Press Room
For media inquiries, email [email protected]
News & Updates
Commentaries
In The News
![](https://www.inclusivedevelopment.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/more-on-proximity-of-houses-scaled-aspect-ratio-2-1-scaled.jpg)
July 15, 2024
The International Finance Corporation’s internal watchdog, the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), announced that it is launching an investigation into the institution’s investments in a commercial bank that is financing construction of two new coal-fired power plants at Indonesia’s Suralaya Power Station.
![](https://www.inclusivedevelopment.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Labour-in-IMIP-.jpeg)
July 8, 2024
A new analysis, published today by Recourse, Trend Asia and Inclusive Development International, demonstrates that publicly-funded Multilateral Development Banks are at risk of funding a wave of ‘captive’ coal expansion in climate-vulnerable countries, despite commitments to shift funds from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
![](https://www.inclusivedevelopment.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/HAGL-Mediations-Feb-2024.jpg)
June 15, 2024
Twelve Indigenous villages in Cambodia’s Ratanakiri province have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Vietnamese agribusiness giant HAGL Agrico, following a breakthrough in a decade-long mediation process aimed at resolving a protracted land dispute.
![](https://www.inclusivedevelopment.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Untitled-design-1-e1718398057650.jpg)
June 8, 2024
This is a joint statement by over 115 international civil society organizations to call upon the Ugandan authorities to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of Stephen Kwikiriza, who has been held incommunicado since his abduction by plain clothed officers in Kampala on June 4th 2024.
![](https://www.inclusivedevelopment.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Untitled-design.jpg)
May 22, 2024
On May 16, 2024 the World Bank announced that it is hiring an outside firm to “explore the circumstances surrounding the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman’s (CAO) investigation of IFC’s investment in Bridge International Academies.” We commend the World Bank’s Board for taking the lead on this issue.
![](https://www.inclusivedevelopment.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC00953-scaled.jpg)
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.
![](https://www.inclusivedevelopment.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Copy-of-Guinea_2017-232.jpg)
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.
![](https://www.inclusivedevelopment.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Untitled-design.jpg)
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.
![](https://www.inclusivedevelopment.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/FFF-for-Total-AGM-2021.png)
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.
![](https://www.inclusivedevelopment.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Bridge-Response-Feature-1.jpg)
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.
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, Zelda Liang (Independent Consultant)
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 (Independent Consultant)
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.
June 16, 2022
South China Morning Post
- Margaux Day, Zelda Liang (Independent Consultant)
On June 1, Beijing issued green finance guidelines for Chinese financial institutions. Notably, Chinese banks and insurers are asked, for the first time, to establish grievance mechanisms to manage clients’ environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) risks.
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.
June 12, 2024
The Intercept
The World Bank’s private investment arm is refusing to directly compensate individuals who faced sexual, physical, and financial harms at a chain of schools it funded in Africa and India, despite requests from the people who were hurt and pressure from civil society advocates, U.S. senators, and an internal watchdog.
May 6, 2024
Eco-Business
A new study by civic society groups accuses the Asian Development Bank of indirectly financing coal power plants in Indonesia as the multilateral holds its annual general meeting in Tbilisi, Georgia.
April 25, 2024
Agence France-Presse
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.
April 17, 2024
CSO Futures
A coalition of NGOs working for a sustainable and equitable electric vehicle value chain is urging the International Standards Organisation (ISO) to put civil society at the centre of its upcoming critical mineral supply chain standard.
March 27, 2024
Foreign Policy
World Bank chief Ajay Banga apologized earlier this month for the organization’s handling of widespread child sexual abuse at a chain of for-profit Kenyan schools that it funded through the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the bank’s investment arm.
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
The UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights has finished a draft report that aims to establish the “responsibilities and capacity” of ESG index and data providers to assess human rights risks for their clients.
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.