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Sustainability Standards
Environmental Screening and Classification
The objective of the IDB’s Sustainability Standards is to enhance long-term development benefits to the Bank’s member countries by enhancing environmental and social sustainability outcomes in all Bank operations and activities and strengthening environmental and social capacity in its borrowing member countries. All operations go through an assessment and review process in order to ensure their compliance with the IDB Sustainability Standards and provide support for compliance wherever the need is identified.
More specifically the Environment and Safeguards Compliance Policy of July 2006 requires that “All Bank-financed operations will be screened and classified according to their potential environmental impacts.” It also mandates that the screening process include the social and cultural safeguards of other relevant Bank policies such as the Indigenous Peoples Policy and the Involuntary Resettlement Policy.
This comprehensive screening is carried out early in the project planning process by the IDB project team in consultation with environmental specialists to determine the assessment, management, monitoring, and oversight each project will require.
Projects are sorted into one of four categories based on their potential impact:
| Category A | Projects likely to cause significant negative environmental impacts and associated social impacts, or to have profound implications for natural resources. |
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| Category B | Projects likely to cause mostly local and short-term negative environmental or social impacts for which mitigation measures are readily available. |
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| Category C | Projects likely to cause minimal or no negative environmental or social impacts. These do not require any additional environmental or social analysis beyond the initial screening. In some cases, they may include safeguard or monitoring requirements. |
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| Other | Projects that differ from traditional investment loans and for which classification based on anticipated impacts is not be feasible. |
To help streamline project design and review and standardize the classification process, the IDB introduced a new computer-based screening and classification tool in 2007. The system helps staff to identify specific environmental and social risks and impacts, flag “alert issues” requiring further examination, assign an impact category to the operation and identify the type of safeguard evaluations needed. Specific tools are also being developed to evaluate project impacts and risks under the Disaster Risk Management and Indigenous People’s Policies, and will be implemented during 2009.
For each IDB operation, an environmental and social strategy document is also prepared, which undergoes a peer review process and is available in the IDB Project Portal.
