To facilitate the financing, the lending banks needed a due diligence review against International ESG Standards; including a compliance review against performance standards and applicable laws, at the same time identifying potential environmental social and gender opportunities. This was needed to avoid any commercial and reputational risks for the participants, including recommendations that would improve the environmental and social sustainability of the project, with particular emphasis on safety for women workers, and the local community.

Partnering with local E&S experts, we combined our extensive experience of international standards and local context, to produce a bespoke, robust assessment and environmental and social action plan, which allowed the project to be successfully financed within an extremely tight financing timeline. The assessment included a gender impact assessment and a set of specialised mitigation measures; anti-harassment campaign and female security officers to make the rail project a safe environment for women. A livelihood restoration framework was required particularly because a number of street vendors were due to be impacted by the railway alignment.

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