Five months after the World Bank’s private investment arm submitted its action plan to address community grievances against a rubber plantation it funds in Liberia, affected residents are still waiting for its implementation.

The case goes back to a 2019 complaint filed by four Liberian NGOs with the internal watchdog of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO). The complaint was filed on behalf of 22 communities in Margibi and Bong counties who live around a Salala Rubber Corporation plantation, alleging sexual harassment of workers, inadequate compensation for crops, pollution of groundwater sources, desecration of sacred sites, and land grabbing. The CAO validated these allegations in its investigation report in December 2023. It took the IFC until March 2025 to issue a management action plan (MAP). Since then, community representatives told Mongabay, no progress has been made toward addressing the violations.

“We are concerned about how the implementation of the MAP is going,” said Windor Smith from the Alliance for Rural Democracy (ARD), one of the NGOs representing the communities. “Until now we have not seen any tangible differences in the communities, at all.”

Smith added the IFC hasn’t communicated with them since March.

At the time of the complaint in 2019, Salala was owned by Luxembourg-based multinational Socfin, but it sold the plantation to India’s Jeety Rubber just after the CAO investigation concluded in 2024.

It’s unclear whether and how Socfin, or Jeety, will engage in the remedial action. The MAP includes commitments to implement community development programs that improve livelihoods, women’s economic empowerment, and measures to end gender-based violence and harassment.

Paul Larry George from ARD said that while Jeety has taken over the plantation with its existing grievances and liabilities, the new owner hasn’t engaged with ARD or the communities yet, nor shown any signs of getting involved in bringing redress to them.

According to the IFC’s first progress report, released in June 2025, the institution says it has conducted three missions to Liberia and several virtual meetings from March-June 2025. During these meetings, the IFC reportedly engaged with new plantation owner Jeety, former owner Socfin, and Socfin’s consultancy Earthworm Foundation, which found the same grievances in its own investigations.

An IFC spokesperson told Mongabay by email that it “continues to explore opportunities to implement MAP actions as envisioned.”

Jeety didn’t respond to Mongabay’s request for comment. Socfin, too, hadn’t sent its responses by the time this article was published.

The IFC has been under scrutiny for years for failing to ensure that the companies it invests in uphold its own social and environmental standards. Despite adopting two major policies intended to tackle environmental and social issues throughout its investment cycles, concrete actions to redress communities for harm and loss remain to be seen.

The institution’s next progress update is due in December 2025.

Banner image of Jorkporlorsue town, surrounded by rubber trees owned by Salala Rubber Corporation. Image by Ashoka Mukpo/Mongabay.