Inclusive Development International submitted additional comments to the International Finance Corporation (IFC) regarding its ongoing Sustainability Framework review, calling for a stronger approach to ensuring community support for high-risk projects.
Building on recommendations we jointly submitted earlier this year, alongside more than 30 other civil society organizations, our latest submission urges the IFC to incorporate a new client-focused Broad Sustainability Support requirement in the updated Performance Standards. Our submission highlights extensive evidence showing that projects that fail to secure community support often face costly delays, conflict, litigation, reputational damage, and, in some cases, violence. Research across the mining, infrastructure, agribusiness, and other sectors demonstrates that meaningful engagement with affected communities is not only a human rights imperative but also a sound business strategy.
Ultimately, up-front investment in communities saves money and would help ensure the IFC projects meet their development objectives. In that context, we welcome the IFC’s proposal to develop a new, standalone Performance Standard on Stakeholder Engagement, and we urge leadership to ensure this new standard includes a requirement for clients to secure and maintain Broad Community Support. Our policy proposal to advance a just energy transition outlines six core principles to engaging project-affected people, including through early engagement, equitable negotiations, and enforceable community benefit agreements. The new Broad Community Support requirement should incorporate these principles and must go well beyond the IFC’s current consultation requirements, which have not proven effective.
Our submission also calls on the IFC to ensure that the Broad Community Support requirement is met before financing is approved and disbursed (i.e., when IFC leverage is highest) and to take steps to ensure that Broad Community Support is maintained throughout the project lifecycle.
Everyone loses when development projects create social conflict, and there is already broad agreement that up-front investment in communities is the best and most cost-effective solution. It is time for the IFC Performance Standards to reflect that reality.
Read the full comments: https://www.inclusivedevelopment.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Stakeholder-Engagement-and-Broad-Community-Support-May-15-2026-1.pdf