4 August 2010
Little over a month after the Access to Information Policy came into effect, the first few documents to be released through the "simultaneous disclosure" clause are trickling out of the Bank. The implications of such releases, however, have yet to be seen.
On August 4, 2010, three documents were released to the public through the World Bank's new "simultaneous disclosure" clause. According to the new Access to Information Policy, "Country Assistance Strategies, Project Appraisal Documents, and Program documents may be made publicly available before the Board has considered them provided that the client has given its written consent (e.g., during negotiations) to such early disclosure". This is termed "simultaneous disclosure". What this actually means is that stakeholders have a chance to view a document's contents before it is approved by the Board and potentially have an opportunity to influence how the Board votes on the document.
The first three documents simultaneously disclosed include:
Peru - Fourth Programmatic Fiscal Management and Competitiveness Development Policy Loan, with a Board meeting date set for August 26, 2010.
Brazil - Rio de Janeiro Renovating and Strengthening Public Management (PRÓ-GESTÃO) Technical Assistance Project, with a Board meeting date set for August 26 2010.
Lebanon - Country partnership strategy for the period FY11-FY14, with a Board meeting date set for August 31, 2010
What does this mean?
Taking the Lebanon Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) as an example, under the previous disclosure policy, the CPS would only have become public once the Board had already voted on and approved the CPS (same category of document as a Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) which people may be more familiar with). Consequently, stakeholders would not have had any chance to intervene in the final stages of the CPS process. This doesn't mean that just because the document is now available before the Board meeting that stakeholders will necessarily want to intervene and try to influence the final stages of approval. However, given that the document was released on August 4, 2010 and that the Board meeting will not be held until August 31, 2010, stakeholders now have about three weeks to read this document and see if there is anything in there with which they strongly disagree. If there is an area of disagreement, concerned parties may try to influence the World Bank Executive Directors, who sit on the Board, to propose amendments.
How much difference these "early" disclosures will actually have on the process has yet to be seen and it will be hard to quantify. What is clear, however, is that this is an important win for civil society worldwide who now have the right to access information about a program or project, that may soon affect their lives, at a stage when final decisions have not yet been made by the Board.
Unfortunately, not all Board papers (documents which require Board discussion or consideration) are simultaneously disclosed, and we still have to rely on the consent of relevant governments for those documents that do fall under the simultaneous disclosure policy and which were listed in the first paragraph.
After the release of this first set of documents, one has to ask those who were staunchly opposed to simultaneous disclosures: was that really so bad?
To sign up for the World Bank's simultaneous disclosure updates, visit this webpage.
further resources
World Bank releases Lebanon strategy document - a first, by Toby McIntosh, freedominfo.org, August 5, 2010 (freedominfo.org website)
The World Bank Group's strategies in MENA countries, Bank Information Center, March 16, 2010 (BIC website)
World Bank's Access to Information webpage (World Bank website)
BIC's World Bank transparency campaign webpage (BIC website)