The Panel provides a forum for people who believe that they may be adversely affected by Bank-financed operations to bring their concerns to the highest decision-making levels of the World Bank.

The Panel determines whether the Bank is complying with its own policies and procedures, which are designed to ensure that Bank-financed operations provide social and environmental benefits and avoid harm to people and the environment.

Building on this example, other multilateral and regional financial institutions have established similar accountability mechanisms as part of broader efforts at sustainable and equitable development.

Once it has been determined that the eligibility criteria have been met, and after having reviewed the management response to the request, the Panel may, taking other factors it may have discovered during a field visit into consideration, make a recommendation to investigate.

If the Board approves, the next step is the substantive phase of the inspection process when the Panel evaluates the merits of the request.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, however, widespread voices of concern and protest from civil society and project-affected communities questioned the social and environmental impacts of Bank-financed operations.

A central element of this critique was that the Bank was not complying with its policy commitments which it had adopted to prevent these very types of adverse social and environmental impacts.