Devex Newswire: Child sex abuse allegations continue to dog IFC

The board of the International Finance Corporation wants the private lender to resubmit its plan for addressing allegations of child sex abuse at schools it helped to fund in Kenya.

Also in today’s edition: The Biden administration is trying to make applying for federal grants easier. That could bode well for local groups trying to work with USAID.  

Back to the drawing board

It’s a case that has followed the International Finance Corporation — the World Bank’s private sector arm — for years, and this latest twist could have major implications for other international finance institutions.

On Friday, the IFC’s board sent back a plan put forth by the private sector lender to respond to allegations that it turned a blind eye to child sex abuse at a chain of Kenyan schools it had invested in, writes Devex contributing reporter Sophie Edwards.

Specifically, board members have said they want to see financial compensation for the alleged victims — which could set a precedent for other international financial institutions to pay costs directly to those harmed by their projects, as opposed to providing more general, community-level remediation.

Alongside financial compensation, the board also demanded that IFC consult with survivors before signing off on the management action plan, according to sources close to the discussions.

The meeting was convened to discuss IFC’s response to an investigation by its Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, which accused the financier of multiple failings in its handling of its investment in Bridge International Academies, now NewGlobe, which operates low-fee schools in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and India. The investigation was triggered in 2020 when community members in Nairobi told CAO staff about prior cases of alleged abuse by two Bridge teachers.

IFC now has a month to resubmit its plan. The World Bank Group issued a statement that “there is a shared commitment to reach full alignment on the Management Action Plan for this difficult and important case.”

Read: IFC under pressure to offer compensation to alleged Bridge victims

Background reading: IFC slammed by its own watchdog for ignoring child sex abuse allegations

A simple proposition

The Biden administration’s efforts to simplify the federal grantmaking process could have a big impact on USAID’s efforts to give more money to local organizations.

Removing entry barriers, slashing complex language, and making grants more accessible are all changes that feed into USAID’s localization push, writes my colleague Elissa Miolene.

“Complexity benefits the entrenched, complexity benefits the powerful, complexity benefits the people who know the system and the rules. And it locks out everybody else who doesn't,” says Walter Kerr of Unlock Aid, a lobbying group that campaigns to break down barriers in procurement.

“Every week, there’s a version of this story happening, where some [Washington,] D.C. contractor gets funding instead of a more innovative or local organization that is more proximate to the problem,” he adds. “That’s partly because we’ve just built such a complicated, overly complex system.”

The guidelines must still pass through a consultation process, but if they do, we could see the simplification of those systems, reducing hefty compliance requirements and generally cutting red tape.

Read: The White House is rethinking grantmaking. What does it mean for aid? (Pro)

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Multidimensional climate

Sands was describing a visit he had to northern Nigeria with Muhammad Ali Pate, the country’s minister of health and social welfare, where they saw “a shocking number” of children who were malnourished and severely ill with malaria.

“It’s a good example of how the climate change interaction is sort of multifactorial,” he said on Devex’s Davos Dispatch podcast, explaining how climate change is harming agricultural productivity, leading to malnutrition and changing the epidemiology of malaria.

The podcast illustrates just how multifaceted climate change is, with Sophie Otiende of the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery and Jonathan Reckford of Habitat for Humanity joining Sands to discuss how shifting weather patterns are upending every aspect of how we live.

“I think the past 20, 30 years has put all of us activists in different silos … when in reality the issues are connected,” Otiende said. “So it makes perfect sense, it’s logical, that all of our movements work together.”

Listen: Facing a climate breakdown, leaders 'act while we learn'

Migration altercation

The headlines at this Thursday’s emergency European Union summit will center around attempts to force Hungary’s far-right leader Viktor Orbán to unblock aid to Ukraine, but there is also a below-the-radar rumble over looming cuts to global south budgets, Devex U.K. Correspondent Rob Merrick tells me.

Member states want to siphon off €2 billion ($2.16 billion) from the bloc’s development pot for 2025 — to fund their crackdown on irregular migration — and reject a €1 billion increase in the emergency aid reserve that’s been proposed to meet a growing list of crises.

Now the European Parliament’s development committee has criticized the plans, warning they will harm the EU’s reputation as “a reliable ally in development cooperation” and prevent it from meeting “unprecedented humanitarian needs.”

The committee also says it fears “the EU is losing influence and visibility to alternative offers made by China and Russia.”

In a joint statement, Aidsfonds, Global Citizen, and ONE Campaign welcomed the committee’s “opinion,” saying: “We’re alarmed that the majority of member states are endorsing cuts to the EU’s development, global health and climate budget.”

The NGOs also criticized the “dangerous precedent” of allowing member states to unilaterally “transfer funding from long-term programmes to address the priority of the day.”

That “priority” appears to be the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, agreed just before Christmas, which will be handed the siphoned-off billions to improve screening of migrants crossing the Mediterranean and speed up deportations.

Full bloom

Jasmine Anouna has an impressive CV. An Italian-Egyptian-American feminist, social entrepreneur, and SDG goalkeeper, she’s the CEO and founder of The Bloom, a social impact newsletter.

But it took some trial and error to get to where she is now — a circuitous journey that many professionals can relate to.

“After multiple internships and a specialization in gender studies at Oxford, I realized my passion lay elsewhere. The turning point came during an internship at the U.N., which I didn’t find fulfilling. In the first few months, I started realizing that I really didn’t want to be in academia, I didn't want to be in law, and I didn’t want to be at the U.N.,” she tells Devex contributing reporter Katrina J. Lane.

“I wanted to work at the intersection of climate, environment, and gender. However, I couldn't find a platform that felt like home. I wanted a place where I could meet diverse, like-minded people working in social change that I could learn from and grow with. So I built it myself. Starting with just 15 subscribers, mainly friends, The Bloom has evolved into a community of 40,000 social impact professionals.”

Among the career advice she has: “Recognize the influence of your community — it's your superpower — surround yourself carefully, and learn to let go of people not aligned with your goals. Think of it like tending a garden.”

Read: Career advice from social entrepreneur and SDG advocate Jasmine Anouna 

+ Are you considering a transition into the world of global development in 2024? Register for our career event happening today as we discuss how to land your first role in the sector and answer your most pressing questions.

In other news

ASEAN members agreed to provide humanitarian aid to Myanmar in February, the first such move from the bloc since the country’s military coup three years ago. [Nikkei Asia]

The International Organization for Migration reported nearly 100 deaths or disappearances in the central and eastern Mediterranean this year, emphasizing the urgency for regular migration pathways. [UN News]

More than 50 people, including women, children, and two U.N. peacekeepers, were killed in attacks along the South Sudan-Sudan border over the weekend. [Reuters]

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