24 May 2012: The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has launched a consultation as part of establishing new compliance review and grievance processes. The processes would aim to: enhance development effectiveness through ensuring compliance with the environmental and social elements of UNDP’s policies and procedures; and provide access to processes to empower and protect the rights and interests of local communities and vulnerable groups, and afford them greater voice in the development process.

A discussion paper, titled “Proposal for Environmental and Social Compliance Review and Grievance Processes,” calls for the establishment of: a compliance review process to respond to claims that UNDP is not in compliance with applicable environmental and social policies, including its environmental and social screening procedure; and a grievance process that ensures individuals and communities affected by UNDP projects have access to appropriate dispute resolution procedures for hearing and addressing project-related disputes.

The paper proposes the creation of a self-contained compliance function within UNDP‘s Office of Audit and Investigation that reports to the UNDP Administrator, and the development of a grievance process through, inter alia, adoption of corporate policy and guidelines.

In order to meet the requirements of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), hosted by the World Bank, and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and to help develop the permanent compliance review function, UNDP will create an interim compliance review and grievance process in 2012. Comments and questions on the discussion paper can be sent to jennifer.laughlin@undp.org by 18 June 2012. [Publication: Proposal for Environmental and Social Compliance Review and Grievance Processes: Discussion Paper]