In the News

An efficient mechanism for hearing complaints and redressing grievances is a powerful tool for governance and human rights due diligence.

Despite the perception of multilateral development banks as forces of good, the evidence shows that they do actually cause harm.

Civil society group Accountability Counsel, which works with Mongolian herders, told Reuters that some livestock became ill and died after mine operations began, which herders blame on worsening water quality.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is under pressure to improve protections for workers, citizens, and the environment when investing in countries with questionable human rights records.

This settlement comes at a time when IFC is adopting a new approach to remedial action which will govern what happens when something goes wrong with its investments.

A group of farmers has reached a settlement with the World Bank’s private sector arm in a class action lawsuit that alleges that a company it backed for investment tortured, harassed, and killed members of the Bajo Aguán community in Honduras.

We can accept that the Bank must evolve and that “ending poverty on a livable planet” requires bold actions. In return, we ask that the Bank accept and bear the risks of those actions.

The International Finance Corporation’s settlement agreement is the first time any international financial institution has agreed to pay to end a lawsuit brought by an injured community.

Calls grow for independent inquiry after the bank’s internal watchdog found 21 cases of child sexual abuse by teaching staff.

International Finance Corporation, the World Bank’s private sector arm, comes under fire over its handling of allegations that teachers abused children at schools in Kenya.

Asian Development Bank president Masatsugu Asakawa makes the case for the bank to “do more and act faster.” We note that he doesn’t make the case for doing better.

“IFC thinks of the borrowers as its client, and not the communities affected by its investments. They think their job is to protect the client at all costs but they are a development bank, not CitiBank,” says David Hunter, Accountability Counsel board member.

Some progress but a very long way to go — that seemed to be the broad consensus after last week’s World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings held in Africa for the first time in 50 years.

Gregory Berry, Policy Associate at Accountability Counsel, highlights the importance of local community input into climate and biodiversity projects.

Accountability Matters spoke to the AM Secretary and civil society participants about some of the challenges they face and their expectations of the Annual Meetings.

A report released by civil society groups on Tuesday said that in seven years the AIIB was yet to accept a single complaint from people adversely affected by its investments.

In the midst of a complex web of crises, spanning climate change, biodiversity depletion, constraints on civic space and mounting debt burdens, civil society organizations and human rights defenders from over 50 countries have united their voices to call for immediate and impactful action from public development banks.

Accountability Counsel’s Gregory Berry outlines the responses, concerns, and flaws of the newly announced European Sustainability Reporting Standards.

Yes, the World Bank should lead a transformation in development finance, but only if that transformation includes increased accountability to the communities it impacts.

An investigation into the IFC’s funding of Cambodia’s troubled microfinance sector has implications far beyond the country’s borders.