Bridge Academy Kenya: Investigation, Remediation, and Future Steps

Nov 06, 2025 0

Bridge International Academies is a company which provides for-profit education to children in India, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda. It was started in 2008, and calls itself a "social enterprise". Shannon May, her husband Jay Kimmelman, and Phil Frei, a former roommate of Kimmelman's co-founded Bridge International Academies and opened the first school in Nairobi, Kenya in 2008. By 2022, Bridge had around 750,000 students in its schools.

Bridge is managed through a centralised system in each country, lowering the administrative costs for operating individual schools. Bridge has received criticism from different sources, including teaching unions and education rights groups. After the president of the World Bank Jim Yong Kim praised Bridge Schools in 2015, there was a large push-back from organisations in Kenya and Uganda, disagreeing with his statement.

Global Justice Now has criticised Bridge by suggesting that “the cost per student at just $6 dollars a month” is misleading. It states that 'the suggestion that $6 is an acceptable amount of money for poor households to pay reveals a profound lack of understanding of the reality of the lives of the poorest”. Many families already struggle to provide three meals a day to their children.

IFC's Involvement and Initial Investment

According to IFC, at the time of its investment, the Company operated 211 schools serving over 57,000 students in Kenya and aimed to provide quality education to children from families earning less than $2 per person per day. Omidyar Network invested in Bridge International Academies’ Series A, Series B, and Series C funding rounds. Omidyar Network’s investment has been used to fund Bridge International Academies’ expansion. Specifically, the investment has enabled Bridge to build a talented management team, cover startup costs for new academies, and support overhead costs.

Through its investment, Omidyar Network aims to increase the availability of high-quality, affordable education to low-income children in sub-Saharan Africa to improve the core academic skills of students and create new opportunities for them and their families. Bridge International Academies has already demonstrated impact, with pupils of its academies performing up to 205% better than their peers at other neighboring schools on international exams. Bridge also realizes positive economic impacts through direct employment.

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In April 2018, CAO received a complaint from the East Africa Centre for Human Rights, a Kenyan NGO, on behalf of current and former parents and teachers regarding IFC’s investment in Bridge schools in Kenya (Bridge-01). CAO found the complaint eligible in May 2018 and conducted an assessment trip to Kenya in September 2018.

During the assessment, Bridge indicated their willingness to engage in a dispute resolution process, while the complainants preferred the complaint to be handled by CAO’s Compliance function. As there was no consensus to engage in dispute resolution, which is voluntary, the complaint was referred to CAO’s Compliance function for appraisal in accordance with CAO’s Operational Guidelines. CAO completed its compliance appraisal of the complaint in October 2019. The appraisal considered IFC’s efforts during supervision to assess and address concerns about sanitation at Bridge schools and to review labor and working conditions.

CAO decided that an investigation was merited in response to the issues raised in the complaint. CAO’s appraisal report, which includes the Terms of Reference for the investigation, is available in English.

CAO Investigation and Findings

The Bridge-01 complaint was transferred to CAO’s compliance function for appraisal and CAO initiated a compliance investigation in October 2019. During the investigation, CAO staff traveled to Kenya where the team spoke with complainants and community members, as well as client representatives and local authorities. In discussion with CAO, community members raised concerns regarding child sexual abuse and other child safeguarding issues at Bridge schools in Kenya.

CAO finalized its appraisal report in December 2020 finding that an investigation was merited, and initiated the investigation in January 2021. CAO completed the investigation and submitted its report to the Board on October 3, 2023. The investigation found that IFC failed to satisfy its environmental and social requirements under the Sustainability Policy and Performance Standards 1 and 4 on Assessment and Management of Environmental and Social Risks and Impacts, and Community Health, Safety, and Security, respectively.

Specifically, during IFC’s environmental and social due diligence prior to investing in Bridge, CAO found that IFC did not consider the project’s potential child sexual abuse risks or consider the capacity of its client to satisfy environmental and social requirements in relation to child sexual abuse risks and impacts. During supervision, IFC failed to regularly monitor or substantively address project-related child sexual abuse and gender-based violence (GBV) risks and impacts with its client.

IFC’s supervision of child sexual abuse risks and impacts improved after CAO provided information about related incidents linked to Bridge and subsequently reported this information to IFC in February 2020. However, CAO found that IFC’s supervision efforts continued to fall short of its obligations, as IFC failed to ensure it received all required information nor took adequate steps to guarantee the client’s child protection and safeguarding approach was consistent with the Performance Standards. Prior to exiting the investment, IFC failed to work with the client to address child sexual abuse risks and impacts as required by the Sustainability Policy.

Recommendations and Management Action Plan

CAO’s report includes seven project-specific and institutional-level recommendations for IFC:

Remediation for survivors of child sexual abuse - IFC should work with Bridge to establish a facility to support a claims process for survivors and their families to receive remedy, including counseling, healthcare support, community reintegration support, funding and referrals to legal services, a mechanism that allows survivors to come forward, and financial compensation, as appropriate.
Strengthen community response to child sexual abuse and GBV against children within project communities.
Undertake a review of its portfolio to identify all projects where children are a vulnerable and disadvantaged subset of affected communities to identify and assess if appropriate social risk management measures are in place and operationalized.
Strengthen and clarify E&S provisions concerning children, as well as gender- and sex-differentiated harm, within the Sustainability Framework.
Undertake institution-wide capacity building efforts to prevent child sexual abuse and overlapping forms of GBV from occurring in its investment projects.
Establish a global GBV task force to advise IFC.
Clarify expectations for project compliance with Performance Standards when planning an exit.

In response, IFC submitted its management report, including a Management Action Plan (MAP), to the IFC Board on December 19, 2023. On January 25, 2024, the Board held a meeting on the CAO investigation report, and IFC management report and action plan. Bank Group management and IFC’s Board of Executive Directors released a statement after the meeting extending the timeframe to consider the action plan by a month.

IFC submitted a revised management report and MAP on March 7, 2024, which was approved by the Board on March 13, 2024. It outlines several commitments and improvements in response to CAO's recommendations:

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IFC will directly fund a remediation program for survivors of child sexual abuse in counties where Bridge operated or currently operates in Kenya. The funding will be for a minimum of 3 years and a maximum of 10 years, to be adjusted based on outcomes of the design phase.
Financial support with the objective of enabling survivors of child sexual abuse to access the services covered in the program would be provided, on a case-by-case basis, as needed, after careful assessment.
The remediation program will be complemented by prevention activities aiming to engage local communities and services in counties in Kenya where Bridge operated or currently operates.
Both the remediation and prevention programs will be informed by survivor-centered stakeholder engagement during design and implementation and the input of an advisory committee which will include relevant international and local GBV and child protection experts that are internal and external to the World Bank Group.
IFC is undertaking a review of its portfolio to identify child sexual abuse and GBV risks and determine appropriate risk-management measures when needed. Progress on this review will be included in the first progress report on implementation of the MAP in a manner that complies with IFC’s Access to Information Policy.
IFC is reviewing the E&S provisions in template investment agreements and will develop covenants to be included where appropriate in relation to child protection and GBV prevention and notification by clients of related incidents.
IFC is building its capacity-through hiring GBV experts, delivering staff training, and developing tools-to address and prevent GBV in projects. IFC will issue and operationalize a statement to staff on zero tolerance for inaction on, or reprisals for, addressing GBV or child protection issues.

Separately from the MAP, IFC has committed to strengthen child protection provisions when it updates its Sustainability Framework and will consider GBV and child protection in the implementation of its Responsible Exit Approach. IFC will return to the Board for a meeting within six months to provide an update on progress and the final design of the remediation program based on consultation with stakeholders, and, if needed, make adjustments.

In October 2024, IFC distributed its first Management Progress Report on the implementation of the MAP to the Board. The progress report, which outlines the status of IFC’s actions related to the in-country remediation and prevention program and institutional strengthening, is available in English. In March 2025, IFC finalized its second Management Progress Report on the implementation of the MAP, available in English.

CAO completed its first Monitoring Report (Available in English) of IFC’s MAP implementation in June of 2025. Based on its analysis of MAP implementation, CAO closed three IFC action items with ratings of Satisfactory and Partially Satisfactory (two actions) and kept eight IFC action items open with ratings of Partially Satisfactory, Too Early to Tell, and Unsatisfactory. CAO also made several recommendations to IFC on how to improve the effectiveness of its implementation of the MAP, including that IFC make available a summary of the consultation feedback from participants before completing the design of the remediation program for survivors of child sexual abuse in counties where Bridge operated or currently operates in Kenya.

On July 22, 2025, IFC shared with the Board its third Management Progress Report (Available in English) on the implementation of the MAP, which includes the design of the remediation program for survivors of child sexual abuse in counties where Bridge International Academies operated or operates in Kenya (MAP action item 1).

The United States welcomes President Banga’s call for an independent, external investigation of the CAO investigation and supports the MAP, highlighting the following. Throughout this process, our immediate priority has been to address the harms suffered by the survivors and support their recovery. We believe survivors should be central to determining the scope and focus of remediation. We therefore welcome the inclusion of consultation with survivors as a first step in the MAP to inform the final approach to providing a range of services to the survivors. These consultations should be the main driver for the design of the proposed remediation program.

The Unspoken: Prevention and Response to Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (CSEA) in Kenya.

IFC supports its clients in addressing environmental and social issues arising from their business activities by requiring its real sector clients to set up and administer appropriate grievance mechanisms and/or procedures to address complaints from Affected Communities in relation to environmental and social issues arising from IFC's clients' business activities. Since 2012, IFC's Financial Intermediary clients applying the Performance Standards are required to develop External Communications Mechanisms to receive and review inquiries or complaints from any interested party regarding the E&S risks and impacts of their operations.

Grievance Mechanisms and Accountability

For IFC projects that are active or under consideration, individual(s), or their authorized representative(s), who allege they have been or will be adversely affected by E&S risks or impacts arising from IFC's clients' business activities, may submit a complaint to IFC directly for consideration. When receiving an E&S complaint, IFC engages with complainants and works with its clients to find solutions to E&S concerns as quickly and efficiently as possible.

IFC complaint response is separate from and complementary to IFC’s clients’ project level grievance mechanisms and IFC’s Independent Accountability Mechanism (CAO). Lodging a complaint directly with IFC does not, at any time, restrict access to CAO. In addition, Affected Communities have unrestricted access to the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), the independent accountability mechanism for IFC.

The CAO is mandated to address complaints from people affected by IFC-supported business activities in a manner that is fair, objective, and constructive, with the goal of improving environmental and social project outcomes and fostering greater public accountability of IFC. Independent of IFC management and reporting directly to the World Bank Group President, the CAO works to resolve complaints using a flexible, problem-solving approach through its dispute resolution arm and oversees project-level audits of IFC's environmental and social performance through its compliance arm.

Complaints may relate to any aspect of IFC-supported business activities that is within the mandate of the CAO. They can be made by any individual, group, community, entity, or other party affected or likely to be affected by the environmental or social impacts of an IFC-financed business activity.

After initiating the investigation in October 2019, CAO staff traveled to Kenya in February 2020. The investigation team and experts spoke with complainants and community members, as well as client representatives and local authorities. In discussion with CAO, community members raised concerns regarding child sexual abuse and other child safeguarding issues. These issues resulted in a separate CAO-initiated compliance appraisal (see Bridge-04) and two subsequent complaints (see Bridge-02 and Bridge-03). CAO accepted four additional complaints in October 2023, raising allegations of child sexual abuse at Bridge schools in Kenya (see Learn Capital-01, 02, 03, and 04).

CAO finalized its investigation report and submitted it to the IFC Board on December 18, 2023. The investigation found that IFC did not satisfy its environmental and social (E&S) requirements under the Sustainability Policy during pre-investment environmental and social due diligence and project supervision. Additionally, the investigation found that, while IFC’s supervision of water, sanitation, food hygiene standards, and labor and working conditions risks and impacts improved over the years, its supervision efforts fell short of bringing its client into compliance with the IFC Performance Standards (PS).

CAO also found that, when exiting its investment, IFC did not work sufficiently with the client to bring the project into compliance with PS1, PS2, and PS4 as they relate to risks and impacts in the areas of labor and working conditions; building design safety; water, sanitation, and hygiene; and school-ground safety and maintenance.

CAO shared the final report with the Complainants for the purpose of consultation as IFC developed its Management Action Plan (MAP) in response to the investigation. In accordance with the CAO Policy, IFC had 50 business days to prepare a Management Report, including a MAP. IFC requested an extension and submitted its Management Report and MAP to the IFC Board on May 15, 2024. A revised Management Report and MAP were submitted to the Board on March 24, 2025. On April 2, 2025, the IFC Board approved IFC’s Management Action Plan.

The MAP focuses on two areas of sector-level engagement in response to CAO's project-level recommendations. On labor issues, IFC will engage with qualified labor organizations and conduct a country-level workshop to understand and discuss any gaps between Performance Standards (PS2 in particular) and Kenyan labor laws, if any, and how these might be addressed in future IFC projects. On school safety issues, IFC will support the development of a capacity-building program for schools that focuses on physical safety standards and protocols, including mechanisms that facilitate parents and students' access to existing grievance redress and remediation pathways.