24 March 2005
Following an almost two-year, secretive review process, the World Bank’s Board approves several new disclosure requirements to be effective as of April 1, 2005.
On March 8, 2005, the World Bank Board of Directors approved a proposal entitled, World Bank Disclosure Policy: Additional Issues Follow-up Consolidated Report (Revised) on a no-objection basis. This Additional Issues paper was the result of a nearly two-year long process beginning with the Progress Report on Implementation of the World Bank’s Disclosure Policy, sent to the Board in July 2003. At that time, the Board requested that Management prepare supplementary analysis on the disclosure of Country Assistance Strategies (CASs), Board minutes and final draft documents. The Additional Issues paper includes the final recommendations stemming from the original progress report. Highlights from the final paper include:
- Disclosure of IBRD and IDA Country Assistance Strategies (CASs): Since 1999, countries that borrow from IDA [1] have been required to disclose CASs while IBRD [2] countries only disclose “at the request of the country concerned." [3] The proposal approved on March 8, unifies the disclosure requirements for IDA and IBRD CASs. Beginning April 1, all final CASs will be disclosed with sensitive information redacted. However, "Management may restrict the release of a CAS in exceptional cases if extensive issues of confidentiality arise, or if disclosure could result in adverse relations between the Bank and the country concerned." [4] Furthermore, a country must provide a written "no-objection" to the public release of the CAS.
- Board minutes: Minutes will be disclosed after they are approved by the Board. Minutes will include (1) Names of those who were present; (2) Record of the approval of minutes of previous Board meetings; (3) Name of the presenter and the broad subject of any oral briefings (4) Titles of any papers discussed and the agreements and decisions reached; and (5) Names of Executive Directors who wish to be recorded as abstaining or objecting. Minutes do not provide a transcript of the meeting. The Inter-American Development Bank was the first MDB to disclose minutes and the Asian Development Bank is also considering requiring their disclosure.
- Select final draft operational policy review documents on a pilot basis: The World Bank will begin a pilot project to disclose papers on operational policy reviews, after completion of public consultations on that policy, at the time they are circulated to the Board for "informal" Board discussions. Early iterations of the Additional Issues paper recommended the disclosure of a breadth of final draft Board documents, including such documents as the CAS, Sector Strategy Paper, and Project Appraisal Document (PAD), at the same time they are circulated to the Board. The current report has watered-down this proposal to address only operational policy review documents, limited to those policy reviews that are subject to public consultations, and only when they are prepared for "informal" Board meetings.
Along with the issues mentioned above, the Board approved expanding the list of information disclosed by the Bank in the following areas:
- Trust Funds Annual Reports;
- Information related to IDA Mid-Term reviews;
- The World Bank Staff Manual;
- The Borrower’s Procurement plans and updates;
- CAS public information notices, for countries where the CAS is not disclosed;
- Project Completion Notes, and;
- Enhanced budget information.
Lastly, the Board approved a simplified procedure for disclosing documents not formally listed in the disclosure policy. Several disclosure decisions will be the responsibility of the office of the President, including decisions to disclose documents that do not come to the Board such as Country Portfolio Performance Reviews, aide-memoires and various staff guidelines.
To read the entire Additional Issues (February 14, 2005) paper, click the link below:
[1] The Intrenational Development Association (IDA) is the arm of the World Bank Group that lends to the 81 poorest countries in the world. These countries would not be able to take out loans at commericial banks but IDA provides these governments with low-cost loans and grants. Lending is dependent, however, on stringent conditionality.
[2] The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) loans money to predominantly middle-income countries at near market rates.
[3] World Bank Policy on Disclosure of Information (2002), paragraph 8.
[4] World Bank Disclosure Policy: Additional Issues Follow-Up Consolidated Report (Revised) (2005), Section A, paragraph 3.