The World Bank Should Stop Dodging Accountability

…In 2016, the IFC had more than US$18 billion investment commitments worldwide, making it the largest development bank investing solely in the private sector. The institution has a mandate to end extreme poverty and “promote share prosperity in every country.”

In this case, the petitioners to the Supreme Court tried to resolve their claims through the IFC’s accountability mechanism, the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), but the IFC’s actions have been insufficient to act on the problems identified by that office.

This is not an isolated case. In another case from India, tea workers alleged labor rights abuses, in violation of international law and the IFC’s own rules, on IFC-funded tea plantations. Tea workers also appealed to the CAO, which found numerous shortcomings in IFC’s assessment of risks associated with child labor, fair compensation, and freedom of association. They also found IFC wasn’t providing a way out of poverty for workers, contrary to its goal of alleviating poverty. But local civil society say that little has changed for tea workers in the nine years since IFC invested in the tea plantations…

Read the full blog here.

Read more about Accountability Counsel’s case in Assam, India here.