…It is our belief that the primary stakeholders of any Safeguards Framework are the local communities who will be most impacted. These are the people whose lives, environment and societies will be directly affected, by all AIIB operations and policies…

Please note that civil society represents the perspectives of various diverse groups (women, communities with natural resource-based livelihoods, indigenous peoples, fisher folk, farming communities, trade unions, labor groups, disabled communities, migrants, etc.) who make an integral contribution to the formulation of any Safeguards framework. We are alarmed to see that AIIB has not even once recognized civil society in word or action anywhere in the ESF Consultation Plan...

The ESF consultation plan is aiming for a fast track one-month period (August to September) for collecting input from its ‘stakeholders’. This will be grossly inadequate to ensure any voice of the communities across Asia is included into the AIIB ESF framework. We fear that this may be indicative of AIIB‟s disregard for the needs and concerns of Asian communities and local environments…