The most destructive and controversial development projects are usually supported and made possible by international funding. To challenge these projects, we target the source of their financing.
What is development finance?
“Development finance” is a generic term used to describe a range of international financial flows into countries in the Global South. Development finance can include money from international financial institutions (IFIs) that are “owned” by one or many countries or can be financing from private banks to support various types of investments or projects in Global South countries.
Overview
Every year, public institutions such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank provide billions of dollars in grants, loans, insurance and other financing to governments in countries the Global South and transitioning economies and to international or local companies operating in those countries. This money is used to leverage hundreds of millions in more financing to support everything from roads, dams, mines and other infrastructure, to country policy reform in the legal, health, education, energy and environment sectors to name a few... more >>
Concerns Public development institutions (the IFIs) operate under the rubric of "poverty alleviation." However, oftentimes their projects lead to more poverty and can destroy sensitive environments and ecosystems. Large infrastructure projects, especially in the energy and extractive industries sectors, are can be the source of massive pollution that make clean water toxic, fertile land unusable, and breathable air contaminated. In addition, many of these projects continue to be designed and implemented under a failed development model that excludes the voices of local citizens and blindly assumes that macro-economic growth will automatically lead to poverty alleviation... more >>
Our Approach
To defend the human and environmental rights of people threatened by destructive development projects, IAP recognizes that we need to 'follow the money' and strategically pressure project-financiers to withdraw their support. We work to stop the financing of particularly egregious 'emblematic projects', and we also advocate for new rules and global policies on development finance. We focus most of our advocacy on the public, mltilateral banks such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. These institutions are a strategic advocacy target not only because of the billions of dollars of development finance they provide every year, but also because they set standards and rules for development finance that influence the practices and policies of private sector banks, other international institutions,
and even national governments.
 These public IFIs also use significant amounts of taxpayer money to conduct their operations. For IAP, as an organization based in the U.S., it is particularly relevant that the U.S. Congress provides over $3 billion in support to the IFIs every year - $1 billion of which goes to the World Bank. While the U.S. is one of the largest financial contributors to these institutions, almost every country in the world is a member of the World Bank or one of the IFIs and, as members, these countries hold shares in the institutions and have representation on the institutions’ Board of Directors. Given the public nature of the IFIs and their poverty alleviation mandates, we have a right to demand these institutions operate in an open and accountable way and in the best interest of the public.
At IAP, we work to influence the direction and use of development finance. We do this in multiple ways: through project and policy advocacy, research and popular education and the creative use of arts and media.
While much of our focus is on public, multilateral development banks, private financial institutions are increasingly becoming more involved in development finance. IAP is exploring ways to expand our work to also focus on the private banks.
Learn more ...
Other organizations monitoring international development finance:
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