The board of the International Finance Corporation has sent the private sector lender back to the drawing board to rethink its plan for responding to allegations that it turned a blind eye to years of child sex abuse at a chain of Kenyan schools it funded.
Specifically, board members have said they want to see financial compensation for the alleged victims, multiple sources told Devex. This could set a precedent for other international financial institutions to pay remediation costs to communities harmed by their projects.
IFC, the Washington, D.C.-based private sector arm of the World Bank, now has a month to resubmit its management action plan after the board turned it down when it met last Thursday, although a World Bank source told Devex that the meeting is set to take place within two weeks.
About the author
Sophie Edwards
Sophie Edwards is a Devex Contributing Reporter covering global education, water and sanitation, and innovative financing, along with other topics. She has previously worked for NGOs, and the World Bank, and spent a number of years as a journalist for a regional newspaper in the U.K. She has a master's degree from the Institute of Development Studies and a bachelor's from Cambridge University.
