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| Task Force Meeting, 5 March 2002 � Mercure Hotel � The Hague, The Netherlands |
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| Present at the meeting: Lieselotte Feldmann (EU), Carlos Dora (WHO), Yaw Amoyaw-Osei (EPA Ghana), Mauricio Castro (CCAD), Maarten Smies (Shell International), Jenny Heap (WWF), Jules Scholten- acting chairman (Commission EIA), Reinoud Post (Commission EIA), Liduina Wildenburg (Commission EIA) Not present: Peter Leonard (Hydro Quebec and IAIA), Warren Evans (ADB), Niek Ketting (Commission EIA) Opening and announcements * Jules Scholten welcomes all. He reports that Niek Ketting, Peter Leonard and Warren Evans sent their regrets; they are unable to attend this meeting. * In the absence of Niek Ketting, Jules Scholten invites candidates from the Task Force to chair the meeting. All agree that Jules should carry on and guide along the discussion. * The meeting decides to reshuffle the agenda and start with the Mission Statement. The wording of this Statement will determine to a large extent the discussion on the other issues on the agenda. 1. Mission statement * The mission statement needs rephrasing. The three alternatives are discussed. * The term �definitions� is changed in �terminology�. The Mission of the ICIA is formulated as follows: �The ICIA provides independent advice on the quality of Impact Assessments * on request, especially where there is uncertainty about the adequacy of information, * covering project and strategic level assessments, * on a world wide scale. By doing so, ICIA contributes to decision making which gives appropriate attention to environmental, social and economic aspects�. * It is decided that the Mission Statement must be extended with: * a statement on the added value of ICIA; * a statement on refuting possible misconceptions about the ICIA initiative with reference to some selected FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) about the envisaged role of the ICIA; * a short description of the structure of the ICIA and its financial operation that will enable the preparation of independent advice; * a description of safeguards characterising the ICIA aiming at avoiding possible conflicts of interest. The result must be a concise document of 3 pages (at a maximum) that contains all essential information about the ICIA. It should serve as the base document for raising support. Action: The secretariat will prepare a draft of the extended Mission Statement and circulate it to the Task Force for comment and completion. 2. Follow up Stakeholder workshop 8-9 November 2001 What type of organisation will ICIA be? Options on the model and the structure include: Stand alone � Affiliated to another international organisation/ Membership � Partnership � Donor based / two tiers internal structure. During the November 2001 workshop it was concluded that ICIA should start as a stand alone organisation but that approach should be viewed in the light of possible legal considerations. * Research on the legal implications and the pros and cons of some options and possible combinations has started as reported in the agenda for the meeting. Action: A draft on the progress and tentative results of the research will be sent to the Task Force half way through to the next meeting of the Task Force for information and comments. * For the benefit of the research, the members of the Task Force are encouraged to identify organisations with operational characteristics that can be exemplary to the ICIA. In this context a number of organisations are briefly mentioned: e.g. Earth Council, Global Environmental Fund, International Commission on Whaling, Global Reporting Initiative, International Chamber of Commerce. Action: Task Force members report to the secretariat about such organisations, why they can be of interest and specifics how to contact them. This information will be passed on to the researchers. * Private law allows for various options for the ICIA�s upper tier: foundation, company, NGO. (The upper tier must take care of the financial situation of the ICIA and in that way, facilitate the actual operation of the ICIA). It appears that the selection of the preferred form of the upper tier of the ICIA depends also on the site where the secretariat will be located and hence on the local legal situation. * It is noted that the essence of the ICIA is in its operational details. For instance: how is independence guaranteed; what are the internal procedures? The next meeting must concentrate on the internal procedures and way of operation. Action: The secretariat will prepare a draft on the internal procedures and way of operation for discussion during the next meeting. This document will make use of the experiences of the Netherlands Commission for EIA in carrying out advisory work on development co-operation activities. 3. Time schedule * The Task Force decides that the ICIA will not be launched at the IAIA June 2002 meeting in the Congress Centre, The Hague. Instead of launching the ICIA there, the ICIA will be presented to that conference in a plenary that is scheduled already for the morning of Thursday June 20. That plenary session will be chaired by Niek Ketting. In the afternoon of June 20, there will be a workshop for those participants of the IAIA conference who are interested to learn more about the ICIA. VIPs to approach for the plenary session on June 20 during IAIA 2002 are: * Catherine Day will be the new DG environment of the EC. Action: Lieselotte Feldmann will check on her availability. * Minister of environment, science and technology of Ghana, Mr. Dominic Kwaku Fobih. Action: Yaw checks on his availability. Note that Mr. Fobih has already accepted an invitation to address the IAIA conference on its opening day on Tuesday June 18. * Claude Martin, Director General of WWF. Action: Jenny Heap checks on his availability. * Ian Johnson, vice president of the World Bank. Action: Mauricio Castro Salazar checks on his availability. Note that Ian Johnson has already expressed a warm interest in the ICIA initiative following a meeting with Niek Ketting in Washington DC in March 2001. * Henk Dijkgraaf, president director of Shell the Netherlands. Action: Jules checks on his availability. Note that Mr. Dijkgraaf has already accepted an invitation to address the IAIA conference on its opening day on June 18. * Jos� Maria Figueires (DG World Economic Forum). Action: Mauricio checks on his availability. * The official launch of the ICIA is planned at the Rio+10 meeting in Johannesburg later this year (26 August-4 September). There will be a large number of VIPs in Johannesburg and some of them must be invited to the launching of the ICIA: * Lead person is Mrs. Gro Harlem Brundtland, director general of WHO and initiator of the recommendation about the ICIA in 1987 and. Action: Carlos Dora will ask her to launch ICIA. * EC Environmental Commissioner. Action: Lieselotte will ask the Commissioner. * Minister of Environment in the Netherlands Jan Pronk. Action: Jules will consult with Niek Ketting how to approach Mr. Pronk. * Danish minister of environment as Denmark will have the presidency of the EU during the second half of 2002. Action: Either through the EC or directly by the secretariat. * A minister of the EU accession countries. Action: Lieselotte. * The minister chair of the CCAD. Action: Mauricio. * Minister of environment of Peoples Republic China. Action: Jules will investigate how to go about this. There is a contact with the director general of Environment. * A minister of the host country South Africa. Action: Jules will check with the Ministry of Environment and Transportation in Pretoria (Mr. Wynand Fourie) and with the Netherlands Ministry of Environment. * Klaus T�pfer, director general of UNEP. Action: Mauricio. * Ian Johnson, Vice President of the World Bank. Action: Mauricio. * John Lintjer, Vice President of the ADB. Action: Jules. * Serge Lapalme, Vice President Services of Hydropower Quebec. Action: Jules will check with Peter Leonard about his availability. * Simon Upton of the OECD. Action: Jenny. * A VIP of WWF or IUCN. Action: Jenny. * Phil Watts. Action: Maarten. * We will need a slot of one hour at the Johannesburg meeting (to be arranged-conference manager) to launch ICIA. Action: Lieselotte will find out whom to contact for a slot. The secretariat will contact the person in question. * The launching will probably be organised as a side event with a press conference. Action: Jenny and Lieselotte will check this. * The persons who will launch the ICIA compose the high level support group (the VIPs). This is a one time activity. After the launching there is no need to ask these VIPs for further time investment in the ICIA. * Launching does not necessarily mean that ICIA would have to be operational immediately. It could be operational e.g. from 1-1-2003. 4. Request financial support 2nd phase ICIA and financial commitment for the actual operation of the ICIA The budget for the second phase is � 200,000. So far we have received a promise of � 50,000 from the EC for the functioning of the ICIA secretariat. The Commission for EIA is contributing � 50,000 as well. (Part of the contribution that was already pledged by the Rabo Bank last year is also available for the second phase: � 7,000. On March 8 a letter was received from AKZO NOBEL company pledging � 5,000 as a one time contribution to the second phase which puts the total amount that appears to be slotted for the second phase at this moment at � 112,000). However, more support and commitment is needed. Since all participants in the stakeholders workshop of 8-9 November 2001 have indicated to support the initiative, the following immediate action is agreed upon. Action: the secretariat will prepare letters for all stakeholders (in addition to those stakeholders who have been approached already) requesting them to commit themselves to financially supporting the second phase and to pledge commitment to the actual operation for a period of at least 3 years. In June there must be clarity that sufficient commitment has been pledged to the operation to be able to go ahead with the launching and to implement the initiative. This is a prerequisite for the success of the next meeting of the stakeholders group on June 17 at The Hague. On the basis of the commitments a business plan must be drawn up (see under point 7). Action: Lieselotte will provide the names of persons responsible for EIA in the EU. Yaw will approach the African Development Bank. Jenny will approach WWF in the Netherlands for a WWF contribution. Jenny will also approach SIDA (Sweden). Mauricio suggests to use the Dutch trust fund at the World Bank. Mauricio indicates that the CCAD could fund a central American workshop on the ICIA. 5. Assessment of the output of the ICIA during the first three years of operation and preparation of a provisional budget No budget has been prepared as yet for the first three years of operation of the ICIA. That budget must include the fixed cost of operation as well as the variable cost of running its panels of experts. The total levels of these costs depend either indirectly or directly on the number of advisory reports that the ICIA envisages to issue. It is postulated that the number of advisory reports on scoping and reviewing should gradually increase over the years from 5 in the initial year 2003 to 15 in the second year of operation 2004 to 45 in the third year 2005. This assumption takes into account that the ICIA should start small and would be allowed to build up its reputation and to gather experience over a three year period. The gradual increase guarantees a large enough capacity thereby lending sufficient credibility to the organisation as an international service provider. The secretariat can draw up a provisional budget for the first three years of operation on the basis of the growing number of 5 � 15 � 45 advisory reports. The basic figures on fixed and variable costs can be drawn from the actual experience and real cost figures of the Netherlands Commission in issuing advisory scoping and reviewing reports on development co-operation activities. Action: the secretariat prepares a provisional budget for the first three years of operation of the ICIA for discussion at the next Task Force meeting. That provisional budget will serve as an input for the business plan. 6. Enlarge support base Although there is the feeling that the existing group of stakeholders that met in November 2001 provides already sufficient �critical mass� in order to start the ICIA, it is noted that industry and country governments are not yet sufficiently represented. Consequently, the members of the Task Force will make a special effort to widen the support for the ICIA initiative: * Towards the end May there is a meeting of 27 EC member and candidate member countries. Action: Lieselotte will use this meeting to raise support. * Action: Yaw will approach the African Development Bank and CLEIAA to get more countries interested. * Action: Mauricio will approach Klaus T�pfer to obtain support from UNEP and the UN via Eric Blencowe, his executive assistant. * Action: Jenny will approach UNEP staff in Nairobi. * Action: Jenny will approach the cement industry. * Action: Maarten will approach the IPIECA and the OPG. * Action: Jules and Reinoud will ask the ADB to develop contacts with the Asian countries. They will check whether the ADB covers Oceania. 7. Contracting out work to consultants Preparation of the business plan and the by-laws will have to be contracted out to consultants. Preparation can start after definition of the model and the structure for the ICIA is clear and agreed upon. Business plan Action: Jules and Reinoud will ask Mr. Zuy for examples of a business plan for international organisations. The secretariat will then organise a brainstorm session on the business plan with an expert of a consultant accountant company and some task force members. The business plan can be prepared by the consultant. By-laws Action: Jules will ask prof. Richard Fuggle of the University of Cape Town how to go about drawing up the statutes (by-laws) for the ICIA. Richard Fuggle has prepared the by-laws for the IAIA. The by-laws must be drafted before the launching of the ICIA. 8. Next date of Task Force Meeting and Closure A date for the next meeting is proposed: Wednesday 15 May at the office of the Commission for EIA, Utrecht, The Netherlands. The meeting is closed at 5.00 p.m. precisely. All members express their satisfaction in the number of subjects covered and progress made. Some members indicate that this was also made possible by a thorough preparation of the meeting. |
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