In the News

The IFC’s Chief Executive Officer, Philippe Le Houérou, announced that he will be stepping down from his position, effective 1 October.

Philanthropists and impact investors who “intend to do good” with their money often have “a blind spot” because they fail to consider “the potential negative consequences in a real way,” said Natalie Bridgeman Fields, founder and executive director of Accountability Counsel.

Indigenous people in south-eastern Myanmar want to stop poachers, loggers and agribusinesses from laying waste to the globally significant wilderness of Tanintharyi, home to threatened species like tigers and Asian elephants.

Indigenous and land rights activists in Myanmar say the “Ridge to Reef” conservation project will disrupt largely agrarian and fishing-based livelihoods among residents of about 225 villages in the proposed park area.

As USAID sets its course for the near future, it should respond to a key congressional directive to strengthen accountability for its development activities. Doing so will help the agency be well-positioned to ensure its projects avoid harm and achieve their intended impact.

A conservation project in the Tanintharyi region in southeast Myanmar aimed to protect the area from unsustainable palm oil and rubber plantations and overfishing. Indigenous Karen and other communities, however, objected that the top-down project cut them off from their livelihoods, jeopardized ceasefires that had ended a civil war and prevented the…

Indigenous peoples in Jharkhand, India whose sacred spaces and rights have been trampled on by a World Bank-financed water scheme are calling on the bank to take three steps that would demonstrate a meaningful commitment to accountability — and prevent further undermining of public confidence in the bank.

In the south of Mongolia, a two-day drive from Ulaanbaatar, a giant mining complex has risen from the sand, disrupting the way of life of local herders. The story could have ended there, but the nomadic herders fought. Persistent and well advised, they negotiated with the mine to reach a historic compensation agreement.

The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation has been officially operating for about six months, and while it has met some goals, other early actions have raised questions about how the agency is delivering on its development mandate and living up to its required transparency and accountability standards.

Local residents and activists in southern Myanmar say indigenous experts are more effective at conservation than the UN, saying top-down plans for massive nature reserves will cut off locals’ access to food and land.

Campaigners in the Tanintharyi region of southern Myanmar have urged international donors to support community conservation efforts, rather than what they see as a top-down approach that excludes indigenous groups.

The Conservation Alliance Tanawthari has put out a new report, titled “Tanawthari Landscape of Life: A Grassroots Alternative to Top-Down Conservation in Tanintharyi Region”. Here’s a joint press statement from CAT and Accountability Counsel.

In Tanintharyi, an indigenous alternative to Big Conservation.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) announces a shift in education strategy that acknowledges the voices of the most marginalized.

Addressing the concerns of local communities is key to Nepal’s $500 million question.

Just as the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, or DFC, gets off the ground with the potential to chart a new era of U.S. overseas development, the institution has taken a worrying step backward. This is a negative signal to those who value transparency and stakeholder engagement — and is of particular concern for communities impacted by DFC projects.

Community-led responses to the COVID-19 epidemic are providing a model for treating the vulnerable that should remain when this crisis comes to an end.

Thousands of workers vulnerable to COVID-19 on Indian tea plantations expect urgent investment from a new World Bank funding package.

In the wake of a scandal revealing that the World Bank may have suppressed knowledge of money for the poor being siphoned off by elites, all eyes are on the Bank to see whether its commitments to the poor hold water. Now, the Bank has a chance to demonstrate its commitment to vulnerable communities––and not the wealthy few––by righting its wrongs in a massive water scheme the Bank is financing in rural India.

After more than two years of wrangling, the World Bank’s board of directors this week finally approved a package of reforms aimed at boosting accountability of its public sector lending. Campaigners described the reforms as a “watershed” moment but said they were just the beginning of changes that would need to be made.