The World Bank

Beginning in the late 1970s, independent observers began to criticize the World Bank and other international financial institutions for supporting some of the most environmentally damaging projects occurring in developing countries. These, mostly large, infrastructure projects were often associated with allegations of severe environmental damage, human rights abuses, and long-term negative effects on the economic well-being of the poor in project areas. Even assuming good intentions, the size and scale of many of the projects simply dwarfed the legal and policy infrastructure of the borrowing country. ¹ Moreover, the top-down model of development and poverty alleviation that reflected the Bank’s operations was soundly discredited by the 1992 Earth Summit’s endorsement of environmentally sustainable development. The concept of sustainable development, with its emphasis on the integration of environment and development, its recognition of the importance of human rights and governance issues to development, and its priority given to local participation in development decisions, presented new and broad challenges to World Bank operations.