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MCRB Contributes to USAID Training for Government Lawyers on including Environmental and Social Issues in Contracts
On 7 August, Vicky Bowman, MCRB Director, spoke to a group of around 40 government officials from the Union Attorney General’s Office, as well as officials from other ministries working on contracts including Mining, Energy and Electric Power.
She gave presentations on International standards in the oil and gas and power sectors, including those of the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Responsible Business and International Trends in CSR.
The workshop was jointly held by the Attorney-General’s Office and USAID under its Economic Reform and ASEAN integration programme.
Vicky emphasised the importance of including specific and defined standards in contracts, particularly during Myanmar’s transition where a full set of modern national social and environmental protection laws are not yet in place. She identified the IFC’s Sustainability Framework which includes eight Performance Standards as well as general and sector-specificEnvironment, Health and Safety operational Guidelines.
Craig Reid and Neena Singh, two Partners from ERM, a company who have worked on Environmental and Social Impact Assessments both in Myanmar and globally, gave practitioners’ viewpoints on conducting EIA and SIA in the oil/gas and power sectors. MCRB facilitated breakout group discussions aroundchallenges that can arise relating environmental, social and legal issues in power and extractives projects.
