Welcome to the June 2026 round-up of accountability knowledge products. In this issue, we cover civil society efforts to promote community- and context-based accountability, the need (for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) to monitor public engagement with projects, a brief on remedy in development finance, a bulletin on centering the perspectives of communities on the just transition, and how the International Finance Corporation (IFC) might address its “leverage deficit.” Enjoy your reading!

More than just a few bad apples: If public engagement matters, why isn’t the EBRD tracking it?

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), like other multilateral development banks, has a mandate to support the transition to democracy. This suggests that people affected by development projects should be involved in decision-making processes.  According to Bankwatch, however, data on how well the EBRD performs this role is limited, even though civil society has highlighted the need for better reporting.

Bankwatch analysis of 38 cases elaborates on shortcomings such as superficial consultations, the exclusion of affected communities, weak grievance mechanisms, and retaliation against rights holders. Ultimately, these failures undermine both the EBRD’s development impact and its human rights safeguards. The analysis, available as a microsite and a briefing, recommends that the EBRD acknowledge that there are systemic issues that must be addressed through continuous monitoring of public participation practices at the project level. Such monitoring would support both institutional learning and the development impact of the EBRD, while specifically addressing project-level risks.

Remedy in Development Finance: Progress and Challenges in 2026

In 2022, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights published “Remedy in Development Finance,” clarifying the concept of remedy, surveying development finance institution (DFI) policies and practices, and offering recommendations to both DFIs and independent accountability mechanisms (IAMs). A new brief updates the analysis of the 2022 report in light of improvements in policy and practice since. Notable among these are IFC’s Interim Approach to Remedial Action (2025), the very first of its kind among DFIs. The brief also makes reference to completed and ongoing policy reviews at multiple IAMs, and in the private sector, guidance on remedial action released by the Equator Principles in 2022. Annexes provide more detail on the DFI, IAM, and commercial bank and investor policy updates relevant to remedy. Finally, the brief addresses common misconceptions, and offers additional recommendations aimed at strengthening DFIs’ approaches to remedy.

Struggles for Justice in the Energy Transition: Views from the Front Lines

For the “net zero” transition to be truly just, communities on the front lines both in the global North and South need to be heard. A brief from the Institute of Development Studies highlights research that centers their perspectives, published in a recent IDS Bulletin, and provides recommendations that would address energy-related inequalities rooted in class, race, gender, and territorial marginality. As the brief states, “Concrete actions are needed to counter the scepticism of grassroots communities that view the global ‘green transition’ agenda as the latest round of historic exploitation.”

The full IDS Bulletin contains a multiplicity of perspectives, ranging across Nigeria, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Brazil, Portugal, the United States, and the United Kingdom. These should provide food for thought for accountability practitioners who are witnessing a rise in complaints related to projects purporting to secure the net zero transition.

Advancing Accountability in Development Finance: the Sandra Smithey Fellowship

Between 2023 and 2025, the Accountability Research Center (ARC) at American University worked closely with eight candidates deeply engaged in civil society efforts to promote community- and context-based accountability in international development finance. The resulting fellowships provided geographical and sectoral depth representative of the challenges civil society faces today: centering indigenous women’s knowledge in climate finance and supporting indigenous federations in decoding bureaucracy in Latin America; championing land rights in Haiti; forging leadership through immersion in accountability in Senegal; community ownership models for rural energy access; climate finance accountability in Nepal; scholar activism under surveillance in Bangladesh; and leading from exile in Cambodia. A key feature of the Sandra Smithey Fellowship, as manifested across vastly different contexts, was flexibility and adaptability to changing circumstances–both that of the individual Fellows, their institutions, and the national contexts they had to operate in.

Leveraging IFC’s Influence to Enhance Environmental and Social (E&S) Outcomes

An advisory note from the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) addresses the “leverage deficit” in relation to IFC’s ability to influence its clients to fulfill its Environmental and Social (E&S) Performance Standards. Noting that the IFC’s influence over its clients wanes over the life of an investment, precisely during the phases that it is more likely that emergent E&S impacts and risks demand that leverage be used, CAO suggests that IFC needs to take a more deliberate approach to building leverage and exercising it throughout an investment’s life. To do so, it recommends that IFC focus on strengthening the foundations of its leverage in due diligence; closing the gaps in its current leverage practice; expanding its toolbox for applying and maintaining its leverage; and formalizing and unifying its strategy for leverage across all its investments.

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.