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The World Bank is eyeing an overhaul of its accountability system — while promising not to dilute its power in the process.
Also in today’s edition: Devex launches an ambitious new project to track U.S. aid cuts in real time and on the ground.
What happens when you have a complaint about the World Bank? And I don’t mean gripes about it being bureaucratic, risk-averse, or any of the usual criticisms lobbed at it. I mean grievances related to serious harm that potentially call for remedial action.
Right now, you have three pathways: the Inspection Panel, the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, or CAO, and the newer Dispute Resolution Service, or DRS — each with its own staff, policies, powers, and procedures. (See what I mean by bureaucratic?)
But the bank is trying to figure out if there’s a better way, so it’s established a task force to assess whether to merge the three complaint mechanisms, or at least improve coordination among them.
“No dilution, no regression,” vowed Parameswaran Iyer, executive director representing India on the World Bank’s board, as he spoke to civil society representatives last week at the World Bank-International Monetary Fund annual meetings. He said the task force examining reforms would prioritize strengthening, not weakening, the bank’s accountability architecture, Devex contributing reporter Sophie Edwards writes.
The review forms part of the World Bank President Ajay Banga’s drive to make the lender “smarter, faster, and more responsive,” and to streamline overlapping functions across its public and private sector arms.
That private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation, or IFC, has also started piloting a new approach that offers remedy to harmed communities, although it stops short of direct financial compensation — something civil society groups continue to push for.
Read: World Bank pledges ‘no regression’ as it weighs accountability overhaul
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U.S. international aid cuts were announced months ago, but their effects are still rippling through systems, upending programs, projects, and lives around the world. Yet no single source exists to track these impacts as they unfold in real time.
That’s the gap The Aid Report is built to fill. We’re launching our most ambitious journalism initiative yet: A news site that will capture how the U.S. aid cuts are playing out on the ground — with medical supply chains, nutrition programs, and lives at stake. All in one place, we’ll share verified reports from the field, combined with original Devex reporting and aggregated stories from outside sources. Think of it as a live database of what’s actually happening as billions in funding disappear.
“We’re at a critical moment for U.S. interests where policymakers and the public need real-world stories of how the aid cuts are playing out," said Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar. “That’s exactly what The Aid Report aims to deliver — the facts for an informed debate about the future of U.S. aid policy.”
The Aid Report is journalism-driven, but it relies on the community to power it. We’re calling on all aid workers, development implementers, and researchers across the Devex community — everywhere in the world — to share what they’re seeing firsthand. Everything gets verified before going live on the site. Email our editor Kelli Rogers at kelli.rogers@devex.com or message her via Signal.
It's our boldest journalism project yet, launching at a moment when verified evidence matters more than ever. We hope you’ll support this effort by sharing what you know.
+ This work is made possible through a media grant from the Gates Foundation. Devex retains full editorial independence.
Back to IFC, the World Bank’s private sector arm, which has been dogged by a scandal that just won’t go away. From 2013 to 2016, it invested $13.5 million in New Globe, the parent company of Bridge International Academies schools in Kenya, where allegations of child sexual abuse among nearly two dozen students surfaced in 2023.
Since the scandal came to light, IFC has launched new programs and policy reforms to strengthen child protection and gender-based violence safeguards across its investment portfolio. That includes a three-year $12 million program aimed at identifying and supporting all victims of child abuse and gender-based violence — not just those from Bridge schools.
But civil society groups say IFC’s transparency and accountability remain a concern, Sophie writes.
While IFC’s new Kenya program may strengthen general survivor services, “it does not satisfy IFC’s obligation to provide remedy to those who were abused whilst in the care of an IFC-financed client,” according to Coleen Scott of Inclusive Development International, which has been working with Bridge complainants since the beginning.
Advocates have also called for an independent review of the case to be made public — to little avail.
While IFC “carefully considered these requests,” according to the progress report, it is unwilling to get involved, arguing that the “process of determining and paying compensation carries significant risks, such as potentially increasing survivors’ vulnerability to further harm or exploitation, retraumatizing them, or compromising their confidentiality.”
Read: IFC pledges progress in Bridge case, but transparency debates endure
In some ways, critical minerals are the new oil — extracted to fuel a new generation of clean energy.
But development advocates worry they could become another resource curse for Africa that enriches the rich while leaving little behind for the continent other than labor exploitation and environmental degradation.
“There are a lot of interests we need to balance as we look at this expanding space,” said Aubrey Hruby, co-founder of Tofino Capital and transaction adviser at Palladium, at Devex Impact House held on the sidelines of the World Bank-IMF annual meetings. “How can we balance the need to add value and create robust industries with the fact that countries are competing globally for this type of investment.”
“There is a mad rush around critical minerals,” said Patrick Heller of the Natural Resource Governance Institute. He stressed that this moment requires governments and development advocates to ground their policies in real market analysis to understand the rapidly changing landscape — new players, consolidation, and technological uncertainty, my colleague Jesse Chase-Lubitz writes.
Heller added that while a “perfect system” is an unrealistic goal, governments should not wait to set foundational standards.
“The goal should not be a perfect system, but ... we are making sure that we have a certain set of standards built into our laws, into our licensing procedures, into companies and signing contracts,” he said. “Because once you get those things locked in, it’s hard to change them afterwards.”
Read: How to turn the critical minerals boom into a development win
Is critical mineral wealth the new clean energy turning point for lower-income countries, or is old-fashioned, cheaper power the answer?
“I think there are two opportunities, and I think one is potentially a mirage. Another one is very real,” said Avinash Persaud of the Inter-American Development Bank, during a Devex Impact House session.
“People talk a lot about [minerals]. I fear that the developing countries are defined by being commodity exporters. It’s not a great development strategy,” he added, arguing that renewables can deliver dramatically cheap energy.
But Persaud pointed to the cost of capital as one of the most significant barriers. Renewables, unlike fossil fuels, are largely financed in local currency, which makes exchange rate volatility a risk. “So one of the things we need to do is try and find ways of lowering the cost of capital, lowering these international risks, and then we can get the cheapest form of energy.”
Read: Dependency to opportunity — making cheap power work for poorer countries
From our archives: Funding and partnerships key to unlocking sustainable energy solutions (Pro)
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Israel says it will resume the ceasefire in Gaza, after launching air strikes on Sunday, and said aid deliveries would resume Monday. [AP]
A boat carrying an estimated 35 migrants sailing from Libya capsized in the central Mediterranean, leaving one confirmed dead and two dozen missing. [Reuters]
AI-generated images of extreme poverty, children, and sexual violence survivors are flooding stock photo sites and increasingly being used by leading health NGOs, according to global health professionals who have voiced concern over a new era of “poverty porn.” [The Guardian]
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