• 7 February 2022

    Shadow Eligibility Barriers

    By Samer Araabi, Accountability Counsel
    One in ten complaints meet all eligibility criteria to advance to a substantive stage, but never do. What happens to them?
  • 1 February 2022

    New UN Report Confirms Remedy Gap in Development Finance

    By Margaux Day, Accountability Counsel
    On February 1, 2022, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published an advance version of Remedy in Development Finance: Guidance and Practice (and launched a final version on February 23*), an expansive and in-depth look at whether development finance institutions (“DFIs”) remedy environmental and…
  • 28 January 2022

    Haitian Farmers Begin Receiving Compensation, Demanding Swift Progress

    By Megumi Tsutsui, Accountability Counsel
    In 2018, we shared groundbreaking news that communities we support in Haiti had reached an historic agreement to remedy harm. After three years of implementation, we are sharing an update tracking both the significant gains and the challenges still to be overcome to ensure that the agreement on paper leads to meaningful changes for the families who were harmed.
  • 13 December 2021

    New Guide For Making Accountability Mechanisms More Effective

    By Accountability Counsel, BIC, CIEL, SOMO, CEMSOJ, Gender Action, Green Advocates International (Liberia), IDI, IAP, Jamaa Resource Initiatives, and Urgewald
    The Good Policy Paper, launched today, assesses current policy provisions at independent accountability mechanisms, identifying best practices and areas for improvement.
  • 6 December 2021

    The State of Complaints

    By Marisa Lenci, Accountability Counsel
    Using the advanced filters, we dig through complaint data to get a sense of what the state of accountability in international finance looks like – from near and far.
  • 30 November 2021

    Addressing COVID-19 and Corporate Accountability in Africa: Readout from the 2021 ACCA General Assembly

    By Robi Chacha Mosenda, Communities Associate, Africa
    On November 24 and 25th, Accountability Counsel joined the African Coalition for Corporate Accountability (ACCA) at their 2021 General Assembly (GA) in Pointe-Noire, Republic of the Congo.
  • 29 November 2021

    AC Comments on Draft Policy of New German Accountability Mechanism for Climate Finance

    By Margaux Day, Accountability Counsel
    The Internationale Klimaschutzinitiative (IKI), a climate finance instrument of the German Ministry of the Environment, is establishing an independent Complaint Mechanism (CM). Accountability Counsel welcomes the new mechanism and has been pleased to participate in a consultation process on its procedures. Our case experience has demonstrated that even with the…
  • 9 November 2021

    EBRD Accountability Mechanism starts a compliance assessment of MHP projects

    By Accountability Counsel
    Two projects of Myrinivskyi Hliboprodukt (MHP), a Ukrainian industrial agribusiness company, financed by the EBRD will be assessed for a compliance review by the bank’s Independent Project Accountability Mechanism (IPAM). Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) of the IFC is expected to begin a similar process in the coming weeks to assess the need for a full investigation into the IFC’s financing to MHP.
  • 3 November 2021

    ANZ launches human rights grievance mechanism in a first for the global banking sector

    By Accountability Counsel, BankTrack, Equitable Cambodia, Inclusive Development International, and SOMO
    Australia’s ANZ Bank today launched a Grievance Mechanism Framework to evaluate and respond to human rights related complaints associated with its corporate lending customers. This precedent-setting move makes ANZ the first large commercial bank in the world to adopt a human rights policy that gives communities harmed by ANZ-financed projects a…
  • 28 October 2021

    Leading with Values on Compensation

    By Lani Inverarity, Director of Programs & Strategy
    Accountability Counsel exists to hold international investors accountable for their impact on people and planet. Every day, we demand from those in power transparency, meaningful consultation, decision-making processes that prioritize the wellbeing of those who are most impacted, equitable compensation and benefit-sharing, and effective channels for feedback. Our legitimacy in…
  • 27 October 2021

    World Bank Board Approves Investigation into Community Concerns of Forced Eviction by the Lubigi Drainage Channel: First case in the newly established Dispute Resolution Service

    By Robi Chacha Mosenda, Communities Associate, Africa, and Caitlin Daniel, Senior Communities Associate
    With the World Bank Board’s approval, the Lubigi drainage channel case will be the first to go to the World Bank’s new Dispute Resolution Service, a recently created arm of the Bank’s accountability office that gives requesters and the borrower the opportunity to resolve concerns through a voluntary dialogue process.
  • 27 October 2021

    Transmission Tragedy in Nepal’s Lamjung District

    By Accountability Counsel
    Tomorrow, Indigenous and local community members from across Lamjung District in Nepal will meet with representatives from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for a dialogue regarding the EIB-funded Marsyangdi Corridor transmission line project, which is harming their land and livelihoods. The EIB must hear community members’ concerns and respect their demand to suspend the project until the communities’ rights are recognized.
  • 25 October 2021

    UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development Calls for Accountability in Climate Action

    By Accountability Counsel
    Ahead of the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26), the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development, Mr. Saad Alfarargi, released Climate Action and the Right to Development: a Participatory Approach, in which Mr. Alfaragi encourages stakeholders to adopt a more community-oriented approach to climate mitigation and…
  • 21 October 2021

    Talking Accountability at the 2021 SOCAP Conference

    By Natalie Bridgeman Fields
    Let’s zoom out a moment. Decisions about the rights and resources of local people continue to be made by officials and executives in world capitals, depriving communities of the agency and dignity they deserve. For farmers we have supported around the world, including the farmer pictured below in Liberia, a…
  • 20 October 2021

    World Bank Accountability Mechanism Publishes Interim Procedures for Dispute Resolution

    By Margaux Day, Accountability Counsel
    On October 13, 2021, the World Bank Accountability Mechanism issued Interim Operating Procedures for its new dispute resolution function, called the Dispute Resolution Service. The publication of procedures provides greater predictability to communities who avail themselves of the Accountability Mechanism to seek redress for environmental and social harm. A dispute…
  • 19 October 2021

    As the Second Annual Finance in Common Convenes to Discuss the Future of Agribusiness, Banks Must Confront a History of Environmental and Social Harm

    By Caitlin Daniel and Gregory Berry, Accountability Counsel
    Building on the commitments of last year’s inaugural Finance in Common (FiC) Summit and a joint statement by several Latin American, African, and Asian banks focused on agriculture, this year’s FiC Summit will focus on the themes of agriculture, food security, and agribusiness.
  • 14 October 2021

    Incorporating Accountability Counsel Feedback, Reporting on Effective Grievance Redress is Now a Feature of the Global Reporting Initiative’s Universal Standards

    By Gregory Berry, Accountability Counsel
    By reflecting principles of responsible business conduct and human rights due diligence as outlined by the OECD and the UN, the GRI Standards now include crucial stakeholder engagement and grievance redress disclosures for institutions that seek to contribute to sustainable development.
  • 13 October 2021

    IAMs and CSOs Address COVID-19’s Impact on Communities’ Access to Justice

    By Megan Pearson, Accountability Counsel
    Last month, representatives from 50 civil society organizations and the independent accountability mechanisms of 19 development finance institutions gathered for a virtual roundtable to discuss how to address the challenges of COVID-19 in the handling of complaints of harm caused by internationally financed projects.
  • 12 October 2021

    The World Bank Funds Gender Discrimination in Tanzania

    By Lani Inverarity and Caitlin Daniel, Accountability Counsel
    Tanzania is violating pregnant girls’ rights to education – to self-determination, to safety, to a future – with support from the World Bank. A recent Human Rights Watch report confirms what we have heard from partners and girls in Tanzania.
  • 4 October 2021

    Understanding Community Harm Part 4: Gender-Based Violence

    By Leila Yow, Accountability Counsel
    In this article, we look closely at complaints that allege gender-based violence (GBV) and GBV-related harms, and theorize about why we don’t see more GBV concerns in the complaints given the pervasiveness of GBV. This article is part 4 of a series exploring the issues raised in community-driven complaints to Independent Accountability Mechanisms (IAMs).