Accountability mechanisms gave people and communities the right to contest harmful development projects, but challenges remain

“Today, almost every international development finance institution is required to have environmental and social policies and some mechanism that allows people to raise concerns about the projects they fund,” said David Hunter, president of Peregrine Environmental Consulting, AC board member, and a professor of international environment law at American University’s Washington College of Law.

In Oaxaca, Mexico, members of the Indigenous Chinanteco community used a dispute resolution process to prevent construction of a hydroelectric dam that would have cut off access to a culturally important spring.

“Now, over a decade later, the spring is still a community focal point and critical water resource, and a celebrated source of community pride,” wrote Natalie Bridgeman Fields in one of her essays in The Perspectives Project. Fields is a human rights and environmental lawyer who founded the nonprofit Accountability Counsel, which helped the Chinanteco community save its spring.

Read more about Mott Foundation’s long support of accountability mechanism advocacy here.