Lessons and Strategies from ‘Follow the Money’

Impressive new online “resource hub” emerging from the experience of Inclusive Development International in its “Follow the Money” investigations work mapping out the byzantine financial arrangements behind the oil & gas, mining, hydropower, and other projects. A ton of tools, straightforward explanations, links to resources, descriptions of strategies, and, always my favorite, interesting case studies. Here, for example, IDI shows the specific steps and tools it used to dig into the financing of a gold mine in Guinea, that revealed an intermediary lender that had received a loan from the IFC that IDI was able to link to mine financing. This opened up the possibility for the affected communities to file a complaint with the IFC’s accountability mechanism, the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, which was found admissible. In this case study, IDI goes through the specific steps and tools it used to track which consumer brands were sourcing palm oil from a certain Indonesia provider. Fascinating work that a lot of folks could learn from.