From October 12–18, 2026, the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will hold their Annual Meetings in Bangkok, Thailand. Together with our members and partners, we will be there to expose the harms caused by World Bank-funded projects and policies, demand stronger safeguards and accountability, and amplify the voices and demands of affected communities – both inside the Annual Meetings and through the counter-events taking place throughout the week.

We will also use this moment to connect, strategize, and build solidarity with civil society organizations and social movements working for a different vision of development that puts people and the planet before profit. In this page, you can read more about our key concerns and demands, some of the projects that our partners are resisting or monitoring, a calendar with the main events, and a list of further articles and resources.

Our key concerns

In recent months, the World Bank Group has come under increasing scrutiny for:

• a new wave of controversial and harmful investments, including its promotion of “false climate solutions” rather than a truly just energy transition;
• investing in countries with closed civic space where it is virtually impossible to hold meaningful consultations;
• its role in the US-led Board of Peace and its highly problematic approach to reconstruction efforts in Gaza;
• further weakening, rather than strengthening, its accountability system while failing to remedy past harms.

Geothermal projects (Indonesia)

In Indonesia, the World Bank is funding the Geothermal Resource Risk Mitigation Project (GREM), an initiative designed to de-risk and catalyse private investment in geothermal exploration. Indonesian communities, including many Indigenous communities, are raising the alarm around the environmental and social impacts of these projects. Geothermal operations require massive volumes of water, straining local supplies, and some plants have triggered local water shortages and dangerous mudflow risks. Land clearance for well pads, pipelines, and access roads directly disrupts fragile natural habitats and local ecologies. Additionally, communities living close to geothermal sites report environmental pollution, loss and livelihood and health issues. And in many cases, those who raise concerns have faced reprisals.

Metro Manila waste-to-energy project (Philippines)

In 2018, the World Bank approved USD 207 million in financing for the Metro Manila Flood Management Project. Initially, the project included financing a Waste-to-Energy (WTE) plant in an area known as Smokey Mountain. Following an initial feasibility study, the bank withdrew their support for the WTE ,but it is still supporting associated infrastructure. The project affects urban poor communities, who are being forcibly evicted from their homes, are not receiving adequate compensation, are losing their livelihoods as wastepickers, and are set to face worsening air pollution. The project is also expected to increase the public debt burden, and concerns about corruption have been raised.

Rogun dam (Tajikistan)

The World Bank for example approved a $650 million grant to fund the controversial Rogun hydroelectric project in Tajikistan, one of the world’s most repressive countries. This mega dam risks causing major environmental, social and financial impacts in Tajikistan and other countries downstream, with around 60,000 people expected to be displaced. However, the concerns of the affected communities risk remaining unheard, because of the restricted civic space and resulting climate of fear.

Quilombola communities resist Aperam BioEnergia’s eucalyptus plantation (Brazil)

The Jequitinhonha Valley, in the northeast of Minas Gerais, Brazil, is home to a large number of Quilombola communities whose lives and livelihoods are deeply rooted in their territories, waters, forests, agriculture, and traditional knowledge. These territories have long been under pressure from large-scale economic projects, particularly the expansion of eucalyptus monoculture for charcoal production. One of the main actors in this landscape is Aperam BioEnergia, a company that manages approximately 124,000 hectares in the Upper Jequitinhonha and produces charcoal for Aperam’s steel production. In 2025, the IFC approved financing of up to €250 million for Aperam, including support for the expansion of its bioenergy operations and the acquisition of approximately 42,600 hectares of land.

This expansion takes place in territories where communities have historically cultivated food, collected native products, raised animals, protected water sources and maintained ways of life built through generations. It raises fundamental questions about territorial rights, racial justice and self-determination: who has the power to define what happens to these territories, whose knowledge and interests are considered in decisions about development, and who bears the social and environmental costs of projects presented as sustainable? Read more in this blog and in this briefing by our Coalition’s member Instituo Maira.

Opening of a Quilombola gathering with a collective song (May 2026).

A serious accountability gap

For years civil society groups and affected communities have been raising concerns about the shortcomings of the World Bank’s accountability system. But instead of addressing these concerns and improving its mechanisms, the Bank has weakened them, making it harder for affected communities to seek remedy and hold the institution accountable.

In June 2026, the Bank’s Board of Directors took the unprecedented decision to reject the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman’s (CAO) findings of harm caused by IFC investments in Cambodia’s microfinance sector. The well-documented harms include the loss of land and livelihoods, hunger, increased suicide risks, and threats of retaliation. Despite the CAO investigation confirming IFC’s noncompliance with its own environmental and social requirements, the Board explicitly discounted its findings and recommendations. As a result, CAO Director General, Janine Ferretti, resigned.

These actions severely undermine the Bank’s commitment to accountability, at a critical time when the institution is rearranging its decades-long accountability system. Civil society groups have also been raising serious concerns about the recent merger of the institution’s public sector and private sector accountability mechanisms, as it prioritizes efficiency over accountability.

Fuelling conflict under the slogans of peace and reconstruction

Amidst the ongoing genocide in the occupied Palestinian Territory, almost 200 civil society groups and human rights advocates have signed a joint statement to denounce the World Bank’s role as the limited Trustee for the Gaza reconstruction fund and as a member of the executive board of the Board of Peace (BoP). Behind the pretext of reconstructing Gaza, the Board of Peace – and the complicit, supporting institutions such as the World Bank – are entrenching Israel’s occupation, opening the door to further land theft and corporate capture, while eschewing accountability and crushing Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

Calendar

Scroll through the carousel or check out the section below to see the events organised by the Coalition’s members and partners on the sidelines of the World Bank Annual Meetings!

Please note that some events are still being finalized. If you would like to add an event or add details, please email us at: lcotza@rightsindevelopment.org

Thursday 15

• Counterdocket organized by JASS and allies  (further info available soon)

• 15:00 – 17:00 – Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and the World Bank Group: Collective Demands for Policy Reforms and Access to Remedy (OSF office – Victor Club FYI Center) – Co-organized by: Recourse, AIPNEE, FPP, TallGrass Institute

• Civil Society Policy Forum Sessions (Queen Sirikit CC)
  • 9:00-10:30 (2-211D) – Mission 300 at 50 Million Connections: Assessing Implementation and Impact

Friday 16

• • 16:30 – 18:30 – People’s Assembly – Global Day of Action

Reading list

• “No accountability, no peace: why the World bank cannot be trusted in Gaza” (op-ed by Siddharth Akali and Basma Eid)
• “Why we cannot celebrate the World Bank’s 80-year anniversary” (op-ed by Titi Soentoro, Mbole Veronique, Verónica Gostissa)
• IFC exposed – a micro-site collecting advocacy letters and case studies as part of the campaign around the IFC review of its performance standards.
• “IFC/MIGA Sustainability Framework review: 116 civil society organisations demand stronger safeguards“
• “Who Shapes the Economy? Feminist Reflections on the IFIs and the Struggle for a Just System” by Imene Cherif – Research & Economic Justice Advisor – MenaFem Movement
• Bretton Woods project – Challenging the World Bank and IMF’s power to build a democratic, rights-based multilateral system
• “World Bank accountability mechanisms merger: The decision is made – now comes the hard part” (analysis by Dustin Schäfer, Urgewald)
• “Opinion: At the World Bank, “Efficiency” is Code for “Weak Accountability” (op-ed by Stephanie Amoako & Megan Pearson, Accountability Counsel)
• “World Bank’s private sector safeguards are harming communities — it must update them” (op-ed by Daniel Willis, Recourse)
• “Principles and recommendations to guide the IFC/MIGA Sustainability Framework review” (by Recourse)