The EBRD in Sub-Saharan Africa: Expanding Horizons, Expanding Harm?

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is expanding into Sub-Saharan Africa and Iraq. Unless it ramps up its policies to prevent and remedy negative environmental and social impacts, the EBRD risks replicating harm from international development finance that communities in the region are already experiencing.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is expanding its operations to 6 Sub-Sarahan African countries and Iraq. This expansion is the focus of the Bank’s upcoming Annual Meeting, branded “Expanding Horizons, Enduring Strengths.” The EBRD is hailing this expansion as an opportunity to drive private sector development in a new region. But what’s missing is any acknowledgement that an expansion in operations requires increased attention to preventing and addressing project-related harm.

Setting aside the question of why the EBRD is expanding into Africa when so many Western institutions are already present (not to mention the African Development Bank), there is the question of what might be the potential harm to communities if the EBRD rolls out this expansion without ramping up efforts to prevent and remedy negative environmental and social impacts. Using data from the Accountability Console, we can examine the types of harm that have been associated with development projects in Sub-Saharan Africa to see whether, and how, they differ from the types of issues that have been raised about EBRD-financed projects to date.

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