18) How many requests for advice and opinion can each member of the ICIA present? Would this be independent of the membership contribution, or would additional financial contributions be required on a case by case basis?
There will be no relationship between the amount of the membership contribution and the entitlement of the member to call upon the services of the ICIA. The feeling is that no professional fees for advice should be charged directly to the party requesting the advice in order to emphasise and guarantee the independence of the advice. This is why we envisage the establishment of a foundation that looks after the finances of the ICIA and that facilitates the operation of the ICIA. In the starting phase of the ICIA this body must have the time to develop operational practices, gain experience and develop a position of credibility. This can only be achieved if the ICIA starts with a modest number of advisory reviews to prepare. When experience has accumulated, and once its position has achieved credibility, the ICIA can start thinking of increasing its output. Then the question of how many requests can be made by each member, should be addressed and resolved satisfactorily (see also question 17) .
Organisational Structure
19) What would be the composition and powers of the Board of the ICIA?
We would prefer referring decision making on the exact composition of the Board to the coalition of parties that will establish the ICIA. However, we would like to suggest some basic criteria in order to achieve a balanced composition. We suggest that all members be categorised under one of the following parties:
1) Governments of developed countries, developing countries and countries with economies in transition;
2) Enterprises and their Organisations;
3) NGOs / civil society;
4) Multilateral Organisations;
5) Commercial Banks.
Every party would have an equal number of votes on the Board for a fixed term. Each party would elect its own representatives to the Board. The Board is chaired by the Chairman of the ICIA. The Chairman is appointed from the membership of the board. The Board would define the general orientation of the ICIA, approve procedures and criteria, and approve the annual report of the Chairman of the ICIA. The Chairman of the ICIA, together with the secretariat, would be responsible for the day to day management of the ICIA.
20) Who will secure the independence and integrity of the experts?
The ICIA’s continued existence will fully depend on the quality of its advice. The quality of its advice depends on the independence and pertinent expertise of the experts it selects. These experts must be unbiased and fully independent from the proposed activity and the decision that must be made about that activity. Selection of independent and competent experts (including local knowledge) is thus crucial for the ICIA and, as a consequence, can best be attributed to the ICIA itself. For this same reason, certification of experts is not needed. Principal stakeholders should be given the right to only challenge the appointment of experts to working groups of the ICIA on the basis of an alleged bias or dependence. Experts whose independence is challenged with reason, and experts that do not meet quality standards will be replaced immediately and be disqualified for future engagement.
The secretariat of the ICIA must avoid challenges and subsequent replacement of experts in working groups as much as possible as this will affect adversely the credibility of the ICIA.
21) Who will do the evaluation of the ICIA itself?
We are convinced that the ICIA is self-evaluating. As the ICIA is demand-driven, if the demand declines due to poor quality, the ICIA will cease operations. Requests will no longer be received and the ICIA will have forfeited its right to exist. Of course there will be annual audits on financial management. In addition, the Board may decide to request external evaluation with the aim to improve certain aspects of its performance and services.
22) Will poor countries and organisations be able to pay the membership fees and the costs of attending board meetings of the ICIA?
Although we are still in a stage of exploring the possible support for the general concept of the ICIA, questions on details of the proposed organisation come to us frequently. This is one of those questions. We would like the coalition of stakeholders (that we assume will establish the ICIA) to work on these issues. We can imagine or even suggest, however, that this coalition would agree on the principle that the strongest shoulders should carry the heaviest weight and thus that a system of differential fees will be developed. We believe that the level of any fee, though, must prove the commitment of the member seeking the service.
23) Why cannot the ICIA be a United Nations body?
Being a UN body, the ICIA would be subject to the political forces that co-determine the functioning of the UN. To be effective, the ICIA should be kept apart from such forces. However, we think that the UNDP and the UNEP should be members of the ICIA. Other UN specialised agencies and affiliates also would be welcomed, such as FAO, WHO, WB.
24) What is the relation between the ICIA and the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA)?
The IAIA is a professional association that brings together all impact assessment practitioners in the world. The IAIA, as a non governmental organisation, should ideally be one of the first members of the ICIA, making IAIA membership available as potential expertise for ICIA working groups. As a service-providing organisation, the ICIA would in no way compete with IAIA.
25) Could the ICIA be launched at Rio +10?
Rio +10 provides a perfect opportunity to present the ICIA to the world forum. The ICIA is expected to have taken a certain shape already by the September 2002 forum in Johannesburg. Therefore, the launching of the ICIA initiative is expected prior to Rio +10 at the annual conference of IAIA in June 2002 in the Hague, The Netherlands.
26) In order to make use of existing experience in preparing independent advice, the ICIA might want to call upon the experience and expertise of existing institutions. Which are these institutions?
These are institutions that have experience in providing independent advice and second opinion on Impact Assessments on a non-commercial basis such as the Inspection Panel of the World Bank and the Inspection Panel of the Asian Development Bank, the International Advisory Groups (IAGs) of the World Bank, the Southern African Institute on Environmental Assessment (SAIEA), the independent expert panels of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and the Dutch Commission for EIA. |
