The 2-year wait for a way to complain about USAID projects

In 2019, a story made headlines around the world. The World Wildlife Fund had spent millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars on anti-poaching forces in parks across Asia and Africa, only for those guards to be accused of rape, torture, and murder. The move sparked investigations, including by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, at the request of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources. Guided by the investigations, Congress identified that there were relatively weak mechanisms for communities to complain to the U.S. Agency for International Development about the impact of the projects it had funded. Accordingly, in 2020, USAID was directed to create an accountability structure, in order to address this, via an explanatory statement accompanying appropriations legislation. Almost two years later, USAID is still working on this mechanism and is yet to reveal what it might look like. Useful tools Accountability mechanisms have been widely used within the world of development to correct power imbalances. If a major donor backs a project intended to make improvements in a particular area, it can sometimes have negative consequences or not meet the needs of the local communities. In this case, those communities need an effective way to raise issues with the organizations funding the services. This was highlighted in a long-running case in Haiti, where 4,000 farmers were driven from their land at short notice to make way for the Caracol Industrial Park, funded by the Inter-American Development Bank and USAID. In this case, the farmers were able to raise the issue, with support from NGOs, via the IDB’s independent complaints mechanism and achieve a settlement. Such mechanisms already exist at the World Bank, the French development agency, several Japanese agencies, and at the majority of multilateral development banks. However, many other large bilateral and multilateral donors do not have accountability mechanisms. The United Kingdom, for example, has no formal accountability mechanisms for its major donor, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, or its development finance institution, the British International Investment. And Germany has no formal mechanisms for the German Corporation for International Development, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and Kfw Development Bank, its largest donors, although a common accountability mechanism exists for German, Dutch and French DFIs. Two other DFIs, the U.S. Development Finance Corporation and Findev Canada, are in the process of developing accountability mechanisms. A long time coming The original directive from Congress required USAID to respond within 90 days with clear proposals for how such a mechanism might work. But two years later, the accountability mechanism is still a work in progress, and USAID has still not published a consultation on what it might look like. The fiscal year 2022 appropriations legislation passed in March and contained a directive from Congress to report on progress so far. But progress is being made. The mechanism was mentioned in the recent draft USAID policy framework: “We will establish a functional accountability mechanism to enhance our ability to address social or environmental harms arising from our work,” it said. A USAID spokesperson said that an accountability mechanism is one of five recommended actions in USAID’s Agency Equity Action Plan, which has been approved by the administrator and submitted to the Office of Management and Budget. USAID said it had already detailed its progress to Congress — including actions such as setting up an Accountability Mechanism Working Group, consulting with internal and external stakeholders, reviewing existing accountability mechanisms, and spotting gaps within those existing mechanisms. The spokesperson said a detailed report would be submitted to Congress, in line with the most recent directive, and would be made public thereafter. Best practices USAID’s consultation on an accountability mechanism will be a key point, said Stephanie Amoako, a senior policy associate at Accountability Counsel, which advocates for people harmed by internationally financed projects. Accountability Counsel has been lobbying for USAID to create an accountability mechanism for some time and was closely involved in supporting farmers displaced by Caracol in Haiti to make their case. Amoako called on USAID to follow the U.N. guiding principles on business and human rights. “They include what are called the effectiveness criteria for operational non judicial grievance mechanisms,” she said. “There is a long list of best practices, but the effectiveness criteria include transparency, accessibility, legitimacy, predictability, compatibility with human rights … and then a source of continuous learning.” “We’re asking USAID constantly about the delay in delivering this mechanism,” she said. “The commitments USAID has made are positive, but they mean little to communities unless they are implemented. What we need now is a consultation on what this mechanism will actually look like, and then immediate implementation post consultation." Amoako admitted that while accountability mechanisms elsewhere have proven effective at helping communities demonstrate when harm was done, they have not always been as useful when it comes to fixing the situation. She said that institutions had either not learned lessons and changed practice to ensure mistakes are not repeated. Or they had not delivered a remedy to those harmed — as in the case in Haiti, where many farmers are still awaiting compensation. Amoako said that work on a remedial framework is currently being piloted by the International Finance Corporation, an arm of the World Bank, and that she’s expecting a consultation on that framework before the end of the year. “It needs to be comprehensive and strong not only for communities harmed by IFC projects but also to set out rights-based remedy principles for all development institutions,” she said. “We seek for USAID to establish an accountability framework that results in remedy as well.”