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Introduction

This publication was supported by the Regional Networking Project, sponsored by Freedom House, with funding provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Freedom House or USAID.

This guide intends to be a tool for understanding complex procedures, standards, and policies of the International Financial Institutions. The aim of the publication is to inform environmental activists and other citizens about the way in which they can influence development of certain projects that will change their lives. It also intends to be simple and useful as much as possible.

As a result of several NGOs effort, the Citizens Guide covers many different areas; from chronology of the Bank to its environmental standards and processes. It uses Toolkits of the Bank Information Center for various topics since they proved to be an excellent tool for informing the wider public on specific IFIs' features that might be of their interest.

The need for this publication became evident during the training and capacity building exercises that were organized by the CEE Bankwatch Network in various parts of the CEE region and CIS countries. More people became interested in IFIs' activities within the region and its influence on a certain country's economic processes and policies. In addition, it is of crucial importance that interested societies understand a profound link between the economy, policy, and environment. Since publications, which provide that kind of information are rare this guide attempts to help in understanding these complex linkages.

Years of experience and continuous analysis are incorporated in this manual. Still, the content will change and improve over time, and therefore, any comments or suggestions are welcome. The edition intends to release later updates to the manual in electronic format, which can be easily added to the manual. Further updates of the guide will be at the CEE Bankwatch Network web-site: bankwatch.ecn.cz. For any other information, please contact us via e-mail: main@bankwatch.org.

Editors would like to thank all who contributed to this manual and the generous financial support of the Freedom House and the C.S.Mott Foundation, which made this publication possible.