Maravi

World Bank approves policy on disclosure of information

World Bank approves policy on disclosure of information
By Kabanda Chulu
Tue 29 Dec. 2009, 04:01 CAT

THE World Bank has finally approved a policy on disclosure of information to the public aimed at enhancing greater transparency through access to information on all its funded projects. The development would be effected in July 2010. This means that several types of previously unreleased documents would now be accessible to the public.

According to the revised World Bank disclosure policy released yesterday by the Bank’s information services coordinator Rebecca Harris, the bank would for the first time release documents throughout project implementation to enable citizens and civil society to monitor project progress and fight corruption.

“The World Bank will also publicly release several types of documents at the same time they are sent to the Board for consideration, a practice known as ësimultaneous disclosureí and the revised policy contains some important new features,” stated Harris. “These include an improved system for information requests, a groundbreaking commitment to establish an independent appeals panel to review complaints and a commitment to assess whether a review of its translation framework is necessary.”

And Global Transparency Initiative (GTI) senior legal advisor Toby Mendel has commended the World Bank for making significant improvements of the new policy as compared to the previous one.

“The policy breaks important new ground, not only for the World Bank but for all international financial institutions (IFIs), in particular in as much as it accepts for the first time the principle that all Bank information should be available to the public unless it falls within the scope of the regime of exceptions,” stated Mendel.

The World Bank began discussions on implementation immediately following the November 17, 2009 approval of the disclosure policy. The Implementation Working Group is divided into seven sub-groups that will come up with the specific details of implementation. Each sub-group will produce detailed work plans and budget estimates for the coming six months.

Labels: GLOBAL TRANSPARANCY INITIATIVE, REBECCA HARRIS, TRANSPARANCY, World Bank

posted by MrK @ 4:41 AM