View previous stories
	NGOs launch collective call for revamp of World Bank’s private sector arm by Consortium of Investigative Journalists, agencies   16 Apr 2015   Millions of poor uprooted by World Bank-funded projects new report reveals. (Thomson Reuters Foundation)   More than three million of the world''s poorest people have been forced from their homes, land and jobs over the past decade by World Bank-funded projects, an investigation showed on Thursday as the global lender vowed to review its policies.   The World Bank, which aims to end extreme poverty, has repeatedly violated its own policies on protecting indigenous people, with devastating consequences for some of the world''s "most vulnerable people", the investigation found.   The investigation was led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which analysed thousands of World Bank records and conducted interviews in 14 countries, including Albania, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, and South Sudan.   The Bank admitted last month that it had no idea how many people may have been forced off their land and lost their jobs due to its projects in developing countries, and whether these people were compensated fairly and on time.   World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said at the time there were major problems with the bank''s resettlement policies, and launched an action plan to address shortcomings, including improved risk assessment, staff training and accountability.   "We are now reviewing our safeguards policies and I am determined that we will learn from the past and that we will do all in our own power to protect people and the environment," Kim told a news conference on Thursday.   The ICIJ has published its report at a time when the Washington-based bank is trying to ramp up investments in infrastructure projects that often lead to forced resettlement, including dams and highways.   The World Bank and its private-sector lending arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), committed themselves to lending $455 billion for nearly 7,200 projects in developing countries between 2004 and 2013, the investigation found.   More than 400 of these projects were confirmed to have uprooted local people and a further 550 may have caused displacement, ICIJ figures show.   The World Bank and the IFC have also financed governments and companies accused of human rights violations including rape, murder and torture, according to the ICIJ investigation.   In some cases, the lenders have continued to bankroll these borrowers after evidence of abuses emerged, the ICIJ said.   In Ethiopia, the government diverted millions of dollars from a World Bank-supported health and education project to fund a violent campaign of mass evictions, former officials who carried out the forced resettlement programme told the ICIJ.   The World Bank strongly disputes that its money supported the evictions and has continued to pump hundreds of millions of dollars into the programme, despite protests from indigenous Anuak refugees and human rights groups, the investigation found.   Along with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank will hold its annual spring meeting on Friday, at which new resettlement policies and safeguards will be debated.   Yet some current and former World Bank officials warn that proposed revisions will further undermine the bank''s commitment to protecting indigenous people, according to the ICIJ.   The latest draft of the bank''s policy, released in July last year, would give governments more room to sidestep the bank''s standards and make decisions about whether local populations need protecting, they say.   "I am saddened to see now that pioneering policy achievements of the bank are being dismantled and downgraded," the ICIJ quoted former World Bank official Michael Cernea as saying. "The poorest and most powerless will pay the price." (Reporting By Kieran Guilbert)   http://www.icij.org/blog/2015/04/new-investigation-reveals-34m-displaced-world-bank http://projects.huffingtonpost.com/worldbank-evicted-abandoned http://www.trust.org/item/20150416153959-w883u/?source=fiOtherNews3   2 April 2015   The World Bank must “completely overhaul” a funding model built on heavy investment in financial companies that leaves the organisation with little control over where its money ends up, a group of NGOs has warned.   The bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), invested $36bn (£24.5bn) in financial companies including hedge funds, private equity firms and commercial banks between 2009 and 2013, according to a report released on Thursday. The study, prepared by NGOs including Oxfam, Global Witness and the Bretton Woods Project, said these funds would be better used to pursue development targets in areas such as education and public health.   The report noted that, between 2009 and 2013, the IFC lent three times more to financial intermediaries than education programmes in the developing world.   Over the past decade, there has been a threefold rise in the percentage of World Bank Group funding that goes to the IFC. In 2000, just 13% of the group’s total spending was allocated to the IFC, but by 2013 that figure had soared to 35%, a trend that the report describes as “out of control”.   “The IFC has grown so rapidly and become so big that it now forms half of the World Bank Group,” said Kate Geary, Oxfam’s land rights policy researcher.   “The IFC is giving its money to a third party, and then the third party lends that on again,” she explained, noting that 62% of the IFC’s total portfolio is invested in financial companies. “Through that process the IFC is losing control of the way that money is spent.”   Several projects funded by the IFC have come under fire for their alleged implication in human rights abuses, the report said, noting that: “Instead of development benefits, local communities have endured displacement, loss of livelihoods, fear, violence, criminalisation and repression.”   NGOs have urged the IFC to make its contracts with private lenders public and to allow third-party vetting of projects.   Natalie Bugalski, legal director of Inclusive Development International and a co-author of the report, said: “IFC’s lending to third parties is now so huge, its portfolio so shrouded in darkness and riddled with abuse, that it needs to completely overhaul this lending model.”   The opaque nature of the IFC’s lending has been compounded by a lack of communication, added Nicolas Mombrial, head of Oxfam’s Washington DC office. “Because public information from the IFC is so meagre – whether by design or ignorance – we fear such projects are just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.   Citing projects funded by the IFC in Central America and Asia, the study described alleged rights abuses carried out by private firms using World Bank funds.   In 2009, the IFC invested $70m in a Honduran bank, Banco Ficohsa, which in turn loaned $15m to a local agribusiness company, Corporación Dinant. The latter has been accused of carrying out violence against farmers on oil palm plantations in the fertile Bajo Aguán valley in north Honduras.   “Local people reported house raids, warrantless arrests, sexual violence, theft, intimidation, destruction of property, and other forms of abuse of authority,” the report said.   The World Bank’s independent monitoring group, known as the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), said in a 2014 report that the “IFC took insufficient measures to identify activities where Ficohsa was exposed to environmental and social risk”.   The IFC loaned more than $25m to a Vietnamese investment group that forced about 15,000 Cambodians from their land to make way for rubber, sugar cane and palm oil plantations, according to the report.   The study claimed the bank has taken some positive steps to improve how it monitors lending to financial intermediaries, including “streamlining its risk assessment, forming a new committee to assess high risk projects, and pledging to give more environmental and social risks the same weight as financial or credit risks”.   In March, the World Bank president Jim Yong Kim admitted shortcomings in the bank’s policy towards preventing and monitoring forced resettlement in the projects that it funds.   Other NGOs involved in the production of the report include Madre Selva, Nisgua, the Research Collective – PSA, the Bank Information Centre, Urgewald and Equitable Cambodia.   http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2015-04-02/billions-out-control-ifc-investments-third-parties-causing-human-rights-abuses http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/apr/02/world-bank-funding-darkness-abuse-ngo-report http://www.inclusivedevelopment.net/billions-in-out-of-control-ifc-investments-into-third-parties-causing-human-rights-abuses-around-the-world/ Visit the related web page
	Banking on human rights by Jessica Evans Human Rights Watch   April 2015   The new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) got a credibility boost last month as a number of European countries, including France, Germany, and Switzerland, followed the UK’s lead in indicating that they would sign up as members. Australia and South Korea followed suit, as did other surprise bids including Taiwan. If accepted, they will join the bank’s chief proponent, China, and 29 other countries. According to Chinese media, the AIIB has received 45 applications to join and the final founding members will be confirmed on 15 April.   Increased investment in infrastructure in the countries that stand to benefit from this new international institution is essential for meeting social and economic needs, but only if it benefits communities, rather than harming them. Leaders of these nations need to carefully consider the potential cost of new infrastructure on communities that stand to be displaced, have their livelihoods drastically affected, or may not reap the benefits of such projects.   These governments should stand together and push from the outset for open and transparent processes and environmental and social rules that are the best in the business. They should not ignore the fact that China has a weak record on open and transparent processes or rights-respecting development more broadly.   Human Rights Watch has documented the effects of lead poisoning of childrenin villages heavily contaminated by lead smelters and battery factories in China’s Henan, Yunnan, Shaanxi and Hunan provinces. The government has committed extensive rights violations in the course of ‘rehousing’ over two million Tibetans, including hundreds of thousands of nomadic herders, under its plans to “build a new socialist countryside” in Tibetan areas.   China’s development practices have not been grounded in open and transparent processes. For instance, in contaminated provinces many parents have reported that the authorities withheld results of lead poisoning tests. Police and government officials have threatened, intimidated, and obstructed journalists attempting to report on pollution. And residents feared that raising the lead poisoning issue with local government officials could result in the loss of government help they were receiving, including food subsidies, health care, and in some cases, employment.   In Shaanxi province, villagers said that people had been detained when they protested outside the lead-processing factory that had begun operating again. Beyond its borders, Chinese investment has at times exacerbated conflicts, such as in Burma’s Kachin State.   Members and potential members of the AIIB should work together to ensure that these kinds of practices do not become the norm for the new bank. They should ensure that communities are involved in the development of projects that the bank is considering funding and that the bank invests only in projects that communities actually want and that will benefit the most marginalized people.   In addition to environmental standards, at a minimum the bank''s rules should prohibit investment in activities that would cause, contribute to, or exacerbate human rights violations.   It should require respect for human rights in all of its activities, and oblige staff to assess the impact of bank activities on human rights and avoid or mitigate adverse impacts.   The bank should prohibit discrimination and include policies on indigenous peoples, resettlement, and labour rights that meet international legal standards. This call for rights-respecting standards applies equally to all development finance institutions.   The AIIB should also create an independent accountability mechanism that accepts complaints and works to resolve them, assesses the bank''s compliance with its policies and international law, determines appropriate remedies for anyone harmed by the bank''s activities, and advises the bank on how it can improve compliance.   The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has an opportunity to contribute to the urgent social and economic needs of people throughout the region, but only if member countries build a bank that ensures respect for rights. If they do not, the new bank could do more damage than good. Visit the related web page
	View more stories