Comparative analysis about the legal frameworks on environmental, social and of access to information norms by traditional, emergent and Chinese financial institutions with presence in Latin America.

As a result of investigations undertaken by the Regional Group on Financing and Infrastructure (GREFI, for its Spanish acronym), there is the need to better understand the legal frameworks existing in the principal International Financing Institutions (IFIs) present in Latin America, from a Human Rights based approach…To do so, it is key to pay special attention to the Chinese institutions involved in the region and, in particular, to those issues of impact assessment and environmental, social risks, access to information, participation and indigenous peoples.  With this purpose, the normative frameworks of eight IFIS were analysed; they were categorised in: -traditional (4), with more than five decades operating in the region; emergent (2), with a significant increase of their operations in the past decade; and, Chinese (2) that are having an important financial role in the region.  These were:  Inter-American Bank for Reconstruction and Development-World Bank; IFC, International Financing Corporation; IDB, Inter-American Development Bank; IIC, Inter-American Investments Corporation (now IDB-Invest); CAF, the Latin American Development Bank, formerly Andean Development Corporation; BNDES, the National Economic & Social Development Bank of Brazil; CDB, Chinese Development Bank, and CIEB, Chinese Import & Export Bank.