Giving Compass' Take:

• The Accountability Counsel tracks the result of impact investments to ensure that the results are a net positive for the impacted community. 

• Is 'do no harm' a strong enough position, or should impact investments be held to a higher 'do good' standard? How can investors track their own investments to ensure benefit? 

• Learn how technology can help to democratize impact investing.

Impact investors seek social change and sustainability. This interview with Accountability Counsel founder and Executive Director Natalie Bridgeman Fields describes the tools needed for effective philanthropy.

How does the work of Accountability Counsel differ from that of other public interest nonprofits operating in developing countries?

Accountability Counsel amplifies the voices of communities around the world to protect their human rights and environment. As advocates for people harmed by internationally financed projects, we employ community driven and policy-level strategies to access justice.

Many projects result in unintended negative consequences. Could you discuss one or two examples related to the work of Accountability Counsel?

In 2013, we were confronted with a striking example of this when communities harmed by an OPIC-financed biomass project in Liberia approached us for support. The project’s owners, the McCall MacBain Foundation and Pamoja Capital, sold the project as an impact investment. As rubber trees were felled, and the project failed, it sent family farmers into poverty.

The trees felled for the failed biomass plant removed access to cheap sources of rubber wood for charcoal, causing this “green energy” project to drive charcoalers into the natural forest, resulting in deforestation. In yet another unintended consequence, chemically-treated wood chips from rubber trees were dumped back onto family farms, where they contaminated the drinking water. We also documented labor rights violations and sexual exploitation caused by the project, including women and girls being extorted for sex to get access to twigs and branches they needed to burn into charcoal to keep their families alive.

In that case, we carefully documented the harm, how it violated OPIC’s due diligence policies, and shared the findings with OPIC and Congress. It led to an OPIC investigation as well as U.S. congressional oversight and a formal review of OPIC’s policy framework. At a policy level, our impact was an OPIC recommitment to its own Office of Accountability and a revised OPIC Environmental and Social Policy Statement that incorporated much of our public comment.

Read the full interview with Luciana Herman about accountibility for impact investing by Natalie Bridgeman Fields at Stanford Law School.