Global / Thailand

International Accountability Project

about

What we do

Our mission

IAP works in solidarity with communities, civil society and social movements to inform and amplify their campaigns, broaden access to information, and create spaces within and outside dominant power systems for communities to lead the development decisions that affect their lives and environment.

 What we document

Using community-led research, IAP works in solidarity with communities to leverage their own priorities to advance and lead campaigns. We exchange tools and participate in training with local groups to strengthen their campaigns. 

IAP works with 500+ civil society groups who partnered with the Early Warning System to exchange information, advice, tools and resources with communities, the local organizations supporting them to inform development actors–ideally before funding is decided. The information exchanged includes accessible information about projects being proposed at major development finance institutions, including the roles of any private actors, and critical data from community-led research efforts, With data from local communities and development finance institutions, the Early Warning System exposes trends in development by sector, bank, geography and community response. 

Read more: ews.rightsindevelopment.org 

Through the Global Advocacy Team initiative, IAP and partners bring together incredible community activists from around the world to conduct community-led research and mobilize communities to strengthen local campaigns and collectively change development policy. To do this, the Global Advocacy Team reinforces existing local campaigns with community-led data and identifying development priorities. Based on real-life experiences, the Global Advocacy Team presents formal policy recommendations to change how development is designed, funded and implemented. The next iteration of the Global Advocacy Team will train 8 community organizers from around the world to organize and create their own community-led development plans.
Read more: bit.ly/IAP_GAT

How we ensure community leadership as part of the process

IAP collectively organizes, produces and distributes information on development and community priorities with local groups and communities. We work collaboratively to monitor and track the practices of development finance institutions and integrate data and recommendations from community-led research to create broader policy change.

As elaborated in our Community Action Guide on Community-led Research, we believe that research and monitoring should be community-led. The Community Action Guides demystify the development process, introduce the actors involved, and offer strategies for community-led solutions to development. These are reinforced with collective exercises and accessible case examples about how other communities around the world have responded to development challenges. Read more: bit.ly/IAP_Action

IAP interrupts and shifts who produces, holds and has access to information about development to a shared civil society space. To expose violations and abuses in the existing development process, through community-led research we reinforce communities asserting their role and demands.

IAP practices mutual listening and learning to grow the collective understanding to change how today’s development is done. Recognizing the wealth of knowledge and historic discrimination, we prioritize partnerships with groups led by and involving youth, women, and indigenous peoples.

 Read more about our approach in IAP’s new strategic plan 2021-2025 https://accountabilityproject.org/strategic-plan/ 

 Successes and achievements

With innovative technology, IAP expands the movement’s ability to monitor projects and practices of development finance institutions. We complement the expertise gathered through community-led research to inform campaigns and development priorities. IAP and partners proactively share verified information with communities to be affected by 12,000+ development projects globally since 2015. IAP has supported 27 community-led campaigns in 20 countries. 

 The first Global Advocacy Team’s community-led research resulted in the report, Back to Development: What Development Could Be. This was one of the largest community-led research reports on development — more than 1000 people were involved and over 17,500 copies of the report have been printed or downloaded. The report’s recommendations by 8 community organizers from 8 countries created a platform on which IAP is now working toward realizing community-led development.