The inclusion of interested parties and affected communities in the development process is crucial to casting light on potential environmental and social damage of bank operations. Barriers to democratic processes through denial of relevant information stand to impair the development effectiveness of these institutions.
A growing number of organizations and individuals are now working to cast light on the activities of these institutions. Labor unions, environmental organizations, faith-based groups, development agencies and human rights organizations are working together to promote the public's right to know. Their efforts are increasingly being joined by academics, journalists and legislators who share a common belief in the importance of accountable and democratic international institutions.
Recommendations
The Global Transparency Initiative (GTI), a network of civil society organizations working for greater openness of international financial institutions (IFIs), has drafted a Charter of Transparency Principles for IFIs. The Charter outlines nine principles that should be adopted by IFIs:
Principle 1: The Right of Access
The right to access information is a fundamental human right which applies to, among other things, information held by international financial institutions, regardless of who produced the document and whether the information relates to a public or private actor.
Principle 2: Automatic Disclosure
International financial institutions should automatically disclose and broadly disseminate, for free, a wide range of information about their structures, finances, policies and procedures, decision-making processes, and country and project work.
Principle 3: Access to Decision-Making
International financial institutions should disseminate information which facilitates informed participation in decision-making in a timely fashion, including draft documents, and in a manner that ensures that those affected and interested stakeholders can effectively access and understand it; they should also establish a presumption of public access to key meetings.
Principle 4: The Right to Request Information
Everyone has the right to request and to receive information from international financial institutions, subject only to a limited regime of exceptions, and the procedures for processing such requests should be simple, quick and free or low-cost.
Principle 5: Limited Exceptions
The regime of exceptions should be based on the principle that access to information may be refused only where the international financial institution can demonstrate (i) that disclosure would cause serious harm to one of a set of clearly and narrowly defined, and broadly accepted, interests, which are specifically listed; and (ii) that the harm to this interest outweighs the public interest in disclosure.
Principle 6: Appeals
Anyone who believes that an international financial institution has failed to respect its access to information policy, including through a refusal to provide information in response to a request, has the right to have the matter reviewed by an independent and authoritative body.
Principle 7: Whistleblower Protection
Whistleblowers – individuals who in good faith disclose information revealing a concern about wrongdoing, corruption or other malpractices – should expressly be protected from any sanction, reprisal, or professional or personal detriment, as a result of having made that disclosure.
Principle 8: Promotion of Freedom of Information
International financial institutions should devote adequate resources and energy to ensuring effective implementation of their access to information policies, and to building a culture of openness.
Principle 9: Regular Review
Access to information policies should be subject to regular review to take into account changes in the nature of information held, and to implement best practice disclosure rules and approaches.
Find out more
For more information about the Global Transparency Initiative or the GTI’s Charter of Transparency Principles for IFIs, see: www.ifitransparency.org