Understanding Community Harm Part 6: Cultural Heritage

June 2022

In this month's edition of the Console Newsletter, Research Fellow Anthony Williams continues our series in understanding community harm through their article about cultural heritage issues in complaints to IAMs. Representing six percent of all complaints, cultural heritage issues relate to any type of tangible or intangible cultural heritage, including significant sites, unique environmental features, cultural knowledge, and traditional lifestyles. But what does a successful compliance review investigation mean if communities still do not have remedy after eight years, such as the Indigenous people fighting the Jharkhand water project in India?

Research: Understanding Community Harm Part 6: Cultural Heritage

By Anthony Williams — June 6, 2022

Only six percent of all complaints filed to accountability offices raise issues related to cultural heritage. We use the case of a water project in Jharkhand, India to illuminate how deep this harm goes.

Accountability Spotlight

Noteworthy updates on Bank and IAM policy and practice

CSOs Demand More Engagement During AfDB Annual Meetings

Civil society organizations are calling on the African Development Bank (AfDB) to stop funding projects that exacerbate the climate crisis, damage the environment, and cause human rights violations. The participants of the civil society strategy session are calling on the AfDB to do the following: 1) Protect environment by update of the Energy Sector Policy; 2) Ensure participatory processes in policies, programmes, and projects; 3) Prioritize community-led development and human rights-based approaches; 4) Creation of a remedy fund to address negative impacts from projects; 5) End inequality, poverty, and the cutback and privatization of vital services; and 6) Protect African countries from the increasing debt crisis.

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