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Brent comes to us with deep experience in strategy and expertise in growing organizations to scale. Currently a senior member of the Global Partnerships team at Yahoo, Brent is a recognized thought leader in the field of digital media.

A new report released today by a group of international NGOs including Accountability Counsel finds that Rio Tinto’s new planned mine, situated on the world’s largest undeveloped copper deposit in the Gobi desert of Mongolia, will have big impacts on the land and water resources of some of the last remaining nomadic herder groups.

This week, the Inter-American Development Bank’s independent accountability office, called MICI, announced that an investigation will move forward of the Bank’s role in severe harm to human health caused by expansion of the El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá, Colombia.

We are pleased to share our three-year report with you: Amplifying Voices, Defending Rights.  Covering September 2012 to August 2015, we bring your our work in three programs, Communities, Policy, and Resources.  We share our vision, and invite you to meet the people who serve our clients and make Accountability Counsel thrive: our staff, student fellows, pro bono teams, and donors.  We welcome your feedback!

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a U.S. federal agency, announced a December 9th consultation for civil society on its Environmental and Social Policy Statement.  This consultation comes just as Accountability Counsel has asked OPIC to comment on their implementation of recommendations from the OPIC Office of Accountability following our Liberia case investigation report.  The consultation is the first step in a full revision of the policy, due in large part to the findings from the Liberia case.

Accountability Counsel supports Bankwatch and local communities on a case involving the highly controversial Kolubara lignite mine.  Last week, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s own independent Project Complaint Mechanism released a report finding violations of the bank’s environmental and social policies when approving a loan related to the Serbian mine.  You can read Bankwatch’s article on the case here.

Save Lamu, a community-based organization representing over 35 organizations, wrote to the African Development Bank (“AfDB”) demanding that it halt its preparation of a risk guarantee proposal associated with a planned coal power plant in Lamu County, Kenya.

The World Bank’s own Inspection Panel released a statement yesterday questioning the role for accountability in light of the proposed changes to the World Bank’s safeguard policies.  As an example of a loophole the draft policy fails to close, the Panel offers Accountability Counsel’s case related to mining in Haiti, where because of the Bank’s use of a Bank Executed Trust Fund (BETF), the Bank claimed social and environmental rules did not apply.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) released an article today highlighting the World Bank Inspection Panel’s findings of non-compliance in a high-powered transmission line project in Nepal. The findings were a vindication of the complaint filed by local communities living in the transmission line’s path, with support from Accountability Counsel and Nepalese organization LAHURNIP.

A new report analyzing the performance of the OECD’s system of state-based complaint offices found that the system is failing to bring accountability for corporate wrongdoing.

Last week an independent investigation revealed serious abuses in a World Bank-funded transmission line project in central Nepal. The Khimti-Dhalkebar transmission line runs through indigenous and rural communities, who have been raising concerns about the project for over five years. Though the findings validate community concerns, the World Bank has not committed to correcting the damage caused by its failures in this project.

Accountability Counsel, along with 106 other civil society organizations, sent President Kim a letter “to urge the World Bank to increase the transparency and accountability of World Bank-funded procurements.” AC and partners hope this letter is the first step towards the World Bank implementing reform and embracing transparency with regard to their procurement activities.

Accountability Counsel has received a three-year grant from the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation to support the organization’s pioneering work defending environmental and human rights of communities around the world.

Accountability Counsel, the Center for International Environmental Law, and Friends of the Earth (US) sent a letter today to Secretary of State John Kerry as part of the development of the U.S. National Action Plan (NAP) on Responsible Business Conduct.

Today, Indian fishing communities and farmers represented by EarthRights International filed a lawsuit alleging that the International Finance Corporation (IFC) – the private lending arm of the World Bank Group – harmed their health, property and livelihoods by investing in an ultra mega coal-fired power plant.

Today we received the World Bank’s response to a letter we submitted from over 90 civil society organizations demanding that the Bank take responsibility for its actions in Haiti.

Accountability Counsel is pleased to announce that Anirudha Nagar will be joining our team as a consultant, collaborating with us on our work in South Asia.

Last week, the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) published a plan to address widespread failures at the agency that contributed to a botched energy project in Liberia, which resulted in serious human rights, labor, and environmental abuses that our case identified.

Policy Director Kindra Mohr is attending the Urgewald 2015 conference this week on Human Rights and Accountability at Multilateral Financial Institutions in Berlin, Germany.

We are pleased to share our Winter Newsletter with updates on our policy advocacy and from our work in communities around the world.