Higs and Lows of safeguards

Abstract

The present study compares the safeguards of environmental and social risk management applied by four international financial institutions –Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), The Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), Export-Import Bank of China (ExIm Bank) and the Andean Development Corporation (CAF)- in four flagship infrastructure projects in the Andean-Amazon region. The focus of this analysis has been the project cycle of each institution, in order to do so the case studies were used as tools to understand –according to specific project -how each institution applies its socio– environmental safeguards regardless of whether or not they have an explicit policy.