In the News

Beijing’s pledge a year ago has put a ‘significant dent’ in planned coal-fired projects overseas, says a climate report – but greater support is needed to get low-emission projects up and running to replace the cancelled coal projects, analysts say.

Stephanie Amoako, Senior Policy Associate at Accountability Counsel, said: “PDBs must be accountable to the communities impacted by their projects. All PDBs need to have an effective accountability mechanism to address concerns with projects and should commit to preventing and fully remediating any harm to communities.”

Either they get solved at the annual meeting of signatories starting today in Seoul, or the principles risk fading into irrelevance.

We’re reflecting on our project with Accountability Counsel as they look to the future, seeing where there are opportunities and challenges with data science in supporting their mission.

57 CSOs submit comments on the Draft operating procedures for the Accountability Mechanism and Inspection Panel. CSOs highlight concerns about the proposed mechanisms, including lack of clarity on the structure.

BIC junto a las organizaciones que endosan celebran la decisión de la Junta de Gobernadores de seguir la recomendación unánime del Directorio del BID y destituir rápidamente al Sr. Claver-Carone.

BIC and the endorsing organizations commend the decision of the Board of Governors to follow the unanimous recommendation of the Board of Directors and swiftly remove Mr. Claver-Carone.

In times of extreme political polarization and governmental dysfunction, “leverage-first” organizations create impact by working within existing systems, however imperfect they may be.

As Europe’s economy continues to buckle under a worsening energy crisis, proposals to expand investment in green energy projects should be welcome news. However, local communities that stand to be impacted by these projects have ample cause for alarm, given these institutions’ worrying track records of causing direct harm through their investments.

In 2020, USAID was directed to create an accountability structure, in order to address this, via an explanatory statement accompanying appropriations legislation. Almost two years later, USAID is still working on this mechanism and is yet to reveal what it might look like.

One activist group, the non-profit Accountability Counsel, points to a 231% rise in complaints between 2009 and 2019 as evidence development banks are backing projects without regard for communities.

At present, companies complicit in abuse of local populations can not only keep high ESG ratings, but sometimes see them increase. This is the message to the SEC from three non-profit organisations concerned with human rights and the environment: Inclusive Development International (IDI), Accountability Counsel (AC) and Friends of the Earth US (FoE US).

Inclusive Development International joined Accountability Counsel and Friends of the Earth-US this week to submit comments responding to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) proposed rules for “ESG” oriented investment funds, or funds that consider environmental, social and governance factors in their investment decisions. They urged the SEC to go beyond disclosure requirements and actually define ESG in order to crack down on the false and misleading marketing of many ESG funds more directly and to regulate the flawed data collection and ESG ratings systems that inform their portfolios.

A new Chinese translation of our recent article in the South China Morning Post.

We refer to this joint effort – through a relationship that extends beyond our substantive work together – as “solidarity fundraising.” Solidarity fundraising is the act of leveraging funding relationships for the benefit of peer and partner organizations. By making high-value introductions to aligned funders, we can apply an equity-driven framework to philanthropy–starting at the grassroots level.

The International Finance Corporation has a critical opportunity to create a framework for remediating harm to communities, including those currently suffering as a result of IFC’s financing.

Guidelines now require Chinese banks and insurers to set up grievance mechanisms, which will allow affected communities to speak up – and investors to better address their risks.

The industrial park opened with big promises and big-name backers like Hillary Clinton and Sean Penn. But for the families evicted from their farmland, the development brought financial ruin.

Margaux Day, policy director at Accountability Counsel, says there has been a “culture of impunity” when it comes to mislabeling ESG investments. “Investors who are claiming to do ESG investments need to have accountability frameworks in place,” she says.

A coalition of African civil society organisations have bemoaned the lack of engagement between the African Development Bank and Civil Society. According to them, even though the bank had many policies tailored to assisting CSO’s, their implementation has been poor over the years.