A/HRC/36/40 I. Ongoing research 59. Without a doubt, the World Bank has enormous potential for good and its staff of brilliant lawyers and economists is capable of devising policies and mechanisms to advance an agenda of economic growth cum human rights. Many of their studies recognize the key importance of human rights for development and formulate pertinent recommendations. However, those recommendations are not always put into effect. 60. Yet some products of World Bank researchers are not above criticism. The environmental and social justice organization Action for Solidarity Environment Equality and Diversity Europe83 notes: The World Bank is the institution with one of the largest research budgets globally and has no rival in the field of development economics … A number of researchers and scholars have questioned the reliability of the World Bank-commissioned research … Regarding the World Development Report (WDR) series, for example, Nicholas Stern, an Oxford professor in economics and former World Bank chief economist says that many of the numbers used by the Bank come from highly dubious sources, or have been constructed in ways which leaves one sceptical as to whether they can be helpfully applied.84 61. Since the Bank is aware of that criticism, there is hope that sooner rather than later the paradigm will change. IV. Good practices 62. For several decades now, human rights have emerged as global priorities that the World Bank no longer ignores. In 2000, universal primary education became a Millennium Development Goal. In 2011, the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights were adopted. 85 In 2013, the Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO) committed to universal health coverage. In 2015, the Bank and ILO agreed on an integrated set of policies designed to ensure income security and support to all people across the life cycle, known as the Universal Social Protection Initiative. 86 At the same time, there is keen awareness about environmental issues at the Bank, and efforts are under way to address them, such as the adoption of the Climate Change Action Plan, aimed at helping States implement their obligations under the Paris Agreement reached at the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.87 A. Environmental and Social Framework 63. In April 2016, after a four-year process, the World Bank Board approved a new Environmental and Social Framework to replace the existing safeguards.88 The Independent Expert welcomes it as a basis upon which further developments can be advanced. For instance, the new policy on free, prior and informed consent sets a standard for companies and financial institutions, including the 72 export credit agencies and private banks that commit to the Equator Principles — a voluntary set of standards for identifying and managing social and environmental risk in project financing. 89 However, while the free, prior and informed consent policy in the new Environmental and Social Framework 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 See www.aseed.net/pdfs/ASEED_Report_on_Worldbank_Conditionalities.pdf. See www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/24/world-bank-declares-itself-above-the-law/. See www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/GuidingPrinciplesBusinessHR_EN.pdf See www.ilo.org/global/topics/social-security/WCMS_378991/lang--en/index.htm and http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0020872815604814. See www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2016/04/07/world-bank-group-sets-new-course-to-helpcountries-meet-urgent-climate-challenges. See www.brettonwoodsproject.org/2016/09/world-bank-approves-new-diluted-safeguards/. See www.equator-principles.com/index.php/about-ep. 15