Accountability Matters

Newsletter | January 2024

Welcome to the January 2024 issue of Accountability Matters. A belated Happy New Year to all of you!

A lot has happened since our September issue. The IAMnet Annual Meetings we organized in London in early October were a wonderful opportunity to meet practitioners from independent accountability mechanisms and civil society, and our discussions were very productive. A breakout session on climate change was led by Mark Goldsmith, and we are happy to share with you a story on how accountability can be achieved for communities who are affected by projects with climate change impacts. Mark is now the Chairperson of the Inspection Panel, and we wish him all the best for the year to come. We would also like to thank Ramanie Kunanayagam, the outgoing Chairperson, for her invaluable contributions over the years.

We’ve also been busy bringing the Dispute Resolution Service up to speed, and are delighted to welcome Scott Adams as Senior Dispute Resolution Officer. This issue features an interview with Scott on the challenges of dispute resolution. We have also prepared a round-up of knowledge products from the accountability community of practice, along with the latest jobs and events in the field of accountability.

On behalf of the Accountability Mechanism, I would like to wish you the best for the year ahead, and we hope you enjoy this edition. Please visit our new website at https://accountability.worldbank.org, and let us know if you have any comments or story ideas for the newsletter at accountability@worldbank.org.