About the Bank Information Center
BIC's mission
The Bank Information Center (BIC) partners with civil society in developing and transition countries to influence the World Bank and other international financial institutions (IFIs) to promote social and economic justice and ecological sustainability. BIC is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization that advocates for the protection of rights, participation, transparency, and public accountability in the governance and operations of the World Bank, regional development banks, and IMF.
The above mission rests on the core premise that socially and environmentally sustainable development is not possible without the informed and active participation of local communities. All too often, powerful interests prevent local voices from shaping development policy and projects. Many of the current economic and social crises affecting the world’s poor are in large part a result of their marginalization. By opening political space around development decision-making, BIC aims to ensure that local communities and civil society organizations have an important voice in decisions that affect them. BIC assists these groups through its information dissemination and capacity building activities, coalition building, project and policy monitoring, and advocacy support services.
BIC is supported by private foundations and organizations that work in the fields of environment and development. BIC is not affiliated with any of the Multilateral Development Banks, nor does it receive any funding from them.
View BIC's Brochure (Acrobat pdf, 6717 KB)
BIC's strategic plan
BIC's 2005-2008 Strategic Plan outlines the organization's core goal: to enhance the ability of local communities and civil society organizations to protect their rights and influence development strategies, projects, and policies.
It furthermore presents the key thematic areas through which BIC seeks to create space for civil society: rights, transparency, accountability, and participation.
Finally, the plan details the tools and services that BIC will use to ensure that civil society actors can participate effectively in development decision-making, including outreach, information services, knowledge sharing and partnerships with other organizations.
BIC Mid-Term Monitoring Report
BIC Mid-Term Monitoring Report 2006 (MS Word 83 KB)
The community BIC serves
BIC is a principal source of information for affected communities, non-governmental organizations and grassroots groups working to address the negative impacts of economic globalization. BIC is also a resource for government employees, IFI staff, the media, students, and the general public.
Why are the international financial institutions important?
The International Financial Institutions (IFIs) include the World Bank, the regional development banks, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). They are the largest source of development finance in the world, typically lending between US$30-$40 billion to low and middle-income countries each year.
The IFIs, and in particular the World Bank, are a primary source of development knowledge, publishing research that frames the debate on development issues. Other donor institutions often take their lead from the World Bank and the IMF, thus amplifying the impact of those institutions’ lending approaches and decisions.
IFI loans to finance investment projects and policy reforms in developing countries are intended to reduce poverty and encourage economic development. However, ill-conceived IFI loans have often caused widespread environmental and social damage including irreversible impacts on natural habitats, displaced communities, and indigenous peoples.
IFI activities are often carried out without the informed participation of affected people, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and-in many cases-even the legislatures of the Banks’ borrowing countries. Moreover, despite some progress the IFIs still do not release comprehensive information in a timely manner during project design and implementation. Finally, as publicly financed institutions, the IFIs should be held accountable for the consequences of the funds they loan to developing countries.
BIC program areas
BIC program activities are largely determined by the needs and demands of civil society organizations in the Global South. While the political and institutional landscape in which BIC operates continues to change, the basic services and reform efforts that have characterized BIC’s mission and strategy remain critical. BIC pursues its mission through three major strategies: (i) information services and capacity building; (ii) project and policy monitoring; and (iii) policy reform of the MDBs. These strategies require our persistent engagement with NGOs and grassroots social movements around the world to support their efforts to participate in and influence development decisions. For this reason, we have organized a large part of BIC’s program work by geographic regions, with staff dedicated to Asia, Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Central Asia and the Middle East and North Africa.
Working to democratize development
BIC’s work focuses on four essential elements to democratizing decision making within powerful public institutions:
- Protecting economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights, in part by promoting greater consistency between IFI safeguards and international law, standards, and norms.
- Promoting enhanced access to information by building civil society networks interested in access to information at the IFIs, promoting transparency at the regional development banks and strengthening recourse mechanisms available to the public when information is denied.
- Holding IFIs accountable by strengthening and extending the mandates of the World Bank Inspection Panel and internal accountability mechanisms at other IFIs, while at the same time promoting alternative channels of accountability.
- Demanding greater opportunities for civic engagement by evolving a set of lessons learned, principles, and guidelines that can help civil society set the terms of engagement in future IFI project and policy processes.
BIC services and tools
- Popular education materials, including the World Bank Toolkit for Activists and the Guide to Understanding the Asian Development Bank
- Access to hard-to-obtain project documents and other information on the international financial institutions
- Country and policy updates, for example the Extractive Industries Review Update
- Analytical work on key developments within the institutions and case studies of problem projects
- Strategic support for monitoring individual projects and policies, for example the Chad-Cameroon Oil Development and Pipeline Project and the Southern Transport Development Project in Sri Lanka
- Policy analysis and advocacy to promote rights, transparency, accountability and participation within the operations and governance of the institutions
BIC's Commitment to Transparency and the Environment
Given the nature of BIC's work, the organization assumes the highest transparency standards and undertakes to be open, honest and accountable about its activities and operations. BIC will pro-actively produce and disclose on its website relevant financial and budgetary information, and will also respond to information requests regarding the organization's operations. BIC also offsets carbon dioxide emissions generated by air travel of its employees.