A Bellwether for Harm: Inadequate Community Consultation

Meaningful consultation and information disclosure are widely recognized as essential safeguards for responsible development finance. But what happens when those safeguards fail? Drawing on Accountability Counsel's database of 2,427 complaints submitted to Independent Accountability Mechanisms (IAMs), this article examines whether complaints alleging inadequate consultation and disclosure are more likely to also report broader environmental, social, and human rights harms. The findings reveal strong associations between consultation and disclosure failures and displacement, livelihood impacts, environmental degradation, community health and safety risks, and harms affecting Indigenous Peoples and cultural heritage. The article argues that meaningful consultation should be understood not only as a procedural requirement, but also as an early warning sign of broader project risk with important implications for development finance institutions, project success, and accountability.