In spite of some important improvements, the AfDB’s 2003 policy does not meet some standards for disclosure set by sister institutions such as the World Bank. Furthermore, the policy does not include a number of recommendations made by BIC in its comments on the draft policy sent to the Bank in November 2003. Specific areas where the AfDB’s policy has come-up short include:
- The AfDB will only disclose summaries of Environmental and Social Management Plans (ESMPs) for Category 2 projects;
- The AfDB continues to withhold contact information of Executive Directors;
- Executive Board meeting minutes, summaries, and transcripts continue to be confidential
- The AfDB’s archives remain “inviolably” sealed;
- The AfDB has not made a commitment to disclosing information during project implementation, such as aide-memoires and environmental and social monitoring reports;
- Legal agreements (i.e Power Purchase Agreements and Production Sharing Agreements) between member governments and sponsors of AfDB projects that were signed in relation to an AfDB project are only disclosed on an ad-hoc basis;
- The AfDB has not appointed an Information Ombudsman or similar independent body able to monitor Disclosure Policy compliance;
- The AfDB’s Disclosure Policy does not make reference to languages in which disclosed information will be translated and made available to the public; and
- The AfDB has no process guarantees regarding the rights of citizens to receive responses to requests for information from the Bank in a language they understand.
For more information on civil society recommendations regarding transparency at the AfDB and other IFIs, see the Global Transparency Initiative Charter on Transparency Principles at the IFIs. [http://www.ifitransparency.org/activities.shtml?x=44474&als[select]=44474]