The Asian Development Bank June 4 issued proposed changes in its Public Communications Policy.
Release of the “consultation draft” comes as the ADB commences a series of worldwide meetings.
The first session will be June 15 in Canada, and the last is scheduled for August 2 in the Philippines. The ADB’s 12-country consultation schedule is posted online. The exact times and locations are being sent to those invited. For further information on the consultations, and to submit comments on the draft by the Aug. 3 deadline, the ADB staff can be reached via e-mail.
The ADB said the draft promotes more proactive external relations, including through new technologies such as social media.
The proposed policy calls for updating the list of documents that shall be proactively disclosed and for incorporating disclosure rules from ADB’s policies, strategies and Operations Manual sections added after September 2005, when the last communications policy was approved.
In another change, “the timing of public disclosure of policy or strategy papers has been de-linked from the disclosure of their respective chair’s summary to avoid unnecessary delays in posting on the ADB’s website a policy or strategy paper that has been approved by the Board of Directors.”
“Similarly, some provisions in the exceptions section and implementation arrangements have been revised to be more consistent with ADB presumption in favor of disclosure or to reflect current practices,” according to the 324-page document.
By Toby McIntosh
Filed under: IFTI Watch