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 Supported50
Our impact includes redesigned projects that now reflect community needs, harm stopped and prevented to defend water resources, and agreements resulting in compensation.
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Policy Influenced66
We advocate for the world's 66 accountability offices to be independent, transparent, fair, and effective. We have improved policy and practice at development institutions, U.N. agencies, and within the OECD.
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Complaints Tracked1,604
We created and run the Accountability Console, a comprehensive database of community complaints filed with independent accountability mechanisms about the impacts of internationally financed projects.
News
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14 March, 2022Listening to community voices to combat ‘impact washing’ and promote good governance
IMM standards are numerous and range from specific disclosures to high-level principles, but they largely attempt to achieve the same thing – accurate assessment of and reporting on an investment’s net impact on people and the planet. Community-informed IMM requires investors to put into place mechanisms to hear from communities and redress harm. -
25 February, 2022EU Due Diligence Proposal Requires Companies to Create Complaints Procedures: What It Means and Why It Matters
On February 23, in response to a set of recommendations on “Corporate Due Diligence and Corporate Accountability” adopted by the European Union Parliament a year prior, the European Commission released a proposal for an EU-wide directive on “Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence.” The primary objective of the proposal is to impose due diligence requirements on EU companies to prevent and respond to environmental and social harm. One of the due diligence requirements in the European Commission’s proposal is for companies that meet size and financial turnover prerequisites to establish complaints procedures; investors and accountability advocates alike should embrace this directive. -
25 February, 2022Haitian farmers displaced by Caracol project still await compensation
Three years ago, hundreds of farmers displaced by the Caracol Industrial Park forged an agreement with the Haitian government and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) after years of demanding compensation. In exchange for relocating, the farmers affected were supposed to receive direct compensation in the form of jobs, and in some cases, new plots of land. -
24 February, 2022
As Haiti’s Caracol park grows, residents demand housing, roads, health care
Local residents and their advocates say infrastructure improvements in the surrounding region should also take place along with growth inside the industrial park, which largely contains textile factory jobs. -
23 February, 2022How an IDB land deal for Haiti’s farmers went wrong
Three years ago, a community in northeast Haiti was jubilant: They had reached a deal with the Haitian government and the Inter-American Development Bank to compensate for harms they suffered as a result of an IDB-financed industrial park that had seized their land for construction. But more than three years later, many families who were supposed to be compensated are still waiting.
