International Financial Institution Reform and Capacity Building

About this grant

For nearly a decade, Les Amis de la Terre has been advocating for the reform of international financial institutions, including export credit agencies (ECAs). Building on its work started in 1995 for reform of the World Bank and other multilateral development banks, Les Amis added ECA reform to create an international financial institutions reform program in 1999.Multiyear funding will support objectives that include continuing environmental policy reform efforts for the French ECA, Compagnie Francaise d’Assurance pour le Commerce Exterieur (COFACE); encouraging agreement of ECA environmental policies at the international level; and discouraging the financing of extractive industries projects and preventing the weakening of existing World Bank policies. Additional funding will cover the salary and other costs associated with hiring an international coordinator for the export credit agency reform campaign. Accomplishments during the past two years included creating the French platform to reform COFACE; helping to organize an annual consultation with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Export Credit Group in collaboration with other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working on ECA issues; supporting Friends of the Earth partners and other NGOs working to prevent environmentally and socially harmful projects; and assisting French NGOs in monitoring COFACE-financed projects in developing countries.