"FPIC at the IFC How Performance Standard 7 Could Better Protect Indigenous Peoples and Uphold Human Rights", 03 December, 2020

In 2012, launching new Performance Standards to guide the environmental and social sustainability of its investments, the World Bank’s private lending arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), established special safeguards for indigenous peoples. Under the Indigenous Peoples Performance Standard 7 (PS7), operators would be required to identify indigenous peoples affected by IFC investments and investigate whether conditions were present that would require the client to obtain the Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of those indigenous peoples… In eight years, IFC has applied its indigenous peoples performance standard in 29 projects out of a portfolio of 2116. No more than four have resulted in a documented FPIC process accepted by communities. Meanwhile, projects that bypassed FPIC have triggered ombudsman complaints, public protests and legal proceedings. IFC needs a stronger, clearer approach to PS7. This report details the gaps in current implementation and proposes a way forward… What is at stake is not only the integrity of the IFC and the Performance Standards that have served as a basis for global finance since 2006, but IFC sustainability goals themselves. Where Indigenous peoples are displaced, the forests, waterways, biodiversity, cultural heritage, development and the very notion of community are at stake…