November 2016

The Office of the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO)…is available to receive complaints regarding any project in which IFC or MIGA has financial involvement, provided there is a demonstrable connection to affected people…The CAO has three separate functions:

Ombudsman/Dispute Resolution: a problem-solving…function…

Compliance: conducts…investigations of IFC / MIGA’s own decision making

Advisor: provides advice to the IFC and MIGA about their policies…

This report draws on qualitative case studies of complaints made to the CAO about Wilmar…PT Weda Bay Nickel…and a group of Indian tea companies. Overall, the CAO ultimately made little tangible difference to human rights outcomes in these cases. This is partly attributable to factors outside the CAO’s mandate…but also to operational decisions…This suggests there is some potential for the CAO to make a greater contribution to human rights remedy…CAO could become more effective at providing human rights remedy…if some changes are made to the its operations in line with the lessons raised in this report…