IFTI Watch
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1 September 2016
BRICS Bank Issues Interim Disclosure Policy
The New Development Bank (NDB) has issued an interim information disclosure policy. The policy (text) appears generally similar to those of other international financial institutions, stating, “The Bank is committed to a policy of information disclosure in order to promote transparency and enhance accountability in its operations.” This commitment is recognized in the Article 15 of the […]
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19 August 2016
World Bank to Consult on Report About Governance
The World Bank in early September will seek public comment on a major report about the role of power imbalances in development policy. The initial draft of the report, known as the “yellow cover” version, made its way outside the Bank informally in June as it was being reviewed internally. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.) The […]
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12 August 2016
World Bank VP Blasts Draft Governance Strategy Report
The World Bank vice president who oversees strategy on governance issues has criticized a draft report recommending that the Bank focus more on unequal national political power as a key inhibitor of development. Jan Walliser expressed “strong reservations” about the report in a four-page memo obtained by FreedomInfo.org. He asks that “the conceptual framework” of the […]
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10 August 2016
UNESCO Drafting Standard For Disclosure of Information
By Toby McIntosh UNESCO, the agency whose portfolio includes advocating for freedom of information laws internationally, is preparing its own FOI policy, according to a UNESCO official. UNESCO already has some internal rules on what should be confidential, but there is no disclosure policy resembling a national FOI law. “We … have nothing similar to […]
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1 August 2016
Draft World Bank Report Stresses Governance Role
By Toby McIntosh A draft World Bank report stresses that more attention be paid to national political dynamics and power sources when designing development programs. “Policies can be blocked, captured, or rendered ineffective because their design did not account for asymmetries in bargaining power,” the report emphasizes, calling for more intensified and sophisticated evaluation. The 415-page report, […]
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28 July 2016
NGOs Critically Examining Bank Governance Strategy
By Toby McIntosh The World Bank’s emerging thinking on governance issues is receiving somewhat critical early reviews from non-governmental organization leaders. Clues about Bank’s potential directions in this area are coming from selectively circulated drafts of the Bank’s World Development Report 2017 (due out later this year). The report’s theme is “rethinking the role of […]
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7 July 2016
World Bank Reducing Support for GPSA Fund
By Toby McIntosh The World Bank is halving its contribution to the Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA), a multi-donor fund that supports transparency and accountability initiatives, according to new budget figures. The Bank’s cutback has particular significance because a top Bank official recently cited the Bank’s support for the GPSA as evidence of the […]
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29 June 2016
NGOs Seek More Information About World Bank ATI Plans
The World Bank needs to provide more concrete answers about its stated commitment to access to information, according to the leader of an ad hoc coalition of 130 nongovernmental organizations. The Bank has eliminated the three staff positions of persons who worked on global freedom of information issues, sparking a letter of concern from the […]
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20 June 2016
World Bank Official Says Bank Committed to ATI Work
The World Bank “remains fully committed to the implementation of access to information in client countries, notwithstanding internal organizational changes that you refer to,” a top Bank official said June 18. The commitment came in a reply to a June 6 letter from more than 130 nongovernmental organizations that expressed concern that the Bank has […]
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6 June 2016
NGOs Protest Cutbacks in World Bank FOI Effort
Some 130 organizations have written to World Bank President Jim Yong Kim to express concern that the Bank “has significantly downgraded its capacity to pursue a global right to information agenda at a time when the World Bank’s role in this area is needed more than ever before.” The letter initiated by the Africa Freedom […]
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2 June 2016
New Asian Bank Adopts Interim Disclosure Policy
The new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has an interim policy on disclosure of information. The Public Information Interim Policy pledges the disclosure of a variety of basic institutional information, but also contains several quite broadly worded exemptions and does not yet include a formal request system. “In a nutshell, they’ve taken almost verbatim the World […]
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26 May 2016
World Bank Cuts FOI Staff; Trio of Veterans Leaving
By Toby McIntosh The World Bank has decimated its capacity to pursue a global freedom of information agenda. Three veteran staffers who encouraged the creation and implementation of national FOI laws are leaving the Bank following a reorganization. Departing are Marcos Mendiburu, Luis Esquivel and Victoria Louise Lemieux, essentially the entire staff working on FOI […]
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19 May 2016
World Bank Records Diminishing Requests
The number of requests filed through the World Bank’s Policy on Access to Information declined from 700 in 2010 to 474 in 2015, “due to the Bank’s proactive and systematic efforts to disclose information online,” according to the Bank’s fifth Access to Information Annual Report and a blog post about it by Hannah George. More than […]
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12 May 2016
Canadian Court Upholds World Bank Immunity
The Canadian Supreme Court has found that the World Bank’s immunity shield protects it from having to produce certain files from its bribery probe in Bangladesh that led to Canadian criminal charges against three former employees of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., the country’s largest engineering firm. The April 29 decision is described in Lawyers Weekly, CTV News […]
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11 May 2016
Green Climate Fund Adopts Information Disclosure Policy
The Board of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) has adopted an Information Disclosure Policy, according to the minutes of the March meeting. The Board also decided to webcast “formal Board meetings” but not “executive” sessions. The Board accepted recommendations for a permanent disclosure policy from the Ethics and Audit Committee. (The new policy is attached […]
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5 May 2016
World Bank Partially Denies Request for Nigerian Info
The World Bank has partially denied an appeal by a Nigerian group for information about allegedly embezzled funds. The World Bank said the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) was 15 days too late to appeal and thus declined to examine SERAP’s contention that the Bank had failed to provide all of the requested information. However, […]
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25 February 2016
Groups Seek Transparency On SDG Indicator Creation
More than 160 organizations have challenged the transparency of the process being used by the United Nations to develop the indicators that will be used to measure progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals. The groups sent a “open letter” Feb. 19 to the chairman of the UN Statistical Commission and the chairs of the Interagency […]
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10 February 2016
Nigerian Group Appeals Denial by World Bank
A Nigerian non-governmental organization has asked the World Bank to reconsider its denial of information about corruption by a former general and de facto Nigerian president. The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sent an appeal to Access to Information (AI) Appeals Board challenging the World Bank’s Nov. 25, 2015, decision “to provide patently […]
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13 January 2016
ICC Expands Transparency Rules for Arbitrations
The International Chamber of Commerce International Court of Arbitration has announced a new policy aimed at enhancing the transparency of ICC arbitration proceedings. “The Court will from now on publish on its website the names of the arbitrators sitting in ICC cases, their nationality, as well as whether the appointment was made by the Court […]
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16 December 2015
World Bank Appeals Panel Backs Bank Secrecy Decision
By Toby McIntosh The three-member outside review panel has upheld the World Bank’s refusal to disclose documents about a controversial procurement in Serbia. (See decision.) Gordana Andric of The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network requested documents about a review that Bank conducted into Serbia’s procurement process of a controversial Bank-funded project to pump water out of […]