On
21-22 April 2016 a brainstorming workshop on “The Future Development Finance
and Accountability Landscape” was organized by Natural Justice, Columbia University’s
Institute for the Study of Human Rights, Center of Concern, the Heinrich Böll
Foundation, and Inclusive Development International, with the support of the
11th Hour Project. The aim of the workshop was to bring together experts in
finance, development finance, infrastructure development, and human rights to
build an understanding of the current and future infrastructure financing system
and develop a plan for where to focus efforts in order to ensure that financers
of infrastructure are accountable to international human rights standards.
The
workshop served as an opportunity for people from many different backgrounds –
private finance, pension funds, the UN, civil society, academics, and others –
to sit together and share information and experiences on financing
infrastructure. One of the key take aways from the workshop was that while so
called “downstream” accountability (e.g. remedies after harm has occurred) is
critical, building more accountability at the “upstream” (e.g. project design,
procurement) level is equally important. Unless human rights impacts are taken
into account in project design and financing, communities will always be
playing catch up during implementation.
The
workshop report can be found here.
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