Country safeguard systems are composed of the policies, practices, legal frameworks, and institutions that a country puts in place in order to avoid, minimize, or mitigate potentially harmful environmental and social impacts of development activities. All developing member countries have safeguard systems which meet ADB requirements to some degree. The 2009 Safeguard Policy Statement of the Asian Development Bank calls for strengthening country safeguard systems as an objective in itself, to ensure that such systems achieve the benchmarks set by international good practices.