The African Development Bank (AfDB) created an accountability mechanism, called the Independent Review Mechanism (IRM), to address harm from AfDB operations.  To learn more about the AfDB’s IRM, please see our Accountability Resource Guide, available here.

In October 2009, Accountability Counsel authored a letter to the AfDB regarding the Review of the IRM.  The AfDB IRM consultant prepared a Draft Review Report that provided the basis for Accountability Counsel’s comments.

Other organizations that signed on to the October 2009 Accountability Counsel letter to the AfDB are the Center for International Environmental Law, International Rivers, International Accountability Project, and Prof. David Hunter of American University, Washington College of Law.

1. Read the AfDB Draft Review Report
   

2. Read Accountability Counsel’s Letter to the AfDB
   

3. Read the Revised June 2010 Policy.
   

What was Accountability Counsel’s impact?

Many of Accountability Counsel’s comments were taken on board in the revised version of the AfDB IRM policy.  These include:

1. 1.granting consideration to Requestors in determining which of the mechanism’s function to pursue (Problem-solving or Compliance Review); 
   

2. 2.inclusion of language allowing for more flexibility in how Requests are received (complaints must be in writing, but now they can be by mail, email, fax or hand delivery, not just certified mail as was the case before); 
   

3. 3.addition of an explicit statement about the IRM’s commitment to outreach and accessibility; 
   

4. 4.removal of the Director of the CRMU from the Compliance Review Panel to increase the mechanism’s independence; 
   

5. 5.creation of a deadline for Management’s response to Compliance Review Reports to make the mechanism more timely; 
   

6. 6.granting the Board more say in the appointment of the Director of the CRMU to increase independence from Management; and 
   

7. 7.inclusion of a policy for removal of the Director of the CRMU to increase procedural clarity and to ensure the mechanism’s professionalism.
   

Critiques of the AfDB IRM policy that remain and should be changed in future reviews include:

1. 1.the failure to allow for oral Requests (decreasing accessibility);
   

2. 2.that the Director maintains sole discretion to grant requests for confidentiality “as warranted” (decreasing independence of the mechanism and effectiveness for Requestors);
   

3. 3.that standing for submitting a complaint still requires two or more individuals (decreasing accessibility);
   

4. 4.the failure to grant the CRMU sole authority over which requests should transition from problem solving to compliance review (decreasing independence);
   

5. 5.the decrease in the Director’s post-employment ban (lessening the independence, credibility and professionalism of the mechanism); and
   

6. 6.the failure to adopt a two-year post-employment ban for CRMU staff (lessening the independence, credibility and professionalism of the mechanism).
   

Accountability Counsel’s analysis of our impact was conducted by Catherine Mongeon and Matt Palmer.

African Development Bank (AfDB) Advocacy

Strengthening Existing Accountability Mechanisms

phone:     1.415.412.6704

email:       info@accountabilitycounsel.org

address:    8 California Street, Suite 650, San Francisco, California, 94111, USA