ECA is critical of ECAs (Export Credit Agencies). ECAs, are public agencies that provide government-backed loans, guarantees and insurance to corporations from their home country that seek to do business overseas in developing countries and emerging markets. Most industrialized nations have at least one ECA which is usually an official or quasi-official branch of their government.
The organisation is concerned about ECA’s impacts. What are thier impacts in their opinion? Because of the inherent risks of controversial projects in the mining, forestry, oil and gas, coal, power and other sectors, many of these projects in the developing world could not go forward but for the support of bilateral ECAs. As a result, ECA-backed projects often despoil the environment and disrupt the lives of the people in the affected regions.
What is the ECA reform campaign about? Public taxpayer money should not be spent on ecologically and socially harmful projects. ECAs are now the world’s biggest class of public IFIs, collectively exceeding in size the World Bank Group. Yet, like the World Bank Group 20 years ago, most ECAs hve no social and environmental standards. The International NGO ECA Reform Campaign objectives are to see that all ECAs adopt and upgrade environmental and social policies and to support the advocacy efforts of affected people against specific harmful projects.