Over four decades, cultural heritage safeguard policies of The World Bank have added value to EIA and to the practice of heritage identification, protection and management.
Two entities of The World Bank Group - The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) - have been instrumental in establishing standards for including cultural heritage in EIA. The challenges of defining 'cultural heritage,' identifying its components, and establishing their place within an environmental and social context were necessary steps in formulating World Bank and IFC policies for safeguarding cultural heritage in projects enabled by development finance institutions. The World Bank began in the mid-1980s with a brief policy note, which was considerably elaborated in 2006 as one of a suite of policies comprising a holistic environmental framework; it was again strengthened and elaborated as a standard in the Bank's revised Environmental and Social Framework issued in 2017. Several regional development banks, including the Asian Development Bank, adapted The World Bank's cultural heritage policy requirements, along with guidance for implementation. A landscape-based investigation, necessitated for considering cultural heritage within a project's impact area, has introduced a novel conceptual approach in numerous countries. This includes identifying and consulting a range of heritage stakeholders at community, national and international levels, and expanding the definition of cultural heritage to embrace natural features and non-material or 'intangible' culture. Initiatives of The World Bank have added value to the practice of EIA as well as to the processes of cultural heritage identification, protection and management.
Arlene K. Fleming, a cultural heritage and development specialist, served for over two decades as a policy advisor at The World Bank, and was co-founder of the IAIA Cultural Heritage Section.