World Bank projects and policies affect the lives and livelihoods of billions of people worldwide. If done right, this can be for the better, but decades of experience tell us that this is not always the case. The Bank has set itself two goals to be achieved by 2030 – to end extreme poverty and …
The House Financial Services Committee passed the World Bank Accountability Act of 2017 today, authorizing U.S. participation in IDA, the World Bank’s fund for the poorest countries. The bill funds IDA at the level recently requested by the Trump administration, but conditions that funding on whether the Bank adopts certain reforms, which the bill’s sponsor, …
In April 2017, the AIIB requested public input in the development of a proposed Complaints Handling Mechanism (CHM), which the AIIB aims to put in place by the end of 2017. In response, a coalition of ten civil society organizations and networks, including BIC, submitted recommendations based on the best practice from independent accountability mechanisms …
Submission to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank on Oman’s Duqm Port Commercial Terminal and Operational Zone Development Project In May 2017, the Bank Information Center and Business & Human Rights Resource Centre issued a joint submission to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), sharing concerns over the employment of foreign migrant workers as construction labour …
AIIB must do more to meet its environmental & social commitments (first appeared in Business and Human Rights Resource Centre’s Chinese Responsible Investment Overseas Newsletter Issue 2, June 2017) Shortly after commencing operations in January 2016, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) adopted environmental and social standards that committed to investing in sustainable infrastructure projects, including a …
In response to the harm caused by the World Bank funded Uganda Transport Sector Development Project (UTSDP), including the sexual exploitation of teenage girls, BIC has conducted advocacy to encourage that the Bank takes steps to provide redress to the community and to prevent such harm from occurring in future projects. BIC has worked with …
On March 22, BIC’s Elana Berger testified before the House Financial Services Committee subcommittee on Monetary Policy and Trade. Berger’s testimony at the hearing entitled “Examining Results and Accountability at the World Bank,” focused on the impacts of the Uganda Transport Sector Development Project (TSDP) and the significant internal reforms at the Bank resulting from …
Yesterday, Secretary Mnuchin made his first trip to the Hill to defend the White House budget request for Treasury’s international programs. The World Bank was a key focus of the hearing, in which lawmakers questioned how cuts to IDA—the World Bank’s arm for the poorest countries—could have significant implications for America’s leadership position on the …
The GKEL power plant in Odisha. Photo: Joe Athialy In June 2017, the Board of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank will approve the bank’s new Energy Sector Strategy. In it, the AIIB explicitly commits to the Paris Climate Agreement and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. This is good news for both climate and energy …
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Tarbela 5 project in Pakistan Opening the Global Infrastructure Forum in April, President Jin Liqun thanked other multilateral banks for collaborating with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank – the world’s newest development bank. Jin said in its first year of operations, over 75 per cent of its projects …