ENO, NV (Mineweb.com) --Environmental and human rights NGOs Monday challenged the International Finance Committee to “prove that its mining projects are reducing poverty and improving lives,” and to invest agency funds elsewhere if mines are found not to be actually benefiting the poor.

The NGOs questioned why the IFC continues to invest in gold mining projects, citing “widespread evidence of negative economic, social and environmental impacts.” The IFC makes the case that mining produces government revenues, which in turn lead to economic growth and poverty reduction. The agency also cites employment generation, improvements in private sector practices, and corporate social investments in affected communities, as spillover development benefits from mining.

The NGOs claimed that the agency's $45 million investment in Glamis's Marlin gold and silver mine in Guatemala “has spurred increased conflict in the project area.” They also criticized $125 million in IFC loans to Newmont Mining's Ahafo gold mine in Ghana. “The mine has physically and economically displaced nearly 10,000 people in the first phase alone, and is expected to cause impacts of similar magnitude when its operations expand to the North in the coming years,” the report asserted.

The report asserts that the IFC refuses to publicly report in quantitative and project-specific terms, how well IFC-funded mining projects actually do or do not achieve their development outcomes. “Not only does this lack of reporting deprive the public of accurate information about how well IFC is fulfilling its mission, but it allows IFC to continue to support mining projects on the basis of good intentions and high hopes about their expected impacts, rather than evidence from the performance of past projects,” the NGOs declared.

1. Report on positive and negative impacts of its activities on a project-specific basis. The agency should report on how levels of poverty, education and health change in mining project-impacted communities.

2. Support the creation of a multi-stakeholder commission to evaluate actual poverty reduction and development benefits generated by IFC investment in large mining projects and recommend alternative uses of IFC funds to maximize poverty reduction.

3. Support an independent audit of the agency's technical capacity to adequately assess and manage social and environmental impacts associated with large mining projects.

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