Supporting Compliance and Accountability of Private Sector Actors in Education: GI-ESCR and EACHRights Joint Submissions on the CAO Draft Policy
Last 19 May 2021, GI-ESCR and the East African Center for Human Rights (EACHRights) submitted their joint recommendations on the draft Compliance Advisor/ Ombudsman (CAO) Policy. Our joint contribution is grounded on our first-hand experience supporting and advising complainants in several CAO cases over the last three years, in both compliance and dispute resolution processes, related to the impact of privatisation on the right to education. We hope that this change in policy increases CAO’s influence including at policy level, raises accountability by IFC and MIGA clients, and facilitates more efficient operation by CAO, especially in the complaints handling processes.
GI-ESCR and EACHRights have engaged with the consultation process of the review of the Policy from the outset, including by participating in the African Regional Forum that took place on 29 April 2021. They have now addressed their joint recommendations on the draft Compliance Advisor/ Ombudsman (CAO) Policy to the Working Group on the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) Independent Accountability Mechanism.
Our experience has informed our engagement in and recommendations to the CAO policy to ensure that communities have access to accountability mechanisms and to support independence and robust resourcing of the CAO.
Our recommendations
Key elements in our recommendations include to:
- determinate time for investigation, screening and review of cases to reduce unnecessary delays that may increase harm to the aggrieved communities;
- increase the access to information including publication of all cases lodged with the CAO;
- set up a transitionary framework that that will ensure that cases already before the CAO at whichever stage do not get delated or disrupted by the change in policy.
We look forward to more engagement with the process to support the independence, effectiveness and efficiency of the CAO in order to enhance compliance and accountability of the private sector funded by IFC and MIGA.
GI-ESCR’s work on the issue
GI-ESCR has played a leading role in monitoring and demanding accountability for the impact of privatisation on human rights since 2015 and achieved significant results in this regard. For example, in April 2020, the IFC set a new precedent in upholding the right to education by issuing an official commitment to freeze investments in private for-profit pre-primary, primary, and secondary schools.
What are CAO, IFC and MIGA?
The Office of the Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman (CAO) is a recourse mechanism for projects supported by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) of the World Bank Group. IFC and MIGA are the private sector affiliates of the World Bank; and CAO is an independent office mandated to address complaints related to IFC and MIGA projects and to enhance environmental and social outcomes of projects in which those institutions play a role.