ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to provide practitioners with a clear understanding of what to consider, in particular giving project planners a better idea of which organisations have developed standards and what other useful guidance is available. Most countries have limited laws, with these often only dealing with some of the relevant issues, such as compensation, expropriation and building standards. Nevertheless, requirements in many countries often fall below good practice requirements set out in guidance such as the International Finance Corporations (IFC) Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability. The IFC standards are applicable to private-sector clients of the IFC, but are generally regarded as the guiding standard in the natural resource and infrastructure sectors, with many companies committed to complying with them or having modelled their own corporate standards on them. The IFC has a sustainability framework that consists of its policy and eight performance standards on environmental and social sustainability, and its access to information policy.
