8 April 2009
The workshop discussed the World Bank’s Disclosure Policy Review, and introduced the World Bank’s Inspection Panel to our regional partners.
BIC's Middle East and North Africa (MENA) program recently held a regional workshop entitled “Civil Society Workshop on the World Bank’s Disclosure Policy” in Beirut, Lebanon on March 31, 2009. The workshop was co-sponsored by the World Bank’s Inspection Panel and the Lebanese Transparency Association. Around 25 civil society leaders from Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen and Morocco interested in access to information rights attended the workshop.
The workshop started with an introduction about the function of the World Bank’s Inspection Panel as a grievance mechanism that alongside the institution’s safeguard policies, and its disclosure policy, serve to protect human and environmental rights in World Bank funded activities. It was a good opportunity for participants to hear about the Inspection Panel and how it operates.
Next, BIC made a presentation about the history of disclosure at the Bank, the concerns with the current Disclosure Policy, the World Bank’s Approach Paper for the revised policy, and finally, the potentially lingering gaps in the new policy which would continue to hinder the right to access information. It was clear from the discussion that the lack of translation of key documents, associated with World Bank-financed programs and projects, into Arabic, is a particularly pertinent issue in the MENA region and deserves attention. As a result, the participants decided to focus their advocacy for more Bank disclosure, around translation issues, also with the foresight that the issue might not be raised by civil society organizations from other regions because it might not be as big a problem elsewhere.
The participants suggested a number of actions to be taken including, sending letters to their countries’ representatives in the Bank’s Board of Directors, posting articles in major newspapers in the region, and even organizing workshops in their own countries to share these transparency concerns with other civil society members, and prepare for the upcoming World Bank in-country consultations on the Disclosure Policy.
resources
Workshop with the Inspection Panel, Bank Information Center and experts: Disclosure, transparency and integrity of standards are guarantees of justice and effectiveness of Bank’s loans, by Ahmed ElNaggar, Alahram Alikstadi newspaper, April 6, 2009 (Arabic)