AIIB Monitor

Together with an international alliance of regional and international CSOs urgewald monitors the China-dominated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and proofs declared standards and sustainability. There are 18 case studies up to now, covering projects in the transport, energy (hydro/ gas/ transmission lines), urban infrastructure and financial intermediaries sector. In addition, the policies and sector strategies have been monitored.

In 2020, a group of European, American and Asian CSOs, coordinated by urgewald e.V., collected all their case studies and did a one-pager summary overview with links for further information.

This document shall help to give local communities a voice. It shall help to document the realities on the ground and testify that written standards can never be enough. They need to be implemented and monitored.

This shall be a start. We all continue to monitor projects financed by this multilateral development bank, and continue to document our findings. Often, research is done under high risk conditions. The security situation is so volatile that we can’t present all details on specific cases without endangering the communities. Therefore, we publish this document under restricted access. To get access, please contact charlotte@urgewald.org.

We thank all contributors for this summary, all communities for their engagement.

The establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in 2015 and its call for non-regional shareholders has succeeded in splitting industrialised countries of the Global North. With the accession of the European states, the AIIB not only increased its founding capital but also enabled the bank to obtain the highest AAA rating from the rating agencies, the same rating as of the World Bank.

"Lean, clean and green" are referred by the AIIB as the guidelines for environmental and social standards (Environmental and Social Framework, ESF). By involving former World Bank staff in the development of the ESF, the AIIB wanted to prove that the rules could stand comparison with international standards.

The bank lends money for (huge) infrastructural projects, mainly in Asia. 10 bn USD where already invested in 18 countries so far. The bank’s focus is world development, with a mission to (quote) “improve social and economic outcomes in Asia”. In the words of the AIIB president Jin Liqun on the 2020 annual meeting:

“We are striving to build a world that is financially, socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable.”