Chad-Cameroon Pipeline: Implementation Challenges and Lessons Learned
April 14, 2007 SessionSponsored by the World Bank and Environmental Defense
The discussion was largely based on two evaluation reports produced on the Chad-Cameroon Oil & Pipeline Project, on by the Bank and the other by CSOs. The World Bank produced and released a Project Implementation Completion Report (ICR) in December 2006, thus signaling that its formal role in the project has come to an end. An ICR is meant to assess whether core objectives have been achieved and to generate lessons for future Bank investments. The ICR highlighted that the project had two underlying goals: 1) the use of Chad's oil revenues for poverty reduction programs; and 2) environmentally and socially sound project implementation. Whether and to what degree the Bank had achieved these goals was at the center of the Policy Forum session. The Environmental Defense, the Center for Environment and Development in Cameroon and the Chadian Association for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights had produced a "Project-Non-Completion Report" which highlighted a series of governance, environmental and compensation problems that remain unresolved. This report served as background material for the discussion.  The CSOs highlighted that the project occupies a unique role in World Bank history because of the unprecedented WBG resources devoted to the project, including the detailed design of the revenue management system for Chad. Despite these extra-ordinary efforts, the project had failed to deliver on its promises. Impoverishment and environmental degradation have come to characterize the situation in the oil fields, along the pipeline route, and in the fishing communities on Cameroon's coast. Marie-Françoise Marie Nelly, Bank Country Director for Chad and Cameroon, responded saying it was too early to say if the project had achieved poverty reduction since development is a long-term process. She added that an up-date to Chad's Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRSP) would be prepared. The Memorandum of Understanding between the World Bank and the Government of Chad (July 2006) stipulates that 70% of oil-related income would be used for priority social sectors. She said that spending on priority sectors would be aligned with Chad's PRSP. She added that the capacity of the Collège de Contrôle (which oversees the spending of oil revenues) needs to be strengthened and that a feasibility study would be undertaken to see how the fiber optic cable along the pipeline could be used to improve communication technology in the region. She emphasized that the Bank would stay engaged via a public finance action plan in Chad and the IFC would take the lead in developing small and medium enterprises in Chad. Delphine Djiraibe, a Chadian human rights lawyer, expressed serious concerns about the deteriorating security situation in Chad and emphasized that fighting over the control of oil income had increased violent conflict in the country, especially on Chad's border with Sudan's Darfur region. She added that Chad's people had been impoverished and their lives made more precarious as a result of the oil project. She pleaded for support to help find a political solution for Chad based on a national dialogue. Other CSOs expressed their bafflement about the ICR's conclusions that the project had been executed in a satisfactory manner and expressed concerns that a new remedial action plan for the oil field region was prepared largely without consultation of the affected people. The Center for Environment and Development in Cameroon and Environmental Defense informed that they carried out field research in the Cameroons as well, which showed the dismal situation faced by Cameroon's indigenous peoples. The findings also pointed to the failure of FEDEC, (foundation in charge of implementing the Indigenous Peoples Plan) to protect the Bakola/Bagyeli communities in the southern stretch of the pipeline. The response by World Bank representatives to the question on the indigenous peoples revealed different views by the IFC and IBRD/IDA. The IFC agreed that FEDEC needed to be reformed and said it was studying trust funds to see how additional money could be raised. The IBRD/IDA representative said that FEDEC's management problems had been solved two weeks ago. When asked about the January 2007 oil spill on Cameroon's coast and the continued lack of a national oil spills response plan, the World Bank responded that a workshop would be held in June 2007 to discuss a national oil spills response plan and address coastal zone management in Cameroon. (prepared by Korinna Horta, Enviromental Defense)   |   |
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