Myanmar Oil & Gas Sector Wide Impact Assessment - Part 4. Section 1. Stakeholder Engagement & Grievance Mechanisms

ABSTRACTED FROM THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Part 4: During the transition, businesses, government and development partners need to take steps to fill the existing gaps in Myanmar’s legislative framework on the protection of the environment, society and human rights. The Government has an immediate and important opportunity in the new production sharing contracts to fill these gaps through contractual requirements to meet the International Finance Corporation Performance Standards and World Bank Group Environmental, Health and Safety Guidelines. To ensure a level playing field, the Government should impose the same requirements on all opera tors and not just new entrants. Companies should publicly commit to operating to the se international standards. The Government has made a commitment to high environmental and social standards in its 2012 Framework for Economic and Social Reforms. But if there are neither relevant domestic laws nor contractual requirements to these standards, the environmental and social costs of O&G operations risk being externalised on local populations, with workers and local communities bearing the brunt of any envi ronmental and social harms with little or no accountability for the companies operating in the sector. Development partners have an important role to play in supporting the Myanmar Government’s current regulatory and enforcement capacity, as well as sup porting the emergence of robust national legislation to fill these gaps in the future. They also have a role to play as home governments to companies operating in Myanmar, exercising their leverage over companies from their jurisdiction to meet internatio nal standards of responsible business conduct.

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