The Good Hegemon: How the United States helps People hold the Multilateral Development Banks to Account

The Good Hegemon

For decades the Multilateral Development Banks have had environmental and social policies to protect communities from direct harm resulting from MDB financed development projects. Over time the MDBs created accountability mechanisms to provide recourse for people adversely affected by loans for developing projects from the World Bank, World Bank Group, African, Asian, Inter-American Development Banks, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. This book examines how and why they emerged, how they have changed over time, and whether they change the culture of the Banks. It argues that the US helped people hold the development banks to account through pushing for their creation. Following from a tradition of using accountability mechanisms to control the MDBs, the US used the same processes to demand accountability mechanisms for justice. Over time it would demand the mechanisms be reformulated when they proved not to work. While they have become more transparent and responsive over time, the accountability mechanisms do not challenge the Banks culture of lending.

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SSEAC Stories Podcast: Addressing Environmental and Social Harm through Global Governance

As instruments of global governance, Multilateral Development Banks were created to lend developing states capital for economic growth and development that they could not access from private capital markets. Despite their positive aims, these international organisations have often come under fire and received harsh criticism for their lending practices on economic, political, environmental, and human rights grounds. In particular, the Banks have been the focus of attention for being unaccountable for their actions.

Professor Susan Park chats with Dr Natali Pearson about global governance and Multilateral Development Banks, with a specific focus on accountability mechanisms in the Asian Development Bank.

SSEAC Stories is a podcast series produced by the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre at the University of Sydney. Experts join us in every episode to explore the latest research and share their insights on a wide range of topics pertaining to Southeast Asia.

Listen below!