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Forceful relocation of indigenous peoples combined with insecure property rights have resulted in armed conflicts and civil wars around the world.

In recent years, the World Bank's goal to be the leading lending institution has been challenged by increasingly powerful state financiers, such as Brazil and China.

To remain an attractive lender, the Bank ensures there are fewer strings attached to loans, which hurts the very people it is supposed to help. According to the Bank's Independent Evaluation Group, "At any one time more than one million people are affected by involuntary resettlement caused by active Bank projects."

Violence, corruption, as well as threatened livelihoods, education, food security, and mental and physical health are issues closely related to displacement.

Impressive economic growth rates within countries do not translate to development and growth for the poor. The focus should be on improving opportunities for the poorest.

For example, the construction of the Nam Theun II Hydropower Project in Laos displaced 6,200 indigenous people and negatively affected more than 110,000. The Bank largely ignored the repressive political environment that did not allow for an open and thorough process in which people could raise objections to the project.

Furthermore, development projects in Ethiopia further underline why the Bank needs to adopt stronger human rights standards. Since 2006, the Ethiopian government has received $2 billion from the World Bank. According to Human Rights Watch, however, the government's projects have involved the violent, forced relocations of tens of thousands of indigenous peoples from their lands.

The Bank has stood behind Ethiopian government's questionable claims that the relocation is "voluntary," despite stark evidence to the contrary.

In 2012, mounting criticism from civil society groups initiated an internal review by the World Bank of its own Safeguard Policies, the first such review in over a decade.

Phase 1 of the review, which was a consultation period on the Bank's environmental and social safeguard policies ended on April 30, 2013. The second phase of the review began on May 1, 2013, and is focused on analyzing the feedback received. Phase 3 of the review, which will consist of online and targeted face-to-face meetings with stakeholders, is expected to be completed in March 2014.

The review will explore how the Bank can undertake issues not covered by the existing policies such as:

•   human rights

•   free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) and Indigenous Peoples

•   land tenure and natural resources

•   labour and occupational health and safety

•   gender

•   disability

•   climate change

Non-governmental organizations (NGO) have welcomed the report, but remain concerned about both the content and scope, as well as the process for public consultation in the development of a new safeguard framework.

So far, the Bank's policies have resulted in the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of those with access to opportunities and resources instead of ensuring that development reduces poverty and expands opportunities for all.

Reach Executive Producer Syuzanna Petrosyan here. Follow her on Twitter.