Across Visegrad countries we’re talking about development
January 28, 2016
Summing up an exciting year of awareness raising about development finance, a new video shows moments from four events in the Visegrad countries Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
Report finds development banks fail people harmed by their projects
January 27, 2016
A new report launched today documents the hurdles communities and workers face in obtaining remedy from development banks whose projects cause them harm. The 11 civil society organizations that authored the report, Glass Half Full? The State of Accountability in Development Finance, call on development banks and the governments that run them to strengthen their systems for providing remedy to those harmed by the activities financed by the banks.
Glass Half Full? The state of accountability in development finance
January 27, 2016
Real development respects human rights and is shaped by the people it is designed to benefit. However, development projects financed by development finance institutions in many cases has been associated with the dispossession of land, loss of resources, diminished livelihoods and environmental degradation. Accountability mechanisms in theory aim to ensure that people who have been harmed by these projects receive adequate remedy. As this report shows, however, these accountability mechanisms to a large extent fail to fulfil this function, not least because they operate in a constrained environment constructed by the institutions that administer them.
Dundee denies chemical poison claims
January 19, 2016
Dundee Precious Metals (DPM) says the international environment watchdog CEE Bankwatch is making false and misleading claims about exposure to arsenic as alleged by the town’s people. DPM argues that Bankwatch’s claims are not supported by the regular health surveys conducted in Tsumeb under the supervision of the Namibian government and independent medical specialists. Bankwatch said in a statement issued on December 22, 2015 that information available to it “shows that arsenic levels have been way above safe limits defined by health institutions.”
Arseenvlakke ‘steeds te hoog’
December 29, 2015
In ’n nuwe verklaring wat CEE Bankwatch Network op 22 Desember uitgereik het, hou die organisasie vol dat gesondheidsverslae verspreide “oormatige blootstelling” van giftige arseen by Dundee Precious Metals (DPM) se smeltery op Tsumeb bevestig. Die organisasie se aanspraak is gebaseer op ’n voorlopige verslag van agtereenvolgende toetse wat die Namibiese regering tussen 2011 en 2013 gedoen het wat tot die gevolgtrekking gekom het dat “onlangse urinêre arseenkonsentrasies wydverspreide, oormatige blootstelling op die aanleg” bevestig het. Dié verslag is in Augustus 2013 bekend gemaak.
Health reports confirmed widespread over-exposure to toxic arsenic at Tsumeb smelter in Namibia
December 22, 2015
Following Bankwatch’s revelations about toxic pollutants at the Tsumeb smelter in Namibia, the smelter’s owner, Canadian mining company Dundee Precious Metals (DPM), contested our findings in Namibian news reports. Without substantiating its claims with facts, however, and in light of the results of local health surveys the company’s reassurances ring hollow and meaningless.
Public development banks failing 2 degree test, heavy fossil fuel financing persists
December 17, 2015
The MDB Climate Change Scorecard, published by Bank Information Center and Sierra Club during COP21, highlights how none of the world’s biggest multi-lateral development banks is on track to help keep the world below 2 degrees warming, and reveals how the seven banks in question – including the World Bank, the EIB and the EBRD – are continuing to support fossil fuel projects in developing countries.
Exporting toxic pollution from Europe to Namibia
December 17, 2015
The case of the Tsumeb smelter in Namibia demonstrates how European pollution is being exported to the Global South with the indirect help of public development money.
The newly proposed World Bank Safeguards – A paper tiger?
December 17, 2015
The social and environmental policies of the World Bank – commonly referred to as the ‘Safeguards’ – have been under review since 2012. In July 2015, as part of this review, the World Bank, released a second draft of the Safeguards for consultation and public comments.
In Hungary, students find the answer to the 7.5 billion question
December 11, 2015
In September 2015, 164 classes totalling 4 000 high school students participated in a half-year contest by Bankwatch member group MTVSZ culminating in December’s final event, where the top ten teams from around the country helped close the 2015 European Year of Development.
