The brief, “Restricted Participation: Recent Trends in Latin America that Undermine the Right to Participation in the Context of Development Projects”, prepared in collaboration with several members and partners from Latin America, documents and highlights two regulatory trends in Latin America that seriously restrict civic space in the context of development projects:
- Laws that improperly regulate civil society organizations in ways that limit their autonomy and independence and threaten their existence.
- The weakening of environmental safeguards, which reduces opportunities for participation and access to information.
“Development finance institutions should not treat restrictions on civic space as political issues outside their mandate. On the contrary, they must recognize that they pose serious risks to people affected by their projects,to their development objectives, and to their operations, while also undermining the implementation of their participation policies.”