Accountability Counsel amplifies the voices of communities around the world to protect their human rights and environment. As advocates for people harmed by internationally financed projects, we employ community driven and policy level strategies to access justice.
Impact
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Communities Supported50
Our impact includes redesigned projects that now reflect community needs, harm stopped and prevented to defend water resources, and agreements resulting in compensation.
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Policy Influenced66
We advocate for the world's 66 accountability offices to be independent, transparent, fair, and effective. We have improved policy and practice at development institutions, U.N. agencies, and within the OECD.
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Complaints Tracked1,604
We created and run the Accountability Console, a comprehensive database of community complaints filed with independent accountability mechanisms about the impacts of internationally financed projects.
News
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9 May, 2022Clean Energy Mustn’t Scale at the Expense of the World’s Indigenous People
Investors and project planners must take cautionary measures when executing climate mitigation and clean energy projects to prevent adverse effects on Indigenous and other local communities, Accountability Counsel says. Yet during many of these projects’ planning phases, there is frequently a lack of local community engagement, a dearth of educational awareness and a failure to provide sufficient security. -
4 May, 2022World Bank Reviews Alleged Abuses by Cambodian Microlenders
The World Bank is reviewing a complaint by two Cambodian human rights groups alleging that microlenders backed by the development bank’s financing arm have engaged in predatory debt-collection practices, including pressuring borrowers to sell their land. -
27 April, 2022Postgraduate Fellow Spotlight: Megan Pearson ’21
Megan Pearson ’21 reflects on her time so far as a Bernstein International Human Rights Fellow at Accountability Counsel’s Policy Team. -
26 April, 2022Nothing Has Changed About the IFC’s Responsibility to Remedy Harm from Its Projects
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from Indian fishing communities who sued the International Finance Corporation over environmental and livelihood damage caused by an IFC-financed coal power plant. While the Supreme Court’s decision means that the communities’ legal case in the United States may be over, it does not mean that the IFC can walk away from its responsibility to ensure that harms to this community – and other communities impacted by IFC financing – are effectively remediated. -
29 March, 2022Opinion: What development finance institutions don’t want you to know
In spite of clear evidence, DFIs largely refuse to provide remedy for harm caused by their own projects. A recent report from the United Nations confirms that the state of remedy in development finance is lacking and that DFIs are not being held to account. It also sets out a road map for what DFIs need to do.
