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Panel Discusses Efforts to Address Reprisals Against Complainants 

AFDB_Outreach_2021

Panel Member Ramanie Kunanayagam on April 28, 2021, joined a virtual workshop sponsored by the independent accountability mechanism (IAM) of the African Development Bank and the Graca Machel Trust to discuss the issue of reprisals against those who bring cases to the Panel and ways to lessen such retaliation. At the workshop for civil society representatives in eight southern African nations, Ms. Kunanayagam spoke about efforts by the Panel and World Bank to address reprisals against complainants and the limitations and challenges to those efforts. 

The Panel is preparing an advisory report on intimidation and reprisals against complainants. It will be published later this year. The Panel was the first independent IAM at an international financial institution to issue guidelines aimed at addressing reprisals against complainants.

At the April 28 workshop Ms. Kunanayagam also discussed the work of the Panel and other IAMs, and Panel analyst Camila Jorge do Amaral showed participants how to find project information on the World Bank website. Ms. Kunanayagam and Senior External Affairs Officer Rob Doherty answered questions from participants, including on whether Requests for Inspection filed by civil society organizations (CSOs) are “more successful” than those filed by communities alone and the challenges the Inspection panel face when complaints are submitted by CSOs.

CSO representatives participating in the workshop were from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.