Board decision could signal “vote of no confidence” in Inspection Panel

The World Bank’s executive board is expected to make a decision on proposed reforms to the Inspection Panel (IPN), the Bank’s independent accountability mechanism (IAM), ahead of the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings in Washington DC in October. In 2017, a working group of the World Bank board’s Committee on Development Effectiveness (CODE) was tasked with updating and modernising the IPN in light of the Bank’s new Environmental and Social Framework (see Observer Winter 2018).

However, the review, due to be completed in October 2018, has been long-delayed. In an article on development news site Devex, German executive director to the Bank, Jürgen Zattler, hinted that disagreement between board members is behind the slow progress, commenting that, “Finding a solution is very difficult… There is some willingness to move forward but it needs…compromise from all sides.”

Stephanie Amoako, of US-based civil society organisation (CSO) Accountability Counsel commented, “It’s not enough for the board to make a decision about these questions – it must do so in a way that results in an improved process that delivers accountability and meaningful remedy to affected communities. We are concerned that some of the options being considered by the board right now do not meet this threshold.”

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