How we work

Campaign

Partnering with others to influence decision-makers and hold financial institutions to account
Advocating to shift policies and practices to ensure inclusive, environmentally sustainable, socially just and pro-poor development.
Using evidence-based research and advocacy to build a compelling case for change.

Support

Partnering with local communities and civil society to secure their rights and fight discrimination.
Working in solidarity with local communities to open political space and ensure their voice in development decision-making.
Supporting communities who have suffered harm to gain remedy and justice.

Multiply

Building coalitions to be greater than the sum of our parts and maximise impact.
Movement-building to foster long-term systemic change.
Networking and capacity-building to create an informed and engaged movement to hold financial institutions accountable.

We organise our work around two themes:

Rights and accountability: We support communities in their struggle for their rights to be respected and their voices to be heard, so that they benefit from rather than bear the costs of development.
Ecological justice: The climate crisis demands urgent action from International Financial Institutions, to stop bankrolling fossil fuels promote renewable energy, but this must happen in a way that supports and does not undermine the livelihoods of local communities but rather puts them at the centre of development decision-making.

We are an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation that holds International Financial Institutions to account, advocating for:

Protection of rights
Participation and transparency
Public accountability in the operations of multilateral development banks

Rights and accountability

Recourse is a leading advocacy, research and campaign organisation focusing on International Finance Institutions’ (IFIs) policies and practices, working in solidarity with affected communities and civil society in the global south to call for rights-based development. Recourse targets development finance as a means of influencing the wider investment community and governments, to ensure inclusive, environmentally sustainable and socially just development.

Ecological justice

Today’s complex development challenges, continued economic inequalities and injustices, and the growing urgency of the climate crisis are among the core concerns of Recourse. Our ecological justice programme focuses on research, campaigning, and advocacy around International Finance Institutions’ (IFIs) policies and practices affecting the climate, biodiversity and the environment.

Collaboration

At the heart of Recourse’s mission is how we work collaboratively with partners and allies.Our campaigning aims to hold financial institutions to account. We influence decision-makers through our partnerships and with our allies to advocate for policy change. Together, we identify inclusive and environmentally sustainable policies to ensure Recourse’s vision of a pro-poor and socially just form of development is at the heart of financial institutions’ practices and – where that is absent – to hold them to account. In this way our evidence-based research and advocacy builds a compelling case for the change that we wish to see.

What we do