ID: 1852
Presenting Author: Fidanka McGrath
Session: 669 - Building Trust: Strengthening Accountability and Communication in Development Finance
Status: pending
Drawing on experience of communities and rights defenders, this session examines how dialogue and accountability can help achieve compliance and successful development impact.
Civil society organisations with mission to protect nature and human rights can play an important role in empowering communities and environmental and human rights defenders (EHRDs) to navigate public consultations, grievance handling and dispute resolution processes in development projects. For example, from the early stages of project development they can point out to limitations of the scope of impact assessments; during stakeholder engagement they can facilitate the inclusion of marginalised and vulnerable groups; or they can represent and advise complainants in grievance redress processes.
The presentation will share both successful and challenging examples of how civil society and EHRDs contribute to the three stages of project planning, monitoring and grievance handling. It will focus on EHRDs and communities’ evolving strategies to collect objective and verifiable information from the ground, address the threat of reprisals, and open up space for dialogue and trust-building. It will also underline the diverse interests and perspectives of different affected groups, within and among communities, and will propose practical approaches for E&S practitioners to ensure successful project outcomes.
Since 2004 Fidanka Bacheva-McGrath has led Bankwatch’s work on transparency and accountability of public finance, while supporting affected communities in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.