Welcome to the June 2025 round-up of accountability knowledge products. In this issue’s mixed media gift bag we have a podcast from the School of International Service at American University, two articles on mediation, and a global report on human rights defenders from the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre. We also feature a regional report on how multilateral development banks can better support civil society in the Western Balkans, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, and a report from Nepal on how hydropower projects are neglecting to implement free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) in the renewable energy transition. We round off this edition with a blog from the Accountability Research Center from the legendary intellectual partnership that is Amartya Sen and Jean Drèze. We hope you enjoy the variety!

A development dilemma in Haiti

The Caracol Industrial Park development project in Haiti, primarily financed by the Inter-American Development Bank, is well-known in accountability circles for the fact that a dispute resolution process led to an agreement that included compensation in the form of land for displaced people. Scott Freeman, a professor at the School of International Service at American University, joins the Big World podcast to recount the long road to remedy faced by the 400 families affected in Haiti. He also highlights the continuing issues in agreement implementation, and lessons learned for future projects. “One of the lessons is that this was really hard, and it shouldn’t be really hard,” he concludes.

Defending rights and realising just economies: Human rights defenders and business (2015-2024)

The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre follows the activities of over 10,000 businesses across the world, so it is well placed to track the rising number of attacks on human rights defenders (HRDs)—to be precise, 6,400 in the last decade. A new report reveals the scope and scale of this phenomenon, including the sectors and businesses involved, with mining, agribusiness, and fossil fuels identified as the most dangerous sectors for HRDs. Furthermore, judicial harassment, including Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), were involved in more than half of the attacks recorded. Tellingly, although Indigenous Peoples constitute just 6% of the global population, they faced over a fifth of such attacks.

Notwithstanding this bleak picture, the report also marks the progress and achievements of the past decade, with a focus on cases that celebrate wins for HRDs. It concludes with recommendations for states, companies, and investors to support the protection of civic freedoms in the jurisdictions in which they operate.

Collaborative dispute resolution: five essential questions

As part of the ongoing Perspectives series discussing the promise, reality, and future of the accountability mechanisms at international financial institutions, a paper by Scott Adams (Senior Dispute Resolution Officer, World Bank Dispute Resolution Service) and Aparna Mukerjee (independent mediator and lawyer) offers a welcome introduction to collaborative dispute resolution. It asks fundamental questions:

·      How should parties decide whether to participate in dispute resolution?

·       What are the roles of advocates and advisors?

·       Does dispute resolution provide accountability and remedy?

·       How can dispute resolution foster institutional learning for development finance institutions?

·       Why is it important for dispute resolution to be independent rather than embedded in the management of development finance institutions?

The responses to these essential questions are as valuable to mediation stakeholders as they are to those who may not be familiar with the role of dispute resolution within independent accountability mechanisms.

“The reed that bends with the wind does not break”—the complexities of multicultural mediation and the use of artistic tools to overcome them

An article by Nokukhanya Ntuli (Principal Specialist, Dispute Resolution, Compliance Advisor Ombudsman), published in the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution, is food for thought for mediators faced with the complex realities of working in diverse cultural settings. Using the example of a dispute between a community in Msango, West Africa and a mining company, Ntuli explains how linguistic and literacy barriers complicated mediation, leading to the decision on the part of mediators to adapt to the situation by drawing on African oral traditions. While such culturally attuned mediation strategies are not without their own challenges, the paper emphasizes the psychological benefits of such artistic tools in conflict resolution. In adopting traditional practices familiar to the community, the mediators were able to redress to a considerable degree the acute power imbalances that existed with the company, and thus draw the two parties closer together. This proved to be fruitful ground for the continued resolution of the dispute in question.

Hanging by a thread: Indigenous Peoples rights in renewable energy transition

A report from Accountability Counsel and Lawyers’ Association for Human Rights of Nepalese Indigenous Peoples (LAHURNIP) looks at the implementation of free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) in the context of four hydropower projects in Nepal (Likhu, Tanahu, Upper Trishuli, and Upper Arun). It finds frequent shortcomings and a lack of meaningful conduct of FPIC by the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) as well as state authorities, private developers, and financing banks, leading to adverse outcomes for Indigenous Peoples.

Recommendations to multilateral development banks include strengthening FPIC implementation as a dynamic process, not one that simply aims to solicit a “yes” from communities. Financiers should also expand the scope of affected communities, improve information disclosure to them, hold borrowers accountable and, in line with the mitigation hierarchy, consider compensation and benefit-sharing as supplementary to, rather than substitutes for, FPIC.

Countering shrinking space: How multilateral development banks can empower civil society in the Western Balkans, Caucasus and Central Asia

A report from Bankwatch examines how multilateral development banks have failed to explicitly connect the shrinking civil space in the Caucasus, Western Balkans, and Central Asia with their efforts to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In holding back from using their leverage with governments, particularly where repressive regimes actively restrict meaningful engagement with civil society, these institutions are missing an opportunity, according to the report. However, the erosion of civil society is increasingly becoming an operational challenge for banks striving to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Bankwatch lists recommendations for the World Bank Group, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Asian Development Bank, and the European Investment Bank to foster a more enabling environment for civil society, protect human rights, and thereby contribute not only to democratic governance but also to poverty reduction in the region.

Accountability and responsibility

If “accountability” can have different meanings to different actors, keywords used within the sector are also interpreted differently. The Accountability Keywords blog from the Accountability Research Center explores the undercurrents at work when stakeholders discuss complaints using terms that they assume everyone understands in just the same way that they do. Its latest entry tackles two heavyweights: “Accountability” and “Responsibility”. And who better to sift through the domains of each than Amartya Sen and Jean Drèze?

This short blog is rich in ideas – according to Sen and Drèze, “Accountability can induce people to do what someone else wants them to do, to the extent that it can be monitored. Responsibility, on the other hand, includes what people themselves want to do in the public interest.” Thus accountability is one aspect of a broader concern for responsibility, which is assigned a critical role in a healthy social life. Citing Adam Smith, Alfred Marshall, and B.R. Ambedkar, the authors declare, “What early economists knew, we can know too.”

We keep our eyes and ears open for news in the field of accountability, but we need your help to make sure we don’t miss anything important. Please write to us about any forthcoming publications at accountability@worldbank.org.