Presented by Rayyan Hassan at the First High-Level Follow-up Dialogue on Financing for Development in Asia and Pacific. 

NGO Forum on ADB

Greetings and thanks to the Chair and Distinguished Panelists, Honorable Ministers, Delegates and Respected Audience.

NGO Forum on ADB is an independent network of 250 CSOs grass-root organizations, social movements and affected communities across South Asia, Southeast Asia,

Central Asia and Caucasus and the Mekong Region.

Civil Society voice continues to shrink with restrictive laws being employed by various governments across Asia. We are not experts but rather voices and witness of the masses. We struggle for resources and thus our arguments are not always as refined as well as they should be. Yet through our limitations we risk demanding transparency and accountability of the big actors of development finance, further exposing us everyday to the backhand of MDBs and borrowing government restrictive laws.

To this end, we appreciate the hospitality extended to us by UNESCAP to give us this very critical space to raise our concerns in this First High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development in Asia and the Pacific.

As Civil Society we feel the agenda of Infrastructure Investment is hardly conscientious and inclusive as the pipeline projects to usher in regional economic integration focus on up scaling transport corridors, export processing zones and expand ports. And investing energy projects (coal and nuclear) to feed the infrastructure and trade demand.

These Mega projects will further tax a critically endangered planet. We have crossed 390 limit to over 400 parts per million volume of CO2 as per IPCC which has not happened in 650,000 years but happened in the last 50 years.

Over the years Civil society and Grass-root Communities have experienced large-scale infrastructure projects especially those funded by the WB and ADB have led to massive displacement. In order for projects to move forward we have seen forced land-grabs, forced evictions, use of state policy and military instruments, suppression of voice and violation of human rights. On the environmental side the Large Dams, Energy Plants, Highways etc. have caused irreparable damage to fragile ecosystems and forests.

Socially there has been immediate loss of livelihoods and rupture of social fabrics.

This has directly increased the vulnerability of women, children, IPs, fragile communities: disabled, LGBT, elderly.

Why does this keep happening you may ask? Because of –Project related systemic flaws include:

• Lack of meaningful consultation with local communities at from Project Design to post implementation phase.
• Lack of delivery on Environment and Social Safeguard policy commitments by MDBs
• MDBs enjoy immunity from borrowing governments.
• Lack of budgeting in the original Loan Agreement for ensuring Environment and Social Safeguards.

Hence the notion of billions to trillions in infrastructure investment may not target the poorest of the poor but rather remain within the confines of the rich. And lead to a new brand of an inequality crisis with ‘the development refugee’ in Asia as a new unending problem to solve like Europe these days.

I would like to leave some concluding questions for both the lending and borrowing Delegations present here today?

1. Can this planet absorb the environmental and social impacts in the scale of a One Belt One Road Project? Are the Safeguard protections mechanisms within the
Finance Drivers comprehensive, binding and look genuinely towards the rights of those to be marginalized?

2. As all MDBs continue being immune to national laws, how can Development Finance be held accountable? Who will ensure the transparency, due diligence, monitoring and oversight of development finance and enforce the right to take punitive action in cases of misconduct?

3. Is leveraging the global private capital, pensions funds, and insurance funds for infrastructure investment a meaningful tool for achieving sustainable development? This push to bring in private capital in development finance is it demands driven or supply driven?  Why are we not leveraging funds from other sources where major investments are taking place (tax the 1%, slashing war budgets, reducing the arms trade).

Does the rise in GDP ensure lessening global inequality? How will FFD address this widening gap and are we ready to shift from ‘poverty reduction’ to ‘inequality reduction’?

Thank you for the time and space to speak our mind.