Case Advocacy « Inclusive Development International

IDI works with local communities and civil society organizations to monitor the impacts of development projects and private sector investments and hold governments, international development agencies, financial institutions and corporations accountable for human rights violations. We support affected communities to identify responsible actors, document violations, and seek recourse through evidence-based advocacy and by accessing judicial and non-judicial accountability mechanisms. We draw insight and evidence from our casework to ground our policy advocacy aimed at expanding and strengthening the safeguard policies and accountability mechanisms of development and business actors.

Cases:

Cambodia: Railway Rehabilitation Project

IDI is working with local partners in Cambodia to support communities who have been involuntarily resettled to make way for the rehabilitation of Cambodia’s railway system. The resettled families are experiencing severe hardships, including unmanageable indebtedness, loss of income and lack of access to basic services, as they are made to bear the externalized costs of this major infrastructure project. The railway project is financed primarily by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) through a USD 84 million concessional loan and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), which is contributing USD 23 million in aid. IDI is working to support the communities to advocate for the full respect of their rights under ADB and AusAID safeguard policies, Cambodian law and international human rights treaties.

Cambodia: Boeung Kak Lake Evictions

IDI is working with local partners in Cambodia and the Boeung Kak Lake community to support their land and housing rights struggle. In February 2007, the Municipality of Phnom Penh granted a 99-year lease to the private developer Shukaku Inc. over a 133-hectare property covering the capital city’s iconic Boeung Kak lake and the nine surrounding villages. Until the recent evictions, the Boeung Kak settlement consisted of nine villages surrounding Boeung Kak Lake in central Phnom Penh, where some 4000 families resided. Read more

Ethiopia: Gambella Villagization Program

IDI has assisted Ethiopian refugees from the Gambella region of Ethiopia to file a complaint to the World Bank Inspection Panel implicating the Bank in grave human rights abuses perpetrated by the Ethiopian Government. The complaint alleges that the Anuak people have been severely harmed by the World Bank-financed and administered Protection of Basic Services Project (PBS), which has provided 1.4 billion USD in sectoral budget support for the provision of basic services to the Ethiopian Government since 2006. IDI conducted a fact-finding mission to the region in September 2012 and held workshops with Anuak refugee communities in Kenya and South Sudan to help prepare them to access the Inspection Panel. IDI prepared a legal and policy analysis accompanying their complaint, which was submitted to the Inspection Panel on September 24, 2012. The submission presents evidence that the PBS project is directly and substantially contributing to the Gambella government’s program of forced villagization, in contravention of Bank operational policies and procedures.