The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is the private sector lending arm of the World Bank Group. The IFC funds development activities of numerous multi-national companies and private actors throughout the developing world. In 2011, the IFC approved a new set of Performance Standards, which contain measures aimed at preventing harm to the environment and people, especially indigenous peoples, from IFC-funded projects. The IFC additionally adopted a human rights-based impact assessment tool, though its use by borrowers remains voluntary. The IFC’s safeguard policies not only affect the obligations of the IFC and its private-sector borrowers but are increasingly being adopted by commercial banks and national export credit agencies.

2009-2011 Policy and Performance Standards Review

• IFC  Environmental and Social Policy (January 2012)
• IFC Performance Standards, including Performance Standard 7 Indigenous Peoples (January 2012)
• Second Set of Comments and Recommendations on the IFC’s proposed Policy and Performance Standards (February 2011)
• Comments and Recommendations on the IFC’s proposed Policy and Performance Standards (July 2010)
• Letter to former World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick from the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples, Chairperson of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and Chairperson of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (July 2010)
• IFC Interpretation Note on the ILO Convention 169 and the Private Sector (2007)
• IFC Performance Standards, including Performance Standard 7 Indigenous Peoples (April 2006)
• IFC Sustainability Policy (April 2006)

2008-2010 Human Rights Impact Assessment Tool Development

• IFC Guide to Human Rights Impact Assessment and Management (2010)
• Comments on the Draft IFC Guide to Human Rights Impact Assessment and Management (November 2008)
• IFC Guide to Human Rights Impact Assessment and Management Road-Testing Draft (June 2007)