The World Bank’s renewed embrace of infrastructure projects will likely spur an uptick in community displacement; but will the world’s largest international financial institution do a better job of tracking relocation efforts?
President Jim Yong Kim admitted Wednesday that no one is sure how many people displaced by bank projects between 1990 and 2010 were resettled or compensated fairly. Kim told reporters on Wednesday that “we must and will do better,” adding that “resettlements are likely to grow” as the bank increases its portfolio of infrastructure projects.
In more than half of the bank’s projects from 1990 to 2010, managers did not report how and whether displaced populations were compensated, according to a random sampling conducted by the bank last year and released Wednesday.
About the author
Molly Andersmollyanders_dev
Molly Anders is a former U.K. correspondent for Devex. Based in London, she reports on development finance trends with a focus on British and European institutions. She is especially interested in evidence-based development and women’s economic empowerment, as well as innovative financing for the protection of migrants and refugees. Molly is a former Fulbright Scholar and studied Arabic in Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco.
