Latin America

The following is a list of environmental, human rights, and other special interest organizations whose work is at least partly focused on monitoring activities of one or more international financial institutions in the ECA region. Please note that this list is intended to be a resource and that an organization's inclusion does not necessarily suggest a formal partnership with the Bank Information Center.

• Rede Brasil/Brazil Network monitors the activities of Multilateral Development Banks and international financial institutions in Brazil.

• Rios Vivos/Living Rivers is a coalition of primarily Latin American non-governmental organizations and communities that work together to bring a stop to cultural, social, and environmental degradation processes, to support the work of traditional and indigenous communities in defense of their ecosystems, and to implement sustainable policies which further the creation of a new relationship between humans and their environment.

• Amazon Alliance works to defend the rights, territories, and environment of indigenous and traditional peoples of the Amazon Basin. The Alliance is an initiative born out of the partnership between indigenous and traditional peoples of the Amazon and groups and individuals who share their concerns for the future of the Amazon and its peoples.

• Foro Boliviano sobre Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo/Bolivian Forum on the Environment and Development (FOBOMADE) is an active participant in Bolivian efforts to resist the privatization of water and to promote community-responsive legislation to guide a rational resource management solution.

• Centro de Derechos Economicos y Sociales/Center for Economic and Social Rights (CDES) monitors impacts on the environment and on indigenous communities of MDB-financed projects—especially in the extractive industries—in Ecuador.

• Colectivo de Estudios Aplicados al Desarrollo Social y Cultural/Collective of Applied Research for Social and Cultural Development (CEADESC) The principal objective of CEADES is to strengthen social, economic, cultural and political development through technical assistance and projects that benefit the community. Its objectives include the promotion of sustainable local development and the strengthening of the democratic process and indigenous rights.

• Asociacion Civil Labor Lima/“Labor Lima” Civil Association is a leader in environmental action and helps to promote and articulate a movement of both the public and private spheres towards sustainable development in local spaces. The organization monitors IFI-supported projects and private sector initiatives, including the Camisea project and IIRSA projects.

• Sobrevivencia-Friends of the Earth ParaguaySobrevivencia has concentrated its efforts on environmental questions that affect natives, farmers and marginalized urban communities that live in poverty. They make an effort in recovering and conserving the environmental quality, defending and promoting cultural values and ways of life. Their programs include sustainable agriculture, use of the land, education, and technical and legal assistance. The group integrated itself in FoEI (Friends of the Earth International) in 1992, and participates in these international campaigns: Ecological debt, forests,  genetically modified organisms (GMO), international financial institutions (IFI), sustainable mining, and societies.

• International Rivers Network (IRN) protects rivers and defends the rights of communities that depend on them. IRN opposes destructive dams and the development model they advance, and encourages better ways of meeting people’s needs for water, energy and protection from damaging floods.

• Corporación de Gestión y Derecho Ambiental- Quito, Ecuador (ECOLEX - Ecuador)/ Environmental Management and Law Corporation promotes and executes alternative policies and legislation for sustainable development, with a participatory, multidisciplinary, and multisectoral focus.

• Instituto Latinoamericano de Servicios Legales Alternativos (ILSA - Colombia)/ The Latinamerican Institute of Alternative Legal Services was created in 1978 as an institution of civil society. ILSA develops activities in Latin America from a critical approach of the law, to promote the development and integration of the legal services offered to discriminated populations in Latin America.

• Derecho Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (DAR - Peru)/ Environmental and Natural Resource Law mission is to develop the transforming capacities of social actors involved in the sustainable use and management of natural resources and the  environment.

• Instituto de Estudios Socio-Economicos (INESC - Brazil) monitors parliamentary action and legislation related to matters affecting human rights, indigenous peoples and agricultural and agrarian reform issues. It undertakes research and provides information to other NGOs about issues of concern to them in parliamentary bodies in Brasilia.