Forward Thinking: Looking Ahead at CAO
CAO has a clear commitment for 2026:
To deliver meaningful outcomes for communities and to ensure accountability is at the forefront of institutional reforms.
Director-General Janine Ferretti reflects on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
Since its establishment more than 25 years ago, CAO has served as a standard bearer for good practice in accountability and grievance redress in private sector development finance. Created as the independent accountability mechanism for the International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, CAO was designed as an innovative model bringing together three complementary functions covering dispute resolution, compliance, and advisory work. Together, these functions aim to improve outcomes for project-affected communities while strengthening IFC’s and MIGA’s environmental and social (E&S) performance.
Commencing operations in 1999, CAO has handled more than 250 cases across all regions and major industry sectors. Each case represents an opportunity to make a meaningful difference for communities seeking recourse. Achieving strong outcomes requires sustained engagement and commitment from community members, client companies, IFC and MIGA staff, civil society, the IFC/MIGA Boards, and other stakeholders.
In 2026, the World Bank Group will implement an ambitious reform agenda that includes decentralizing operations and introducing an integrated E&S framework to strengthen performance, client capacity, and E&S risk management. In parallel, CAO will maintain its focus on facilitating access to remedy for project-affected people and promoting high standards of accountability. Effective accountability, grievance response, and remedial solutions are essential to advancing the “One World Bank Group” approach—particularly as the institution undertakes complex projects in challenging contexts where its support is most needed.
A Focus on Impact
This year, we are focused on impact as a unifying thread in all areas of our work. We are strengthening the effectiveness of our casework, with particular attention to enhancing remedial outcomes for project-affected people through our dispute resolution and compliance processes. At the same time, we are advancing institutional learning through our advisory work, supporting IFC and MIGA to improve their E&S performance.
Engagement remains a priority. We continue to conduct outreach to raise awareness of access to CAO and to strengthen understanding of our role—both within the institution and externally. We are also improving how we work, including through digital transformation, to better leverage technology in support of our mandate. Recognizing the demands of this work, we continue to invest in our staff through training, career development, and a strong emphasis on wellbeing.
To strengthen our impact, we need to understand what outcomes we are achieving through our work and where we can improve. To do this, we are implementing a revamped monitoring and evaluation framework with ten effectiveness indicators to track our performance. These indicators will help us assess whether our interventions are contributing to tangible outcomes for people and the environment.
Insights from our caseload reveal persistent trends and challenges, including the need for effective use of leverage by IFC to achieve positive E&S outcomes, labor-related risks in complex supply chains, heightened E&S risks associated with financial intermediary operations, and improving the E&S performance of equity investments. These trends underscore the importance of systemic learning.
In response, CAO launched four advisory work streams over the last year focused on leverage, labor, financial intermediaries, and equity investments. Each is designed to address cross-cutting risks and support more effective prevention and remediation of harm. We expect to issue the first advisory report this Spring, which will examine how IFC and MIGA can strengthen their contractual and financial leverage with clients to prevent and address E&S harm and non-compliance with the Performance Standards at the project level.
As IFC and MIGA implement their Remedial Action Framework (RAF), CAO will also assess the impact of the RAF on CAO case outcomes. The RAF complements CAO’s dispute resolution and compliance processes and plays a critical role in strengthening remedial responses at both the project and institutional levels. To support this effort, we have developed Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to evaluate the RAF’s contribution to improved dispute resolution outcomes and stronger implementation of IFC/MIGA Management Action Plans in response to our compliance investigations.
Improving Accountability and Enhancing Outcomes
Several important initiatives are underway to streamline and strengthen accountability across the World Bank Group.
As part of the structural reorganization under the “One World Bank Group” approach, the Board has established a Task Force to explore options for integrating the WBG’s independent accountability mechanisms—CAO, the World Bank’s Inspection Panel and Dispute Resolution Service (DRS). The Task Force is guided by core principles: no regression in policy or mandate, protection of independence, improved effectiveness, transparency, and stakeholder consultation. CAO has engaged actively with the Task Force, sharing its experience and insights. Public consultations on the draft report are expected in April 2026, with a final report due in May 2026.
Concurrently, the Board has initiated a targeted review of the CAO Policy at the five-year implementation mark. The review focuses on five key areas: the suitability of intake criteria for financial intermediary complaints; whether referrals and deferrals of complaints to IFC and MIGA have been effective instruments for early resolution; how IFC/MIGA’s participation in CAO dispute resolution processes is working; the preparation, consultation, approval, and implementation of Management Action Plans in response to CAO compliance investigations; and whether policy timelines support predictability and responsiveness in complaint handling. Public consultations on the draft report are expected in April, with the final report expected in May 2026.
Together, these efforts have the potential to enhance the accessibility, transparency, and effectiveness of the World Bank Group’s accountability system. As I said during a session at the Civil Society Policy Forum at last year’s Annual Meetings, any reforms must strengthen the link between accountability and remedy for project-affected people.
For many communities, CAO may be the only available avenue for redress. Yet the path to meaningful outcomes can be long and uncertain. I have seen firsthand the trust placed in CAO by complainants and stakeholders. That trust is the foundation of our work but it is also fragile—especially when people see no relief or remedy for harms they have experienced.
That is why we are concentrating our efforts on strengthening remedial solutions and influencing systemic improvements in the environmental and social performance of IFC, MIGA, and their clients. This focus—on outcomes that matter—will continue to shape our work in the months and years ahead.
Janine Ferretti
Director-General
The Office of the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman
