New World Bank Access to Information Policy Took Effect July 1, 2010

The innovations by the World Bank are great,however, as a Ugandan I am interested in knowing the various areas where the Government of Uganda has got funding and how from the Bank's point of view this money has been utilised. The problem we still have is that the Bank releases the funds which a number of generations have to pay back, but as to whether the bank does enough to ensure that it safeguards the Ugandans against those who outrightly steal this money for their own ends remains the concern of some of us who want to see a better country after so much money has been borrowed.
William Kituuka

From July 1, the World Bank started implementing the new Access to Information Policy. The new policy positions the Bank as a transparency leader among multilateral organizations. It moves the Bank from an approach that spelled out what information would be made publicly available under the current disclosure policy, to one that enables public availability of all information in the Bank’s possession that is not on a clear list of exceptions, such as staff personal information and deliberative documents.
The new policy provides for much greater access to information about projects under implementation to enable the public to track a project through the course of the project lifecycle.
The new Access to Information Policy is much more than a simple policy change. It is an enormous cultural shift for the institution, both in terms of how we engage with the outside world and how we view and handle information.
The Bank will make much more information available on key decisions made during project development and implementation to enable greater awareness of Bank-supported operations and better development results. New information that will be available includes decisions of Project Concept Review meetings, project supervision missions, and mid-term project reviews. Examples of newly available information after July 1 include:


* Minutes of Board Committee meetings
* Chairman’s summaries of Board meetings and Committee of the Whole meetings
* Summaries of Discussion
* Annual Reports of Board Committees
* Implementation Status and Results Reports (portions)
* Audited annual financial statements of borrowers for projects (for which the invitation to negotiate is issued after July 1, 2010)
* Country Portfolio Performance Reviews
* Concept notes and consultation plans for policy reviews that are subject to external consultations
The AI external site is up and went live last evening! Please check www.worldbank.org/wbaccess, you will find some really neat features.
Attached, please find the Access to Information Policy Statement to assist you with understanding the new policy further.
The AI Policy Statement
(See attached file: AI_Policy_Statement_Final.pdf)
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Sheila B. Gashishiri
Public Information Assistant
Africa Region External Affairs (AFREX), The World Bank
4th Floor, Rwenzori House, 1 Lumumba Ave, Kampala
Tel: +256-414.231.230/ +256-312.221416/7
Direct Tel: +256-414.302.248
DAMA: 5393.2248