A Handbook on the Office of the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman of the International Finance Corporation and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency

This discussion draft handbook, published by the Center for International Environmental Law in September 2000, provides guidance for project-affected people on how to file complaints with the Office of the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) for the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).

• The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) was created in 1998 by World Bank Group President James Wolfensohn to help the IFC and MIGA "address complaints of people affected by projects in a manner that is fair, objective and constructive."
• The CAO operates with three distinct functions: the Ombudsman Function, which responds to complaints from affected people; the Advisory Function, providing independent advice to the President and management; and the Compliance Audit Function, which oversees audits of compliance with environmental and social policies.
• To file a complaint with the CAO, affected parties must first establish a record of engaging the IFC or MIGA, which involves raising issues through meetings, letters, emails, or phone calls with the project sponsor and the investment officer and social and environmental specialist.
• The CAO's process for handling complaints includes specific discretionary timeframes: an acknowledgement of receipt should occur within 5 days, a decision on whether to accept the complaint within 15 days, and notification of the initial assessment and timetable within 30 days.
• The CAO has limited powers; it cannot award compensation to complainants, stop work on a project pending investigation, or cancel a project. Its primary power is to make recommendations to the President of the World Bank Group, who is not obliged to follow them.
• The IFC and MIGA have different levels of transparency regarding project information prior to approval. The IFC makes three documents public (Summary of Project Information, Environmental Assessment for category A projects, and Environmental Review Summary), while MIGA only makes the environmental assessment available for category A projects.

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (2000). A Handbook on the Office of the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman of the International Finance Corporation and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/CAOhandbook.pdf

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. A Handbook on the Office of the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman of the International Finance Corporation and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency. 2000. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/CAOhandbook.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=A Handbook on the Office of the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman of the International Finance Corporation and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency |date=September 2000 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/CAOhandbook.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centerforinternationalenvironmentallaw2000handbook, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{A Handbook on the Office of the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman of the International Finance Corporation and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2000}, month = sep, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/CAOhandbook.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }