27689 - Uniminuto

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Environmental & Social Review Summary

Project Number

27689

Company Name

CORPORACION UNIVERSITARIA MINUTO DE DIOS

Date ESRS Disclosed

Feb 18, 2009

Country

Colombia

Region

Latin America and the Caribbean

Last Updated Date

Jun 3, 2021

Environmental Category

B - Limited

Status

Completed

Previous Events

Approved : May 29, 2009
Signed : Sep 7, 2009
Invested : Dec 23, 2009

Sector

Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools

Industry

Health, Education and Life Sciences

Department

Regional Industry - MAS LAC

Project Description

The proposed IFC investment is an A loan of up to $8.0 million (to be disbursed as a Peso-linked loan) in favor of Uniminuto, a mid-sized, rapidly growing higher education institution based in Bogotá offering technical, technological and university education in Colombia. Uniminuto currently operates through a wide national network, offering flexible, cost-competitive and quality education to lower and middle income students. In line with a five-year strategic plan (2008-2012) which targets expansion from a current level of 18,000 students to over 30,000 students by 2011, Uniminuto plans to undertake investments over the next 2 years which support the physical, technical, and institutional aspects required for such growth. The total corporate program for this period is estimated at US$18 million, of which US$10 million will be dedicated to expanding student capacity in three key locations (Bogotá, Soacha, Girardot), with an additional US$4 million required for the technology infrastructure which supports the overall educational network. Other important areas of investment relate to reinforcement of quality and efficiency throughout the system.

Overview of IFC's Scope of Review

IFC’s appraisal consisted of a review of social, environmental, health and safety and social/community information submitted by Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios (“Uniminuto” or the “Company”). The appraisal included a three-day site visit of the headquarters in Bogotá and the university campus in Medellín. During the visit to headquarters, IFC interviewed the Rector General of the university and members of his management team, including Company officers responsible for environmental and social matters and the Human Resources manager. The visit to the Medellín campus included an interview with the Academic Vice-Dean.

E & S Project Categorization and Applicable Standard

While all Performance Standards are applicable to this investment, IFC’s environmental and social due diligence indicates that the investment will have impacts which must be managed in a manner consistent with the following Performance Standards:

PS1. Social and Environmental Assessment and Management Systems
PS2. Labor and Working Conditions
PS3. Pollution Prevention and Abatement
PS4. Community Health, Safety and Security issues

Following review it was determined that issues covered by PS5: Land Acquisition and Involuntary Resettlement, PS6: Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Natural Resource Management, PS7: Indigenous Peoples, and PS8: Cultural Heritage are not associated with this project, because the project does not entail land acquisition, and does not involve biodiversity and natural resource management, indigenous population or cultural heritage, respectively.

This is a Category B project according to IFC’s Procedure for Environmental and Social Review of Projects because a limited number of specific environmental and social impacts may result which can be avoided or mitigated by adhering to generally recognized performance standards, guidelines or design criteria.

Key environment, health and safety and social aspect of the project which were analyzed during IFC’s review were:

Life and fire safety
Labor and working conditions
Energy conservation
Solid waste management

Environmental and Social Mitigation Measures

PS1: Social and Environmental Assessment and Management Systems

In order to reach a greater amount of people Uniminuto purchases and leases office or educational buildings located in urban areas. Although potential environmental and social impacts from Uniminuto’s activities are limited, they still require a basic management system to ensure that they are properly managed according to applicable regulatory requirements and other applicable standards. Assessment of environmental and social concerns should be incorporated into the process of acquisition of new facilities and operation and maintenance of existing ones. Examples of applicable aspects that should be reviewed include the state of fire prevention and response systems, energy consumption (from lighting, cooling and other sources), and solid waste management from remodeling, offices, and food service operations. The environmental impacts of existing operations are very low, with no manipulation of dangerous chemicals or hazardous waste generation, no air emissions, no hazardous liquid effluents that require special treatment prior discharge and no significant sources of noise.

A Senior Infrastructure Manager with the corporate infrastructure department in the Company’s headquarters is responsible for coordinating all construction and maintenance activities including the implementation of applicable environmental, health and safety requirements. For every new remodeling or construction project, a construction contractor is hired through a bidding process. The construction contractor is contractually required to comply with applicable labor and occupational health and safety standards and to report to the Company on the implementation of project activities. The Infrastructure Department manages an annual budget for infrastructure investments and maintenance of properties, and conducts periodic site supervision visits when a new project is under development or quarterly routine inspection visits to evaluate physical facilities. A property manager, usually a civil engineer hired by the Company, is responsible for day-to-day property preventive and corrective maintenance, reporting monthly to headquarters on maintenance issues and occasional interventions needed. A Shared Services unit is responsible for providing services to the entire system which include human resources management, technology infrastructure and telecommunications, information systems and development of the physical plant.

Uniminuto offers its employees different types of scholarships in order to promote personal growth and career advancement in the corporation. The Company is now investing on a project of development of labor skills of its employees based on the profile desired per job description. Currently the project is in the stage of designing the profiles per field of competence. In order to do it, Uniminuto hired an External Consultancy in Strategic Management named Human Capital. Every unit counts with a property manager, a civil engineer with experience of handling preventive and corrective maintenance. The property manager is hired locally, and passes through the induction process organized by the human resources department in Bogotá, which presents the Company’s policies and aims together with a full description of the property manager role and obligations.

Uniminuto monitors various social and environmental indicators covering aspects of labor, health, and safety performance and consolidates the results in a publicly available Sustainability Report last published for the period of 2006 -2007 and organized according to the outline of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), a widely used sustainability reporting framework which sets out the principles and indicators that organizations can use to measure and report their economic, environmental, and social performance. The report includes information about the labor force, generation of non-hazardous solid waste, energy consumption, and occupational health and safety.

PS2: Labor and Working Conditions

Currently Uniminuto has 1662 employees, outsourcing cleaning and security services. In the headquarters there are 803 employees (2007) divided into academic staff (519), administrative staff (249) and project dedicated staff (35).
Uniminuto has a clear Human Resource Policy elaborated in 2006, articulated through Internal Employment Rules, which is consistent with Local Colombian Labor Code and IFC’s Performance Standard 2. It defines such aspects as the hiring and induction process (including equal opportunity and non-discrimination); minimum age of employment; probation period; working hours (including overtime and flexible work schedules); employee labor rights and benefits; salary; taxes; social security contribution; occupational safety and health; disciplinary policies; and internal grievance mechanism and conflict resolution.

Uniminuto has an occupational health and safety management program developed in every unit under the coordination of the Human Resources department. There is a Joint Committee on Occupational Health or COPASO (Comité Paritario de Salud Ocupacional), which ensures that all employees are properly informed about applicable occupational hazards and trained to prevent or control them. The OHS program is divided into two different groups representing academic staff and administrative staff. The occupational health program for academic staff covers such aspects as potential loss of voice which can directly impact teaching capacity. Issues covering the administrative staff include ergonomic issues and the potential impact on health due to lack of physical activity. The Company develops an annual program together with the Association of Professional Risks (ARP) to address risks applicable to its employees. Policies are elaborated in a centralized manner for dissemination throughout its operations. For the 2006-2007 periods, the Company reports that health absences average 4 days per employee per year (although not necessarily related to occupational causes) with an accident rate of 0.28%. No occupational fatalities were reported for the period.

Contractors performing construction and maintenance activities are required to maintain health and safety plans, train and provide their employees necessary safety implements, and to maintain up to date risk insurance policies as well as to comply with their labor obligations according to local law.

PS3: Pollution Prevention and Abatement

By their nature, Uniminuto’s operations have very limited pollution related issues consisting mainly of non-hazardous solid waste. Uniminuto is currently developing plans at its headquarters to segregate at source into biodegradable organic waste (e.g. kitchen waste) and inorganic waste (e.g. metal, textile, paper). The recycling program in a joint initiative between the university and its students and will be gradually expanded to other facilities throughout Colombia. The recycling program is being managed by the students and all the collected material stored and exchanged with local recyclers. The non-recyclable waste is disposed via municipal waste collection services. The domestic liquid effluents are discharged into the local sewage network.

The Company reports the use of energy saving light fixtures and motion sensors in common use areas of its headquarters in Bogotá. However, the Company does not currently have a comprehensive energy conservation program applied throughout its operations. The Company will review and benchmark annual consumption and costs of energy and water used by all units.

PS4: Community Health, Safety and Security

The most significant community health and safety issue associated with Uniminuto’s activities in the need to prevent fires or other hazards and allow for the safe evacuation of building occupants in the event of an emergency. Uniminuto will review the status of fire safety systems, including such aspects related to fire prevention, means of egress, detection and alarm systems, and others to ensure compliance with local and internationally recognized standards. Currently the Company is working to implement the fire and emergency brigades in each unit. A fire drill program is scheduled to start in the second quarter of 2009. Fire and Life Safety programs are managed by COE (Emergency Committee).

Uniminuto will provide evidence that new buildings design does or will meet IFC’s requirements defined in the General Environmental Health and Safety Guidelines. A fire safety professional acceptable to IFC has either to provide a formal written opinion that the building design meets IFC’s requirements or provide identified revisions to building design that when implemented will cause the building to meet IFC’s Life and fire Safety requirements. Uniminuto will commission a Fire and Safety professional to audit the Life and Fire Safety provisions of the existing properties where it is in charge of building operations and management. A life & fire safety management procedure checklist will be developed to be applied in all units.

Uniminuto acts also to reduce and control crime in the neighborhoods surrounding their facilities sponsoring the “Acuerdo de Autoregulacion” or Self-regulation Agreement, a collaborative program with neighbors to achieve a safer social environment. The agreement outlines such aspects as limitations in access to liquor for students and children, parking rules, street cleaning, noise level, police role, inspections to the surroundings shops and markets, and community safety awareness campaigns.

Stakeholder Engagement

As an educational service provider to low income persons, the Company’s mission is oriented toward the provision of community benefits. Additionally, Uniminuto has created and implemented community engagement programs such as the Educational Center for Development (CED). CED is a unit of training and social services of the Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios. It aims to form participant and responsible citizens who are committed to social service. CED graduated around 7700 students between 2006 and 2008, with its compulsory social service, which is also part of students’ curriculum. The practice starts with notions of social practice and a global vision for poverty reduction. In the following phase , each student is required to choose one social practice area mainly developing community based organizations such as community restaurants (with Colombian government sponsorship), afterschool programs for children of low-income families, and vocational training for adult women. The program potentially benefits about 31,000 persons.

**Information on IFC's Policy and Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability can be found at www.ifc.org/sustainability

IFC supports its clients in addressing environmental and social issues arising from their business activities by requiring its real sector clients to set up and administer appropriate grievance mechanisms and/or procedures to address complaints from Affected Communities in relation to environmental and social issues arising from IFC's clients' business activities. Since 2012, IFC's Financial Intermediary clients applying the Performance Standards are required to develop External Communications Mechanisms to receive and review inquiries or complaints from any interested party regarding the E&S risks and impacts of their operations.

For IFC projects that are active or under consideration, individual(s), or their authorized representative(s), who allege they have been or will be adversely affected by E&S risks or impacts arising from IFC's clients' business activities, may submit a complaint to IFC directly for consideration. When receiving an E&S complaint, IFC engages with complainants and works with its clients to find solutions to E&S concerns as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Complaints can be submitted to IFC online at www.ifc.org/escomplaints or by email to EScomplaints@ifc.org.

IFC complaint response is separate from and complementary to IFC’s clients’ project level grievance mechanisms and IFC’s Independent Accountability Mechanism (CAO). Lodging a complaint directly with IFC does not, at any time, restrict access to CAO.

Affected communities have unrestricted access to the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), the independent accountability mechanism for IFC and MIGA. CAO facilitates the resolution of complaints related to IFC and MIGA projects and sub-projects, undertakes reviews of IFC’s and MIGA’s environmental and social compliance, fosters public accountability for their commitments, and enhances the environmental and social performance of IFC and MIGA.

Independent of IFC and MIGA management and reporting directly to the IFC and MIGA Boards of Executive Directors, CAO helps resolve issues raised about the environmental and social impacts of projects through a neutral, collaborative, problem-solving approach via its Dispute Resolution function. It also reviews IFC’s and MIGA’s compliance with environmental and social policies, assesses related harm, and recommends remedial actions through its Compliance function. Additionally, CAO provides advice to IFC, MIGA, and their Boards to enhance environmental and social sustainability performance and minimize the risk of harm.

Complaints may relate to environmental and social harm regarding any aspect of the planning, implementation, or impact of a project or sub-project, and can be made by any individual, group, community, entity, or other party affected or likely to be affected by the environmental or social impacts of an IFC- or MIGA-financed business activity.

Complaints can be submitted by any of the following methods:

Online form: available at https://www.cao-ombudsman.org/
Mail/Hand Delivery to: 2121 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA
Voice mail: +1 202 458 1973
Email: cao@worldbankgroup.org
SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal: +1 202 650 2627

CAO receives and addresses complaints in accordance with the CAO Policy, which can be accessed at: https://www.cao-ombudsman.org/policies-guidelines.

This Environmental and Social Review Summary (ESRS) is prepared by IFC to disclose its findings and recommendations related to environmental and social considerations regarding potential investments. Its purpose is to enhance the transparency of IFC's activities. For any project documentation or data included or attached herein, whether prepared by the project sponsor or otherwise, authorization has been given for public release by the project sponsor. IFC considers that this ESRS is of adequate quality for release to the public, but has not necessarily independently verified all of the project information therein.
It is distributed in advance of IFC Board of Directors' consideration and may be periodically updated thereafter. Board dates are estimates only and this document should not be construed as presuming the outcome of the Board Directors’ decision. The following ESRS is disclosed in accordance with IFC's Access to Information Policy (AIP).

The map is for illustrative purposes and does not imply the expression of any opinion on the part of the World Bank, concerning the legal status of any country or territory or concerning the delimitation of frontiers or boundaries. Country borders or names do not necessarily reflect the World Bank Group's official position. In some cases, available project location information is limited to the country of the project's activities. Locations are approximate.

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