In the News

Civil society groups have urged the World Bank’s board of directors to give its inspection panel tougher powers in order to effectively hold the institution to account, as a long-delayed review looks set to end in “compromise.” After nearly two years of deliberations, insiders told Devex that the bank’s board plans to finalize a package of reforms to the panel ahead of the upcoming annual meetings in October.

The need to put indigenous peoples at the center of conservation efforts could not be clearer. Evidence is mounting that indigenous stewardship of natural resources is key to combating the climate crisis and protecting the biodiversity that sustains the planet. Meanwhile, indigenous peoples the world over are increasingly seeing access to their lands and resources restricted by top-down conservation projects that violate their rights. In southeast Myanmar’s Tanintharyi region, international organizations, financial institutions, and the government have the opportunity to reverse this harmful approach to conservation that ignores indigenous voices and rights.

The European Investment Bank has decided to investigate claims of trampling on the concerns of indigenous communities of Lamjung by the Nepal Electricity Authority while building power lines under the Euro Marsyangdi Corridor Project.

The Nepal Electricity Authority, the implementing agency for the European Investment Bank financed Marshyangdi Corridor 220 kV transmission line project, refused to take part in a resolution process proposed by the Complaints Mechanism of the European donor to resolve the issue of indigenous people’s rights affecting the 95-million euro national priority project.

A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) watchdog unit visited Myanmar in July to investigate the Tanintharyi conservation project, which could threaten the land and forest rights of people in the area. The Social and Environmental Compliance Unit (SECU) met with 150 people from indigenous Karen villages to hear their concerns.

Advocates have welcomed “significant” reforms by the International Finance Corporation to improve its record on environment and social issues as its CEO struggles to deliver on his ambitious promise to put development impact back at the heart of IFC.

All along the belt and road, from Myanmar to Peru, ignoring community feedback is costing Chinese investors dearly. China’s banks and financial institutions need to quickly adopt an accountability framework for Chinese investments abroad.

Stanford professors and representatives from EarthRights International and Accountability Counsel, both human rights-focused legal nonprofits, gave a panel discussion Tuesday on the Feb. 27 Supreme Court decision in Jam v. International Finance Corporation, which could strengthen individuals’ ability to hold international organizations accountable through legal mechanisms in the future.

The Office of the Compliance Review Panel (CRP) of the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Accountability Mechanism is helping to develop an Accountability Mechanism Framework for financial intermediaries to manage environmental and social risks, as well as safeguards compliance and accountability.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is funding the construction of a 220 kV high voltage transmission line called the Marsyangdi Corridor as part of the €95 million Nepal Power System Expansion Project. The Marsyangdi Corridor transmission line is slated to pass over the homes, lands, forests, and community spaces of various indigenous and non-indigenous communities in the Lamjung District of Nepal.

Even with careful planning, impact investments can cause unanticipated harm to people and places and undermine impact goals. Recent examples include large-scale renewables projects and for-profit schools. Even a small number of impact investments that are seen to harm rather than help communities jeopardize the field, Accountability Counsel’s Kindra Mohr writes in a guest post on ImpactAlpha.

Sixty investors, who collectively manage more than $350 billion in assets, signed on to the IFC’s new impact investing principles, which are intended to bring greater transparency, credibility, and discipline to the impact investing market. In a joint submission Accountability Counsel authored, civil society groups that focus on strengthening accountability within international financial institutions said they welcomed the principles, but called for a stronger emphasis on accountability.

CSOs and the CAO respond to IFC CEO Philippe Le Houérou’s statement calling for a stronger approach to accountability. Accountability Counsel’s Policy Director Kindra Mohr is quoted about the need for the IFC to respond to long-standing issues of non-compliance and harm from existing CAO cases to make the IFC’s commitment matter in practice.

Displaced from their land by multinational mining companies, nomadic herders defied the odds to preserve their heritage for future generations. Additional framing can be found on our Communities case page.

In late February, the US Supreme Court ruled against the claim by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private sector arm, to absolute immunity from suit in the US. The case was brought by a community of Indian fisherfolk, represented by EarthRights International and the Stanford Law School Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, which sued the IFC for harm caused by the $450 million IFC-financed Tata Mundra coal-fired power plant in Gujarat, India.

When a group of uprooted Haitian farmers and the human rights workers advising them sought to understand the environmental impact of an industrial park, they turned to the American Association for the Advancement of Science to enlist the expertise of a water specialist through its On-call Scientists program.

In this article, Teresa Welsh discusses four DFI-funded projects that resulted in harm towards local communities and lessons learned for lenders, including two cases – Liberia & Mexico – in which Accountability Counsel supported affected communities to achieve remedy.

In this Nature article, Vijaya Ramachandran discusses last month’s U.S. Supreme Court decision on the case of Jam vs. IFC, noting it as a wake-up call for all international development agencies. Ramachandran also offers four suggestions on how the IFC — and the World Bank Group as a whole — can be held accountable.

In this NPR article, Tim McDonnell reports on the historical U.S. Supreme Court 7-1 ruling on Jam v. International Finance Corporation, and what it means for international financial institutions as well as local communities who have been harmed by bank-funded development projects.

It took nearly eight years to achieve justice. But in December 2018, a complaint filed by more than 420 Haitian farmers and their families culminated in a historic agreement with the bank that once displaced them. Lani Inverarity ’15 L.L.M. explained that what began as a mere dream “now has the potential to change the lives of thousands of people.”