U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, which finances private sector development solutions, has asked its independent office that reviews complaints to investigate its investment in Bridge International Academies, a for-profit chain of schools where child sex abuse was reported in Kenya in 2020.
The DFC review comes after a separate probe into a 2013 investment the World Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation, made in Bridge. IFC’s internal watchdog received reports of sexual abuse in Bridge schools in 2020 and an investigation found that IFC had failed on multiple counts, including staff turning a blind eye to reports of abuse and interfering in the investigation.
The IFC watchdog, the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, recently released the investigation report and the full details appear to have pushed DFC to further examine its own investment in the company.
About the author
Adva Saldinger@AdvaSal
Adva Saldinger is a Senior Reporter at Devex where she covers development finance, as well as U.S. foreign aid policy. Adva explores the role the private sector and private capital play in development and authors the weekly Devex Invested newsletter bringing the latest news on the role of business and finance in addressing global challenges. A journalist with more than 10 years of experience, she has worked at several newspapers in the U.S. and lived in both Ghana and South Africa.