Miscellaneous Knowledge Notes

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Now showing 1 - 6 of 6

Monitoring Investments

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03) UNCTAD ; World Bank

This note provides guidance on how to monitor the performance and impact of agricultural investments, and on which aspects to observe. Ongoing monitoring of investments is a key way to hold investors accountable for contractual commitments and deliver the expected benefits to the country and surrounding communities. It also facilitates early identification of emerging negative impacts or of failing investments, enabling remedial actions. Monitoring is often deficient because of a lack of resources and systematic procedures, which allows negative impacts to escalate beyond what will otherwise be the case. Internal monitoring is likewise good practice for investors and their financiers, though the field research indicated room for improvement.
Public Transparency

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03) UNCTAD ; World Bank

This note provides guidance on the type of information about agricultural investments that investors and governments can make publicly available. Transparency about certain aspects of investments can improve relations between investors and communities, enable external stakeholders to hold investors to commitments, and improve investors’ public image. Although some information should be kept private to protect commercial interests, in general the amount of publicly available information is insufficient for transparent, accountable conduct of agricultural investments. This has often led to fear, mistrust, and resentment, and created operational and financial difficulties for investors. Some investors and governments have recently shifted toward a more transparent approach, but the risk of misuse of information needs to be managed.
Grievance Redress Mechanisms

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03) UNCTAD ; World Bank

This note provides guidance on how investors can provide effective remedies to affected parties who perceive that their rights have been adversely affected by business activities. A grievance redress mechanism (GRM) is a set of arrangements that enable local communities, employees, out growers, and other affected stakeholders to raise grievances with the investor and seek redress when they perceive a negative impact arising from the investor’s activities. It is a key way to mitigate, manage, and resolve potential or realized negative impacts, as well as fulfill obligations under international human rights law and contribute to positive relations with communities and employees. GRMs have been operated with varying degrees of success. This noteprovides guidance and examples on how to improve the design and implementation of mechanisms for mutual benefit.
Screening Prospective Investors

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03) UNCTAD ; World Bank

This note provides guidance to governments on how to screen and select prospective investment projects to ensure they maximize the social, economic, and environmental benefits while minimizing the risks. It provides investors information on what can be expected in cases of good screening practice. The acceptance of investors that later fail financially or have poor social and environmental outcomes has had damaging impacts on many countries as well as communities. Screening investors is a critical component of a country’s policy framework to mitigate those risks and to improve the likelihood that investments will have a positive effect on sustainable development priorities. This note summarizes available resources on how to screen agricultural investments and calls on donors, international organizations, and civil society to develop more. It is complemented by note 7: tools for screening investors, which provides a detailed toolkit that can be adapted to host countries’ individual circumstances.
Investment Contracts

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03) UNCTAD ; World Bank

This note provides guidance on the form and content of contracts between investors and governments pertaining to agricultural investments. The best guarantee of positive benefits from foreign investment is a solid foundation of domestic laws that are properly enforced. In many developing countries, however, the necessary domestic laws may not be in place or may not be sufficiently detailed. Even when they are in place, they may not be implemented or enforced. Contracts can help fill the gaps in domestic laws by providing more detailed guidance on what should be contained in the assessments, and using international standards and best practice as the reference points. However, contracts need to be drafted carefully to maximize benefits and reduce risks.
Healthy and Safe Working Environment

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03) UNCTAD ; World Bank

This note provides guidance to investors and governments on good practice in occupational health and safety policies, programs, procedures and processes, a matter of critical importance given thathalf the world’s working population is in agriculture—one of the three most hazardous sectors, with an estimated 170,000 fatalities per year (ILO). To be successful, an agribusiness operationmust rely heavily not only on the skills and competencies of its employees but on their health and wellbeing, requiring an awareness of and adherence to acceptable occupational health and safety standards.