, only 13% of sampled International Finance
Corporation projects over the past decade had explicit poverty alleviation
objectives.

Our organizations will continue to be involved in the infrastructure
development processes undertaken by the G-20 and other international and
national bodies. Civil society organizations have proactively engaged with
the G-20 Development Working Group and therefore wonder why this work stream
on infrastructure has so little transparency and no consultation,
undercutting the legitimacy of this specific G-20 process.  We therefore
respectfully request public disclosure of the latest draft HLP report, and
call for consultations with civil society organizations at the soonest
possible opportunity and, in any case, prior to the November G-20 Summit in
Cannes, France.

Sincerely,

[Groups]

Pacific Environment
International Rivers
CRBM
Cornerhouse
Heinrich Boell Foundation - North America

Others:

CC:  France and G-20 President Nicolas Sarkozy

Notes:

[1] The HLP includes: Chair: Tidjane Thiam (Ivory Coast), Group Chief
Executive of Prudential plc; Yahya A. Alyahya (Saudi Arabia), CEO of the
Gulf International Bank; Yoon-Je Cho (Korea), Professor at Sogang
University, Seoul, Korea; Luciano Coutinho (Brazil) President of the
Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES); Paul Douglas (Canada) CEO of PCL
Constructors, Inc.; Jim Harmon (USA), Chairman of Harmon & Co., LLC, Chair,
Caravel Fund; Mo Ibrahim (Sudan), Founder, Mo Ibrahim Foundation; Hayrettin
Kaplan (Turkey), CEO of the Turkish Eximbank; Takatoshi Kato (Japan),
President, Japan Center for International Finance; Norbert Kloppenburg
(Germany) Member, Managing Board, KFW; Rajiv B. Lall (India), CEO,
Infrastructure Development Finance Co.; Jin Liqun (China) Board of
Supervisors, China Investment Corporation (CIC); S.R. Maharaj (So. Africa),
Former Minister of Transport, Special Envoy, SA pdt; Nicholas Moore
(Australia), CEO, Macquarie Bank; Paul Victor Obeng (Ghana), Chair, Guinness
Ghana Breweries, Ltd.; Alessandro Ortis (Italy), Chair, National Regulatory
Authority for Electric & Gas; Lionel Zinsou (France), CEO of PAI Partners.

[2] Item 6, Communique of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of
the G-20, Paris,
France<http://e2ma.net/go/10848945627/3998975/110927887/15508/goto:http://www.g20.org/Documents2011/10/G20%20communiqu%2014-15%20October%202011-EN.pdf>,
14-15 October, 2011

  For further information, see " Beyond the Public Eye: High-Level Panel on
Infrastructure To Unveil its Recommendations for G20
Leaders<http://e2ma.net/go/10848945627/3998975/110927888/15508/goto:http://www.boell.org/web/index-843.html>,"
by Nancy Alexander, Heinrich Boell Foundation-North America
  * ** *
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