We joined 59 Civil Society Organisation and individuals co-signing a letter to World Bank Group President Ajay Banga, International Finance Corporation (IFC) Managing Director Makhtar Diop, the Board of Executives  Directors and the Director General of the Office of the Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman (CAO) demanding urgent action following mounting evidence of patient abuse, worker rights violations and systemic harms linked to IFC- funded hospitals. 

The letter incorporates investigative findings from Bloomberg’s August 2025 article and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists' July 2025 article, further exposing a pattern of abuses at Evercare-owned hospitals, including  Avenue Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, and Evercare Lahore, Pakistan. Documented violations include: 

• Patient detentions and denial of emergency care for those unable to pay. 

• Profit-driven and unsafe medical practices, including unnecessary interventions. 

• Exploitation of health workers with long hours, harassment, and suppression of workplace complaints. 

• There has been an exacerbation of inequality, as IFC funds flow to high-end private hospitals that are out of reach for most people, deepening impoverishment and undermining Universal Health Coverage goals. 

Despite years of warnings, IFC has failed to provide transparency, remedies for victims, or evidence that its private health portfolio contributes to equitable health access. Instead, its “Ethical Principles in Healthcare” relies on self-reporting clients already implicated in scandals, offering no credible safeguards against abuse. 

This  letter reiterates an urgent call on the World Bank Board to: 

• Direct the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) to investigate IFC’s healthcare portfolio immediately. 

• Freeze or divest from clients implicated in rights abuses. 

• Halt new funding to for-profit private healthcare providers. 

• Establish a standalone standard to regulate financial intermediary lending. 

• Ensure remedy for victims and commission a comprehensive evaluation of IFC’s healthcare investments. 

As the letter makes clear, two decades into IFC’s push into health, what stands out is not progress towards Universal Health Coverage but a legacy of profit before patients, systemic abuse, and deepening inequality. The World Bank Group should act decisively to end the cycle of harm and ensure that health financing truly advances the right to health for all. 

Read the full letter here:

For further context, see other concerns raised by GI-ESCR in engagement with the World Bank:  

GI-ESCR - World Bank’s Civil Society Policy Forum: How Does Health Financing Affect Access to Healthcare? 

GI-ESCR - Our Future is Public - IMF and World Bank 

GI-ESCR - Discussion on Healthcare at the World Bank Civil Society Forum