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In The News
April 24, 2024
An investigation has revealed that a $600 million Asian Development Bank loan meant to “promote the use of clean energy” is bankrolling Indonesia’s national energy plan, which contains dozens of planned coal plants.
April 11, 2024
A coalition of 40 civil society organizations has written to Ajay Banga calling on the World Bank Group (WBG) to take extreme caution as it looks to extend its investments in transition mineral mining and processing.
April 2, 2024
On March 13, 2024, World Bank Group (WBG) President Ajay Banga announced an external investigation of allegations of interference in the IFC Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) process as relates to IFC’s investments in Bridge International Academies. Inclusive Development International and our partners have released recommendations for the scope and design of the investigation.
March 21, 2024
Inclusive Development International and other global human rights organizations are urging the Tanzanian government, international human rights organizations, as well as the leading companies involved in EACOP, TotalEnergies and CNOOC, to take action to uphold the rights of PAPs and activists.
March 14, 2024
Inclusive Development International, Accountability Counsel, EACH Rights, Education International, Gender Action, GI-ESCR and urgewald e.V. address World Bank management’s response to a scandalous investigation report on child sexual abuse allegations at Bank-supported schools in Kenya.
March 8, 2024
In a joint statement on International Women’s Day, Inclusive Development International, Accountability Counsel, GenderAction, and urgewald e.V. urge executive directors to reject IFC’s proposed response to CAO investigation of sexual abuse at Bridge International schools in Kenya.
February 29, 2024
The Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ), Inclusive Development International (IDI), Recourse and BankTrack submitted the complaint on behalf of local communities that have suffered a wide range of adverse human rights impacts as a result of the development of coal plants.
February 22, 2024
A new open-access online tool launched today by Inclusive Development International provides a uniquely comprehensive and detailed picture of global palm oil supply chains, linking global corporations to the on-the-ground impact of their palm oil consumption.
February 15, 2024
MSCI, FTSE Russell and S&P Dow Jones Indices are giants of the “responsible investing” industry, but according to complaints filed with the US, UK and Dutch governments, the firms are violating OECD guidelines for responsible business conduct by helping direct investments labeled “ESG” to dozens of companies linked to Myanmar’s military.
January 30, 2024
The Aluminum Stewardship Initiative’s provisional certification of the Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée mining operation, despite unresolved human rights issues, raises serious questions about the initiative’s credibility as a due diligence tool for the aluminum industry.
December 13, 2023
Bretton Woods Project
- David Pred, Margaux Day
Embracing a new remedy approach in line with the UNGPs will support the World Bank to tackle the crises of our time without externalizing risk onto the poor communities it is committed to serve. The alternative is grim: A bigger Bank, externalizing the costs of development on the poor, with greater speed and at greater scale than ever. That is why we say there can be no evolution without remedy.
June 19, 2023
South China Morning Post
- Margaux Day, Yaqian (Zelda) Liang
China’s groundbreaking Green Finance Guidelines require both policy and commercial banks to establish grievance mechanisms for affected communities. The newly formed National Financial Regulatory Administration should see to it that Chinese banks implement this requirement.
March 27, 2023
ESG Clarity
- David Pred
As Adani Group stocks tanked last month, following revelations of fraud and market manipulation at the Indian conglomerate, some investors in ESG-focused funds were surprised to find themselves exposed to losses.
February 27, 2023
China Dialogue
- Margaux Day, Zelda Liang
A new mechanism for Chinese overseas mining needs to be free from company interference and to protect communities from retaliation.
October 17, 2022
BankTrack
- Margaux Day, Natalie Bugalski, Ryan Brightwell
Either they get solved at the annual meeting of signatories starting today in Seoul, or the principles risk fading into irrelevance.
September 9, 2022
ESG Investor
- Coleen Scott
Earlier this year, my colleagues at Inclusive Development International published an investigation that revealed a staggering figure: more than US$13 billion of ESG-labeled investments have gone to companies involved in arming, funding and legitimising the brutal military regime in Myanmar. As shocking and disturbing as that is, it is not an anomaly.
May 9, 2022
Devex
- aaron pedrosa, David Pred, kate geary
In July 2016, environmental activist Gloria Capitan was brutally killed in front of her 8-year-old grandson in the Bataan province of the Philippines, allegedly due to her anti-coal advocacy as the leader of the Coal-Free Bataan Movement. Climate change is perhaps the biggest threat that humanity faces, yet the people who devote their lives to this cause are under attack.
March 21, 2022
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
- David Pred, Natalie Bugalski
ESG-labeled funds have exploded in popularity in recent years, hitting $3.9 trillion in assets under management last year. Driven by marketing claims that ESG is a way for investors to align their money with their values, it’s now the fastest growing sector of financial services. But these funds are littered with companies with appalling records.
February 4, 2022
Medium
- David Pred, Natalie Bugalski
The UK government body charged with enforcing the OECD’s standards on responsible business conduct called out the sugar industry’s sustainability association last month for admitting a company responsible for gross human rights abuses.
December 16, 2021
Thompson Reuters Foundation News
- Dustin Roasa
Examples like this don’t just undermine the credibility of ESG. They also make it much more difficult for victims of corporate abuse to secure accountability.
April 25, 2024
Radio France Internationale
Green NGOs have accused the Asian Development Bank of indirectly financing coal plants in Indonesia through a $600 million loan despite promises to no longer fund projects tied to the fossil fuel, according to a new report.
March 26, 2024
Devex
U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, which finances private sector development solutions, has asked its independent office that reviews complaints to investigate its investment in Bridge International Academies, a for-profit chain of schools where child sex abuse was reported in Kenya in 2020.
March 22, 2024
Mongabay
A new open-access online tool, developed by human rights NGO Inclusive Development International and the University of Chicago Data Science Institute, aims to address this issue. Called PalmWatch, it links 15 major industrial consumers of palm oil, such as Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever, to the ground-level impacts of their palm oil consumption, including deforestation.
March 21, 2024
Responsible Investor
March 15, 2024
Devex
World Bank President Ajay Banga has apologized for the “trauma” experienced by children sexually abused at schools in Kenya supported by the bank’s private-sector arm, but has stopped short of offering them financial compensation.
March 14, 2024
The New York Times
The World Bank’s internal watchdog on Thursday criticized the organization’s handling and oversight of its investment in a chain of Kenyan schools that were subject to an internal investigation after allegations that students were abused.
March 14, 2024
The New York Times
The bank is facing scrutiny as it debates how to compensate victims of abuse at Kenyan schools that it was financing.
March 11, 2024
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
The Inclusive Development International, Blood Money Campaign Myanmar (BMC), and Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma (ALTSEAN-Burma) submitted complaints against indexes MSCI, FTSE Russell, and S&P Dow Jones Indices for alleged violation of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct.
March 7, 2024
FS Sustainability
Major ESG indices have responded to allegations they listed companies with links to the Myanmar military junta.