Collective Action for Justice at the International Advocates Working Group Retreat

Nearly 40 advocates from around the world gathered last week to share lessons learned, find ways to contribute to each other’s work, and to support each other in the difficult labor of defending environmental and human rights.

This year’s International Advocates Working Group retreat, hosted by Accountability Counsel in the Bay Area, reflected on collective achievements since the past retreat and set a concrete agenda to move toward a more just and rights-based system of development. This week, our team saw dear friends and close colleagues from Africa, Latin America, East and South Asia, and Europe, and had the privilege of learning — in person — from their recent experiences supporting community-led struggles.

The Working Group now consists of around 140 members from all over the world, and participants range from grassroots organizations like Comunidades Unidas in Colombia and Green Advocates in Liberia, to SOMO in the Netherlands and Oxfam International.

Advances from the group over the past year include collective advocacy that has contributed to a number of new accountability offices at development banks and financial institutions. Some of these offices are following common standards based on a joint report called Glass Half Full, which was co-authored by a number of Working Group members. At the retreat we also noted a major advance with the push for remedy funds at international institutions so that harmed communities can more effectively receive compensation and other types of remedy to achieve justice.  The remedy fund concept is now an explicit proposal being discussed at several international institutions.

Accountability Counsel founded the Working Group in 2013 in recognition of the need to formalize the global network of advocates and organizations already working together on accountability in development finance, and to provide a home to support newer colleagues seeking to use accountability tools in the Global South. The Working Group provides a forum for civil society organizations to share information about the sometimes niche work on accountability offices, lessons learned from cases supporting communities harmed by development finance, and best practices and strategies.

Working Group members meet on a regular basis online and in person throughout the year at gatherings such as annual meetings of institutions like the World Bank. There were more than double the number of participants at this week’s retreat from the first such retreat in 2015 hosted by member Inclusive Development International (IDI) in Asheville, North Carolina, and membership is growing.

In spite of our diverse community, Accountability Counsel shares common challenges at the local level that must be understood in a global perspective and as part of a global strategy. The Working Group enables solidarity for activists dealing with heavy issues on a daily basis and provides an intellectual and action-oriented collective. We now go back out into the world and continue our work together.