PLANNED ACTIVITIES 10/2004 - 9/2005

The Campaign strives for ecologically and socially accountable public promotion of exports. The credits and guarantees must not contribute to the corruption and further indebtness of the developing countries nor to the direct environmental destruction or cut down future possibilities for sustainable developments.

Overall goal of the campaign is that the Nordic ECAs have binding environmental and social guidelines and standards with full transparency in decision making. Certain industries, such as arms trade, and nuclear and fossil fuel power should be excluded. The Nordic ECAs should be forerunners in the accountability of ECAs. There is need to continue in campaigning to expand the transparency also to B- and C-projects. There should also be human rights criteria and standards, exclusion list and proper accountability mechanism. Also the ECAs should grant part of the funding to special projects, such as renewable energies.

The reform campaign is expanded to include other International Financial Institutes co-financing with ECAs, such as Nordic Investment Bank and European Investment Bank. This is will strengthen the campaign message in the Nordic countries as there are many inter-linkages between the institutions and most of the national, especially governmental, actors are involved in discussions with all these institutions.

Action Plan

In this period the campaign will produce in addition to the case studies an analytical study on impact of the ECAs in the developing countries, and analyse what is the real coherence between development and trade policy in Finland and other Nordic countries. The challenge for the campaign will be to use the achieved transparency in monitoring the performance of the ECAs with the information from the now disclosed projects and campaign for full disclosure.

The dialogue will be continued with Finnvera and other ECAs, such as Finnfund, Fide, Finnish Export Credit, and commercial banks, also ECAs in other Nordic countries such as Swedish EKN, Norwegian GIEK and Danish EKF, as well as the relevant politicians and civil servants. The reform campaign is expanded to include other International Financial Institutes co-financing with ECAs, such as Nordic Investment Bank and European Investment Bank.

Media will be kept informed and fed with news and materials. Seminars will be organized on specific ECA related topics to attract also wider public interest. Other environmental, development and human rights NGOs, trade union, church organisations are engaged into the issue.

The Nordic networking in the NGO Campaign will be deepened and active co-operation, communication and exchange of information will be developed.

International cooperation is continued with call conferences, strategy meetings and the ECA Global –email list. ECA Watch has intensified the operations by having recruited an EU coordinator and an International Coordinator

Nordic and International Campaign

Coordination in the Nordic NGO Campaign include support of the ECA campaign groups and NGOs in other Nordic Countries (they include Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, Friends of the Earth Sweden, FIVAS from Norway) in their efforts to reform their ECAs. Common Nordic approaches will be formulated and joint actions taken in adressing Nordic forums, such as Nordic Council, European Union, Nordic Investment Bank, and when adressing our own politicians or ECAs. The primary task is keep each other informed about the developments in our respective countries in order to be able to influence one’s own ECA for achieving positive harmonisation in the Nordic Countries. Provided this positive harmonisation is achieved, it can portrait as an important example on the European or global level.

In the year 2003 the international ECA refom campaign ECA Watch will be participated mainly through eca-watch email-lists, because the annual meeting of the international campaign will apparently not be organized then. In that case the next AGM of the international campaign will be organized in the year 2004 probably in the Latin America. However, on the OECD and EU level there will be organized some strategy meetings or seminars, which would be useful also to our Nordic campaign. The purpose of the Finnish and Nordic campaign is of course also to contribute to the international campaign in various ways.

Studies, Publications and Seminars

The biggest endeavour during this period is to make a professional analytical study on the impact of Nordic ECAs in the development countries in their overall development and how the OECD Common Approaches 2001 and 2003 and other policies for accountability are applied by Nordic ECAs. This study would be joint Nordic effort funded partly by Finnish ECA Reform Campaign, Swedish Society for Nature Conservation and a Norwegian partner Future in Our Hands (FIVH). The study is published in English, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian and possibly Danish as well.

Case studies form still the basis of the argumentation for accountable ECAs and therefore we seek to commission new case studies, possibly funded together with other NGOs, for example on mining projects in Central Africa. Other possible projects to be studied more in detail include the new pulp and paper mill in Kalimantan, Indonesia (Untied Fiber Systems Pulp mill project).

The campaign will organize a couple of seminar during the period on transparency and debt issue. The debt quetion will be tackled in a debt tribunal organized in connection of the Asia Europe People´s Forum AEPF 6 in Helsinki Septmeber 2006.

Administration and financing

Decisions on the substance of the campaign are taken by the steering committee of the campaign, which presently include respresentatives from NGOs namely Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, Friends of the Earth Finland, and Coalition for Environment and Development. The group has also expoert members such as the coordinator of the FinnWatch, an environmental consultant, social consultant and the nergy campaigner of the Greenpeace Nordic/Finland. The day to day work is carried out by the full-time coordinator, Ms Tove Selin. The technical administration and financial decisions are taken by FANC who controls the funds as the applicant of the grant from C. S. Mott Foundation.
4Additonal financing will be seeked for the years 2003 and 2005 from the project funding sources, such as the Nordic Council, which has funding for joint Nordic projects.

Report of the period 1.12.01 - 30.09.2004

Accomplishments

The Campaign has succeeded in raising the awareness on ECAs in Finland. The Finnish NGOs, government officials, political decision makers, and to some lesser extent the general public, are more aware of the role of ECAs and their impacts on the social and natural environment of the developing countries. Also, the actors involved are more willing to engage in dialogue with civil society on performance of ECAs.

Breakthrough in campaigning for the reform of Finnish ECAs was achieved in May 2004, when Finnish ECA Finnvera accepted new environmental guidelines to implement the OECD Recommendation for Common Approaches On Environment and Officially Supported Export Credits agreed in December 2003. Finnvera committed itself in publishing the Environmental Impact Assessment reports of the A-category projects 30 days prior final commitment. That is a major breakthrough and victory in Finland and in other Nordic countries, where the nearly total lack of transparency has prevailed until this day. Finnvera has also strengthened its practises in environmental analysis and increased environmental expertise in its’ personnel. In these developments pressure developed by the campaign has played a key role.

Report of the Activities

The office of the campaign was run by the full-time campaign coordinator, Ms Tove Selin (tove.selin@sll.fi, tel: +358-9-22808226). The steering committee and participating organisations contributed to the campaigning through out the period.

The campaign has had a constant dialogue with the Finnish ECAs, Finnish and Nordic NGOs, civil servants and other stakeholders. The campaign has followed the current Finnish ECA funded projects in developing countries and reacted to various campaign appeals, the latest being UFS pulp mill in Kalimantan, Indonesia. The campaign has made several press releases and has had quite extensive media coverage. The coordinator has also made articles about ECAs in several books published by Finnish NGOs.

During the period the issues were raised by the campaign in various meetings, public seminars and forums around Finland. The campaign has also attended to the various strategy meetings organised by ECA Watch in Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. The coordinator and other campaign activists have also attended both a strategy meeting on rainforests in Norway in November 2003 and the annual meeting of the Forest Movement Europe in Helsinki in April 2004 to inform about the ECA Watch campaign and to build on network with forest conservationists and IFI-campaigns.

In September 2002 the campaign had a seminar and a publication on Transparency (in English: Transparency or High Risks?), and a seminar on Nordic investment Bank.
In November 2002 the campaign published a study on the Finnish ECAs and the debt of the developing countries (in Finnish) in a workshop dealing with the ECA debt question.
In March 2003 the campaign arranged a seminar on human rights criteria for ECAs tilted Human Rights and the World Trade, where Indonesian Avi Mahaningtyas was the keynote speaker.
The campaign published in May 2003 a new printed and colourful brochure to attract wider audiences.
In September 2003 the campaign published a study made on the social and environmental impacts of the Finnish trade with China titled Great Leap Forward – or Backwards? (in English) in a seminar on Finnish export trade to China.
In September 2003 the ECA Watch published its study Race to the Bottom Take II where the campaign funded partly a briefing on our case study in Brazil (see next paragraph).
In October 2003 the first case study of the campaign made by Brazilian FASE ES was finally published, in four languages (Finnish, Swedish, English and Portuguese) the English title being The Case of Aracruz Celulose in Brazil: Export Credit Agencies exporting unsustainability.
The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation organised a seminar in Stockholm, October 2003, titled Fast Wood – What’s at stake? for which the campaign funded one Laotian and several Finnish activist to participate in. Seminar was followed by an European strategy meeting on tree plantations.
In spring 2004 we were co-financing a study made on the large-scale dam projects designed by the Finnish consulting company Electrowatt-Ekono in Mekong region, published by Information Bureau FinnWatch in April 2004.
The contract to make the case study on the electronic factories in Southern China was signed with the Chinese Institute for Contemporary Observation in April 2004, and the study was completed in September 2004, and it will be published by December 2004. The study is co-financed with FinnWatch.
In autumn 2003 and spring 2004 the campaign organized several action oriented workshops for NGO activists to educate on ECAs and their impacts and to engage more NGOs into the campaign.
In March 2004 the campaign organized a seminar on the Concessional Credit Scheme and the Health projects in China, together with an NGO, the Phycisians for Social Responsability.
In May 2004 the campaign organized a tour in various Nordic countries to discuss the ECA campaigns in those countries, the chairperson of the campaign Ms Hanna Matinpuro visiting Denmark and the coordinator Tove Selin visiting Sweden and Norway.


		ACTION The Action plan 04-05 and the Report of 01-04 of the Finnish ECA Refrom Campaign can be found below. The reports of the Finnish Export Trade to China and the Human Rights and The World Trade are found at the Themes section. CAMPAIGN NEWS PLANNED ACTIVITIES 10/2004 - 9/2005 The Campaign strives for ecologically and socially accountable public promotion of exports. The credits and guarantees must not contribute to the corruption and further indebtness of the developing countries nor to the direct environmental destruction or cut down future possibilities for sustainable developments. Overall goal of the campaign is that the Nordic ECAs have binding environmental and social guidelines and standards with full transparency in decision making. Certain industries, such as arms trade, and nuclear and fossil fuel power should be excluded. The Nordic ECAs should be forerunners in the accountability of ECAs. There is need to continue in campaigning to expand the transparency also to B- and C-projects. There should also be human rights criteria and standards, exclusion list and proper accountability mechanism. Also the ECAs should grant part of the funding to special projects, such as renewable energies. The reform campaign is expanded to include other International Financial Institutes co-financing with ECAs, such as Nordic Investment Bank and European Investment Bank. This is will strengthen the campaign message in the Nordic countries as there are many inter-linkages between the institutions and most of the national, especially governmental, actors are involved in discussions with all these institutions. Action Plan In this period the campaign will produce in addition to the case studies an analytical study on impact of the ECAs in the developing countries, and analyse what is the real coherence between development and trade policy in Finland and other Nordic countries. The challenge for the campaign will be to use the achieved transparency in monitoring the performance of the ECAs with the information from the now disclosed projects and campaign for full disclosure. The dialogue will be continued with Finnvera and other ECAs, such as Finnfund, Fide, Finnish Export Credit, and commercial banks, also ECAs in other Nordic countries such as Swedish EKN, Norwegian GIEK and Danish EKF, as well as the relevant politicians and civil servants. The reform campaign is expanded to include other International Financial Institutes co-financing with ECAs, such as Nordic Investment Bank and European Investment Bank. Media will be kept informed and fed with news and materials. Seminars will be organized on specific ECA related topics to attract also wider public interest. Other environmental, development and human rights NGOs, trade union, church organisations are engaged into the issue. The Nordic networking in the NGO Campaign will be deepened and active co-operation, communication and exchange of information will be developed. International cooperation is continued with call conferences, strategy meetings and the ECA Global –email list. ECA Watch has intensified the operations by having recruited an EU coordinator and an International Coordinator Nordic and International Campaign Coordination in the Nordic NGO Campaign include support of the ECA campaign groups and NGOs in other Nordic Countries (they include Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, Friends of the Earth Sweden, FIVAS from Norway) in their efforts to reform their ECAs. Common Nordic approaches will be formulated and joint actions taken in adressing Nordic forums, such as Nordic Council, European Union, Nordic Investment Bank, and when adressing our own politicians or ECAs. The primary task is keep each other informed about the developments in our respective countries in order to be able to influence one’s own ECA for achieving positive harmonisation in the Nordic Countries. Provided this positive harmonisation is achieved, it can portrait as an important example on the European or global level. In the year 2003 the international ECA refom campaign ECA Watch will be participated mainly through eca-watch email-lists, because the annual meeting of the international campaign will apparently not be organized then. In that case the next AGM of the international campaign will be organized in the year 2004 probably in the Latin America. However, on the OECD and EU level there will be organized some strategy meetings or seminars, which would be useful also to our Nordic campaign. The purpose of the Finnish and Nordic campaign is of course also to contribute to the international campaign in various ways. Studies, Publications and Seminars The biggest endeavour during this period is to make a professional analytical study on the impact of Nordic ECAs in the development countries in their overall development and how the OECD Common Approaches 2001 and 2003 and other policies for accountability are applied by Nordic ECAs. This study would be joint Nordic effort funded partly by Finnish ECA Reform Campaign, Swedish Society for Nature Conservation and a Norwegian partner Future in Our Hands (FIVH). The study is published in English, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian and possibly Danish as well. Case studies form still the basis of the argumentation for accountable ECAs and therefore we seek to commission new case studies, possibly funded together with other NGOs, for example on mining projects in Central Africa. Other possible projects to be studied more in detail include the new pulp and paper mill in Kalimantan, Indonesia (Untied Fiber Systems Pulp mill project). The campaign will organize a couple of seminar during the period on transparency and debt issue. The debt quetion will be tackled in a debt tribunal organized in connection of the Asia Europe People´s Forum AEPF 6 in Helsinki Septmeber 2006. Administration and financing Decisions on the substance of the campaign are taken by the steering committee of the campaign, which presently include respresentatives from NGOs namely Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, Friends of the Earth Finland, and Coalition for Environment and Development. The group has also expoert members such as the coordinator of the FinnWatch, an environmental consultant, social consultant and the nergy campaigner of the Greenpeace Nordic/Finland. The day to day work is carried out by the full-time coordinator, Ms Tove Selin. The technical administration and financial decisions are taken by FANC who controls the funds as the applicant of the grant from C. S. Mott Foundation. 4Additonal financing will be seeked for the years 2003 and 2005 from the project funding sources, such as the Nordic Council, which has funding for joint Nordic projects. top Report of the period 1.12.01 - 30.09.2004 Accomplishments The Campaign has succeeded in raising the awareness on ECAs in Finland. The Finnish NGOs, government officials, political decision makers, and to some lesser extent the general public, are more aware of the role of ECAs and their impacts on the social and natural environment of the developing countries. Also, the actors involved are more willing to engage in dialogue with civil society on performance of ECAs. Breakthrough in campaigning for the reform of Finnish ECAs was achieved in May 2004, when Finnish ECA Finnvera accepted new environmental guidelines to implement the OECD Recommendation for Common Approaches On Environment and Officially Supported Export Credits agreed in December 2003. Finnvera committed itself in publishing the Environmental Impact Assessment reports of the A-category projects 30 days prior final commitment. That is a major breakthrough and victory in Finland and in other Nordic countries, where the nearly total lack of transparency has prevailed until this day. Finnvera has also strengthened its practises in environmental analysis and increased environmental expertise in its’ personnel. In these developments pressure developed by the campaign has played a key role. Report of the Activities The office of the campaign was run by the full-time campaign coordinator, Ms Tove Selin (tove.selin@sll.fi, tel: +358-9-22808226). The steering committee and participating organisations contributed to the campaigning through out the period. The campaign has had a constant dialogue with the Finnish ECAs, Finnish and Nordic NGOs, civil servants and other stakeholders. The campaign has followed the current Finnish ECA funded projects in developing countries and reacted to various campaign appeals, the latest being UFS pulp mill in Kalimantan, Indonesia. The campaign has made several press releases and has had quite extensive media coverage. The coordinator has also made articles about ECAs in several books published by Finnish NGOs. During the period the issues were raised by the campaign in various meetings, public seminars and forums around Finland. The campaign has also attended to the various strategy meetings organised by ECA Watch in Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. The coordinator and other campaign activists have also attended both a strategy meeting on rainforests in Norway in November 2003 and the annual meeting of the Forest Movement Europe in Helsinki in April 2004 to inform about the ECA Watch campaign and to build on network with forest conservationists and IFI-campaigns. In September 2002 the campaign had a seminar and a publication on Transparency (in English: Transparency or High Risks?), and a seminar on Nordic investment Bank. In November 2002 the campaign published a study on the Finnish ECAs and the debt of the developing countries (in Finnish) in a workshop dealing with the ECA debt question. In March 2003 the campaign arranged a seminar on human rights criteria for ECAs tilted Human Rights and the World Trade, where Indonesian Avi Mahaningtyas was the keynote speaker. The campaign published in May 2003 a new printed and colourful brochure to attract wider audiences. In September 2003 the campaign published a study made on the social and environmental impacts of the Finnish trade with China titled Great Leap Forward – or Backwards? (in English) in a seminar on Finnish export trade to China. In September 2003 the ECA Watch published its study Race to the Bottom Take II where the campaign funded partly a briefing on our case study in Brazil (see next paragraph). In October 2003 the first case study of the campaign made by Brazilian FASE ES was finally published, in four languages (Finnish, Swedish, English and Portuguese) the English title being The Case of Aracruz Celulose in Brazil: Export Credit Agencies exporting unsustainability. The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation organised a seminar in Stockholm, October 2003, titled Fast Wood – What’s at stake? for which the campaign funded one Laotian and several Finnish activist to participate in. Seminar was followed by an European strategy meeting on tree plantations. In spring 2004 we were co-financing a study made on the large-scale dam projects designed by the Finnish consulting company Electrowatt-Ekono in Mekong region, published by Information Bureau FinnWatch in April 2004. The contract to make the case study on the electronic factories in Southern China was signed with the Chinese Institute for Contemporary Observation in April 2004, and the study was completed in September 2004, and it will be published by December 2004. The study is co-financed with FinnWatch. In autumn 2003 and spring 2004 the campaign organized several action oriented workshops for NGO activists to educate on ECAs and their impacts and to engage more NGOs into the campaign. In March 2004 the campaign organized a seminar on the Concessional Credit Scheme and the Health projects in China, together with an NGO, the Phycisians for Social Responsability. In May 2004 the campaign organized a tour in various Nordic countries to discuss the ECA campaigns in those countries, the chairperson of the campaign Ms Hanna Matinpuro visiting Denmark and the coordinator Tove Selin visiting Sweden and Norway. top

ACTION