IDB Invest is committed to promoting sustainable development through the private sector in Latin America and the Caribbean. As a development finance institution focused on impact, its mandate is to add value through financial and non-financial solutions that make a positive contribution to society.
To meet these goals, IDB Invest works with its private sector clients to promote the adoption of international good practices in environmental, social, and governance risk management, with a renewed focus on human rights, stakeholder engagement, gender, diversity, and prevention of reprisals.
Designing and implementing highly developmental projects requires dialogue and partnership approaches that incorporate multiple stakeholders’ perspectives. Involving interested and affected people as partners in development decisions legitimizes how project sponsors and governments balance the economic, social, and environmental performance aspects of the projects they support.
Identifying and engaging with stakeholders in a meaningful way is an essential element of our policy. IDB Invest encourages open, transparent, inclusive engagement between the client and stakeholders, particularly affected communities, as a key element to enhance the environmental and social sustainability of its investments.
The stakeholder engagement process is meant to be respectful and free of coercion or intimidation. Participants, including those who oppose the projects financed by IDB Invest, should be protected against any form of reprisal.
Reprisals may manifest in various ways such as verbal intimidation; threats; surveillance; property damage or loss; restrictions to freedom of movement; discrimination relating to employment; legal harassment and lawsuits, and physical attacks. Additional information on why it is important to identify reprisals is included in this infographic.
IDB Invest has zero tolerance and rejects any form of reprisal or retaliation against anybody who voices its opinion or opposition to IDB Invest-financed projects, including those who choose to access independent accountability mechanisms such as the Independent Consultation and Investigation Mechanism (ICIM) (See Guidelines for addressing risk of reprisals in complaint management). We have also expanded our transparency and engagement channels through our Access to Information Policy, and our Management Led Grievance Mechanism (MGM). IDB Invest stands in solidarity with those who have been victims of such deplorable practices.
Measures for Prevention of Reprisals and Retaliation
IDB Invest Sustainability Policy Implementation Manual provides guidance to the private sector on how to identify forms of retaliation and reprisals and includes measures that may be taken by project sponsors in those cases, such as:
• Emphasizing retaliation prevention at the early stages of the project.
• Incorporating an analysis of contextual risks, conflict, violence, and the risk of retaliation during the project’s environmental and social assessment process.
• Identifying and involving people at potential risk by consulting and collaborating with project stakeholders so that their concerns are reflected in project design and implementation.
In 2021 IDB Invest, in partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), published the Good Practice Note for the Private Sector: Addressing the Risks of Retaliation Against Project Stakeholders, a set of guidelines for the private sector on how to address these risks against project stakeholders by screening, preventing, and responding to incidents of reprisals and retaliation.