World Bank Inspection Panel Reports and Recommendations on

Liberia Development Forestry Sector Management Project and 

Tajikistan Energy Loss Reduction Project (Rogun HPP)

February 3, 2011

U.S. Position

The Inspection Panel is an essential accountability mechanism of the World Bank. It helps 

ensure that Bank management is accountable to the Board in applying agreed operational 

policies and procedures, and provides a mechanism of potential redress for individuals and 

communities adversely affected by Bank operations as a result of non-compliance. With this 

purpose in mind, the United States appreciates the work of the Panel and Management on these 

two cases, and supports the Panel's recommendation not to conduct an investigation on either 

case. 

There has been much discussion about the Inspection Panel process, especially the process for 

deciding eligibility in the Liberia and Tajikistan cases and the level of factual background 

presented in the reports to the Board. With the goal of safeguarding the critical independence 

and effectiveness of the Panel, facilitating good decisions by the Board, and advancing 

shared goal of development effectiveness, we offer the following comments. 

The Board is not in a position to conduct its own complete factual analysis in every case and we 

must rely on the Panel. It is important that the Panel’s reports and recommendations to the Board 

contain sufficient factual background and context to support the Panel’s recommendations 

without the need for substantial additional information or clarifications. As a general matter, this 

chair believes that, when the Panel is registering a case and determining whether to recommend 

an investigation, it should be reasonably clear that Management has been notified that alleged 

non-compliance with Bank policies in a project has caused a requester material harm, and that 

the World Bank has had a reasonable opportunity to respond to the concerns. Reasonable notice 

should be assessed in view of the particular facts and circumstances and may be assessed 

differently for requesters in remote and/or impoverished locations than for those with greater 

resources or information.

Finally, the United States notes that the General Counsel provided her opinion about interpreting 

the Board Resolution and Clarification. We reaffirm past practice that it is solely the 

responsibility of the Board in all cases to assess and evaluate the Panel's work and reports. The 

current Resolution and Clarifications remain valid and are robust enough to handle all of these 

issues.
Liberia – Development Forestry Sector Management Project

Ensuring that Liberia's natural resources are managed in a transparent and sustainable manner for 

the benefit of the people of Liberia is critical if the country is to bring itself out of poverty. The 

democratically-elected government under President Johnson-Sirleaf, with support from the 

World Bank, the United States and other donors, has made progress in improving management of 

its forest resources. The United States believes the World Bank has a valuable role to play in 

helping the government manage this sector. In our view, that role should be focused on 

strengthening transparency and accountability of natural resource revenue flows, and helping the 

government establish effective measures to combat corruption in the sector. 

The United States accepts the Panel's determination on eligibility and agree with the 

recommendation that no investigation be carried out on the Liberia: Development Forestry 

Sector Management Project. We urge Management to ensure that its Action Plan, which does 

not imply an admission of non-compliance and is instead a proactive approach to address broader 

issues, reflects and incorporates the outcome of adequate consultations with community 

stakeholders. 

The challenges facing the Liberian forestry sector are well beyond the scope of this project. The 

United States. encourages Management to continue to work with the Government of Liberia to 

reinforce efforts to improve forestry management, such as the undertaking of additional 

assessments of new concessions and building government capacity to monitor concessions and 

enforce the law. We share the Panel's deep concern about intimidation of the requestors and join 

Management in urging the Liberian Government to address this issue.

Tajikistan – Energy Loss Reduction Project (Rogun)

The United States supports the World Bank’s engagement in Tajikistan’s energy sector and the 

focus on regional energy and water issues. The feasibility study for the Rogun dam – which was 

not part of the original project that triggered the Panel request but was recently added as part of a 

restructuring – will look at the engineering, geologic, financial, environmental and social issues 

related to the proposed dam. At present, the World Bank is not involved in the financing of the 

construction of the proposed dam, nor has the Board made any decision to finance the proposed 

dam. 

The United States supports the Panel’s finding of ineligibility and recommendation of no 

investigation, on the basis that “the Bank facilitated extensive consultations” with riparian 

governments, including Uzbekistan, and that there is adequate evidence of the Bank’s intention 

to comply with applicable Operational Policies. We share Management’s view that since the 

assessment study for the Rogun dam has not yet started, an inspection at this point could 

potentially undermine the Bank’s policies requiring an independent and integrated environmental 

and social assessment. We note that the issues raised by the requesters focus on potential harm 
that could derive from the construction, operation and/or failure of the proposed dam but not 

from the assessment studies. 

Going forward, the United States urges Management to consider further measures to ensure that 

the studies are fully independent, so that they will be viewed as such by all the regional 

governments. We also urge that the studies fully take into account the economic costs and 

benefits of alternative flow scenarios, including the impacts on downstream. Finally, we would 

note that our statement today should not be viewed as a position on any future Bank proposal for 

the Rogun Dam, which we would consider on its own merits after carefully reviewing all the 

project documentation.