The Accountability Toolkit
Explore tools and resources to stop harm, seek remedy, and strengthen accountability in bank-financed projects.
The Accountability Toolkit is your one-stop platform for tools, data, and insights to hold banks and companies accountable for harm they cause to people and the planet. It highlights a little known but potentially transformative strategy: using international complaint offices that can receive community complaints about harmful projects and require decision-makers to respond.
Created by Accountability Counsel, the Toolkit supports human rights and environmental defenders, as well as their allies, to use complaint offices to protect their communities and their environment, and fight for systemic change to prevent future harm. Whether you're filing a complaint, researching outcomes, or advocating for more sustainable investments, this platform is built to support your work.
How to use the Accountability Toolkit
Concerned about a bank or company's activities that are causing, or threatening, harm to people or the environment? Use this Toolkit to explore your options, build your strategy and take action:
Not sure where to begin? Start with the Complaint Pathfinder
Have questions about a specific complaint, how complaint offices work, or when to use them? Contact our team for tailored support
Ready to file a complaint? Try the Complaint Builder
Looking for data? Explore the Complaint Dashboard
Comparing policies? Use the Policy Comparison Tool
Want to dig deeper? Visit the Research Library
Why focus on banks and investors specifically?
In short, money is power; if you can pause or delay the funding for a project, you can stop a project altogether, or force changes to it. If you can change a bank’s investment policies, you can influence trillions of dollars of investments globally to be more just and sustainable.
In addition
- Investors often set the standards of the project. For example, the World Bank Groups IFC Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability not only govern the World Bank's private sector investments, they have also been adopted by hundreds of banks worldwide;
- Investors can shift the power dynamic of disputes between communities and companies: creating opportunities for different alignments;
- Targeting international investors may increase the visibility of your concerns;
- And some of them have complaint offices.
What are complaint offices, and when can I use them?
The activities of many banks and companies can now be challenged through complaint offices (also known as “accountability mechanisms”), designed to hear community concerns about harmful projects and try to resolve them. Filing such a complaint is free and does not require a lawyer.
When they work well, complaint offices provide a practical, community-centered way to raise concerns about environmental and human rights risks and impacts. In some cases, they can lead to the suspension or redesign of harmful projects, compensation for harm caused, and/or changes to policy or practice to prevent harm in the future. Communities can use these complaint strategies to defend their lives, livelihoods and local environments, as well as to stop climate change and change institutional practices to protect people and the planet globally.
However, these strategies are not well known, have some key weaknesses, and can be complex to navigate. We have created this Toolkit to support communities and their allies to learn about complaint office strategies, use them effectively, and advocate for more responsible investments. If you are new to learning about complaint offices, we recommend starting with our Complaint Pathfinder.
If you have feedback or questions about the Toolkit
Learn more about Accountability Counsel