The government of Argentina and the World Bank desire to improve the efficiency and results of the environmental and social outcomes of jointly financed development projects. As part of a workshop in November 2010 attended by officials of the Ministry of Economy and Public Finance of Argentina, World Bank staff, and representatives of implementing units of projects being co-financed by the Bank, several issues with regard to the implementation of the World Bank safeguard policies and the existing Argentine environmental and social management regulatory frameworks were identified. The workshop agreed to conduct a technical study of the regulatory consistency between the Bank safeguard policies and Argentina s environmental and social legislation to serve as a vehicle for dialogue between the Bank and the government of Argentina in order to strengthen joint strategies that address environmental and social issues in development projects. The technical study involved the following (and the corresponding report section): comparison between the principles of eight of the World Bank safeguard Operational Policies (OPs) and the national and provincial regulatory frameworks in force, using the framework for equivalence analysis contained in Bank OP 4.02 as a guideline for the assessment (section two)
identification of some representative key issues or lessons learned related to the operational principles of Bank safeguard policies in Argentine projects based on the experience of the Argentine implementing units and the Bank (section three)
development of strategies to move forward more effectively and efficiently in Bank-financed projects in Argentina related to environmental and social management and more broadly to non-Bank-financed projects and also projects in other countries (section four)
synthesis or conclusions on opportunities to promote more effective and efficient environmental and social management in development projects (section five).