The EBRD in Sub-Saharan Africa: Expanding Horizons, Expanding Harm?

May 2025

The EBRD is celebrating its expansion into Sub-Saharan Africa and Iraq at next week’s Annual Meetings. However, the Bank should recognize that expanding operations requires increased attention to preventing and remediating project-related harm to communities. Comparing data from community complaints about investments in Sub-Saharan Africa to complaints about the EBRD’s current operations shows that the EBRD needs to anticipate increased risks of negative impacts - and develop a remedy and responsible exit framework to ensure that its expanding horizons do not expand harm.

Research: The EBRD in Sub-Saharan Africa: Expanding Horizons, Expanding Harm?

By Megan Pearson — May 6, 2025

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is expanding into Sub-Saharan Africa and Iraq. Unless it ramps up its policies to prevent and remedy negative environmental and social impacts, the EBRD risks replicating harm from international development finance that communities in the region are already experiencing.

Accountability Spotlight

Noteworthy updates on Bank and IAM policy and practice

New report highlights accountability gaps in Nepal’s renewable energy transition

A new report by Accountability Counsel and Lawyers Association for Human Rights of Nepalese Indigenous Peoples (LAHURNIP), “Hanging by a Thread: Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in Renewable Energy Transition”, reveals how multilateral development banks and authorities in Nepal have repeatedly bypassed or weakened the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) in hydropower projects. The findings point to a systemic accountability failure in the global push for renewable energy, underscoring the urgent need to center Indigenous Peoples’ rights in climate finance and infrastructure development.

International Finance Corporation publishes Interim Remedial Action Framework

IFC/MIGA has published a remedial action framework (RAF) in response to longstanding calls to strengthen its approach to preventing and remediating project-related harm. While the RAF still falls short of key demands from project-affected communities, it is an important step forward and sets the bar for other development finance institutions.

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