Forest Peoples Programme has joined with other NGOs to express concern with accountability at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)

FPP has registered its concern in a public statement on the impending decision of the AIIB's Board on a proposed Accountability Framework which decides who approves the use of taxpayer’s money in project funding. It appears the AIIB is proposing to give the power to approve some projects to the Bank’s Management, rather than the Bank’s 12-member Executive Board. The proposal undermines accountability and the opportunity for public scrutiny, and as such brings into question the AIIB's governance and its promise to operate along its principles of being lean, clean and green.

FPP has also joined comments on the AIIB’s proposed Draft Complaints Handling Mechanism. The joint submission (accompanied by an annex listing detailed comments) expresses concern that the Bank is proposing an Independent Accountability Mechanism for community complaints which falls well below the standards of other such mechanisms in terms of accessibility and transparency, despite promises from the Bank that it would adopt best practice in this area. Overall there are real concerns that the proposed mechanism fails to achieve its stated purpose of preventing and resolving harms experienced by project-affected communities.

The public statement, joint submission and accompanying annex are available for download below.