Accountability Counsel amplifies the voices of communities around the world to protect their human rights and environment. As advocates for people harmed by internationally financed projects, we employ community driven and policy level strategies to access justice.
Impact
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Communities Supported40
Our impact in 40 communities includes redesigned projects that now reflect community needs, harm stopped and prevented to defend water resources, and agreements resulting in compensation and other remedies.
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Policy Influenced66
We advocate for the world's 66 accountability offices to be independent, transparent, fair, and effective. Our impact is improved global policy and practice at multilateral and bilateral development institutions, U.N. agencies, and within the OECD.
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Exposing Accountability Data24k
We expose patterns in the accountability office system related to 24,450 data points that we track and evaluate. Our analysis has influenced global policy and is a tool for advocates. This database goes live later in 2018.
News
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13 April, 2018Impact investors must set up ‘accountability tools,’ experts say
The impact investing community needs to create innovative accountability tools to deal with high-risk environments and ensure their investments are delivering positive social and environmental impacts. This was the message delivered by Natalie Bridgeman Fields, founder and executive director of Accountability Counsel, and Gayle Peterson, director of social finance and impact investing programs at Saïd Business School, during a side event held as part of the Skoll World Forum in Oxford on Thursday. -
11 April, 2018Spring Meetings 2018 Preamble: Despite favourable growth trends, World Bank and IMF’s attempts to tackle debt and inequality remain elusive
The potential perils of privileging the private sector were highlighted by a recent UK National Audit Office report on public-private partnerships (PPPs), which probed the fiscal cost of PPPs, and a December report by Belgium-based CSO Counter Balance, which stressed the social and environmental risks of the Bank’s push for mega-infrastructure projects. Indeed, Natalie Bridgeman Fields of US-based CSO Accountability Counsel argued in a February Devex op-ed that the Bank’s private-sector promotion, “will be a setup that harms the poor and vulnerable and widens the wealth and equity gap.” -
9 April, 2018Community watches over creek’s turtles
In 2010, Grupo Comexhidro wanted to build a small hydroelectric power plant on Sal creek, and cleared a one-kilometer stretch of shoreline to do so. But according to residents of Santa Úrsula the company did not consult with them and little information regarding the project was made public. With the support of several non-governmental organizations, including the international Accountability Counsel, residents halted the project. -
9 March, 2018
Opinion: What a new U.S. development finance institution needs to succeed
Last week, a bipartisan group of senators and representatives introduced the Better Utilization of Investment Leading to Development (BUILD) Act, which, if enacted, would create a new agency called the United States International Development Finance Corporation. The IDFC would absorb the Overseas Private Investment Corporation — the U.S. development finance institution that encourages American businesses to invest in developing countries by providing businesses with loans or insurance — as well as several functions currently performed by the U.S. Agency for International Development. The bill could likely receive White House support as the administration similarly called for a new DFI in its 2019 budget proposal. -
1 March, 2018Social Start-Up Success Stories
When it comes to social entrepreneurship, there is no shortage of ideas from people who want to make a great impact on the world. However, leaders in the nonprofit sector face many challenges on their path to implementing their ideas in order to affect change locally and globally. In this video, Accountability Counsel Board Chair, Kathleen Kelly Janus, speaks with the Founder and Executive Director of Accountability Counsel, Natalie Bridgeman Fields, and Director of Social Innovation and Impact at Claremont McKenna College, Gemma Bulos.
