IF-EYE Newsletter
Issue #41
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
A publication of the Bank Information Center (BIC)
Welcome to the May 27, 2009 issue of the IF-EYE – the Bank Information Center’s monthly synthesis of key developments concerning international financial institutions. This issue spotlights the Global Transparency Initiative's model World Bank disclosure policy as well as BIC's Memorandum on World Bank Board transparency. Please send suggestions, contributions and subscription requests to: info@bicusa.org. Thanks for reading!
in this issue:
1. SPOTLIGHT: Global Transparency Initiative submits model disclosure policy to the World Bank
2. SPOTLIGHT: Memorandum on World Bank Board transparency
3. Civil society updates
4. IFI updates
5. Announcements and Resources
6. New at BIC! BIC welcomes Erin Carey as Climate Coordinator, and Nadia Daar as Program Assistant in the Middle East and North Africa program
1. SPOTLIGHT: Global Transparency Initiative submits model disclosure policy to the World Bank
5/27/2009 Global Transparency Initiative
As the World Bank continues the review process of its Polic on Disclosure of Information, the Global Transparency Initiative (GTI), which includes groups such as Article 19, the Bank Information Center, the International Accountability Project and Freedominfo.org, have composed a model disclosure policy and submitted it to the World Bank to use as a guide for enhanced transparency.
While GTI's model policy adopts the same framework of a negative list of disclosures, as that of the Bank's Approach Paper for the transparency review, this model policy pushes for even greater transparency: it advocates for narrower exceptions to document disclosure, a larger degree of Board openness, more proactive disclosure of information, and an adequate request and appeals process, among others.
The World Bank is currently in the process of conducting global consultations on their disclosure policy and plans to complete a draft of the policy by the end of July 2009. Meanwhile, anyone may submit online comments regarding the Bank's disclosure policy on the Bank's website through June 5, 2009.
read gti's model disclosure policy
GTI World Bank Model Policy, by Toby Mendel, Bruce Jenkins, Jennifer Kalafut, Toby McIntosh Global Transparency Initiative, May 22, 2009 (PDF, 505KB)
Read more (BIC website)
2. SPOTLIGHT: Memorandum on World Bank Board Transparency
5/12/2009 Bank Information Center
Read BIC's memo on World Bank Board Transparency that has been sent to the U.S. Treasury, World Bank staff, and the Office of the United States Executive Director at the World Bank.
Memorandum on World Bank Board Transparency, Bank Information Center, April 2009 (PDF, 99KB)
Read more on BIC's World Bank transparency review page (BIC website)
3. Civil society updates:
Civil Society to the World Bank: Adopt Transparency 2.0
5/5/2009 Bank Information Center
This Huffington Post article provides a summary of the consultation that the World Bank held with civil society about their disclosure policy at this year's World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings. Civil society raised several key points throughout the three-hour consultation regarding third party veto for information disclosure, the importance of an external appeals process for unduly denied information requests, the need for the Bank to adopt a “harm test” process when considering exceptions to disclosure, among other issues.
read full article
Civil Society to the World Bank: Adopt Transparency 2.0, by Chad Dobson and Rebecca Harris, Bank Information Center, May 5, 2009 (Huffington Post website)
Bangladeshi NGOs respond to the World Bank's disclosure policy review
5/22/2009 Article 19, Bank Information Center, VOICE
A consortium of civil society representatives met to discuss access to information at the World Bank in Bangladesh on May 20th.
Read more (BIC website)
Climate Investment Funds: CSO observer self-selection process
5/21/2009 Various organizations
RESOLVE, a nonprofit organization specializing in stakeholder involvement and multi-stakeholder consensus-building, is organizing the civil society organization of self selection process for observer seats on two World Bank Climate Investment Fund (CIF) committees and one sub-committee.
Read more (BIC website)
Indigenous rights and climate change
4/24/2009 Indigenous Peoples' Global Summit on Climate Change
Several indigenous representatives from the Arctic, North America, Asia, Pacific, Latin America, Africa, Caribbean, and Russia attended the Indigenous Peoples' Global Summit on Climate Change in Anchorage, Alaska from April 20th to 24th. The summit resulted in a declaration which reaffirmed the urgent need for collective action on climate change.
read the declaration
The Anchorage Declaration (TEBTEBBA website)
Yemeni group brings Inspection Panel their first case from the MENA region
4/22/2009 Yemen Observatory for Human Rights
A Yemeni civil society group has taken their complaint regarding the World Bank's refusal to translate a key program document to the World Bank's Inspection Panel. This is the first complaint that the Inspection Panel has received from the Middle East and North Africa region.
read updates on case
Yemeni group says lack of translation inhibited transparency, April 22, 2009 (BIC website)
Yemen's Inspection Panel case: the up-side of bad news traveling fast, May 20, 2009 (BIC website)
Read BIC's problem project page for this case (BIC website)
4. IFI updates:
Transparency violations common theme for World Bank Inspection Panel
5/4/2009 World Bank
The World Bank's Inspection Panel Annual Report highlights the problem of access to information within several World Bank-financed projects.
Read the Inspection panel annual report
Inspection Panel Annual Report: July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008 (World Bank website)
Read the complete freedom.info article
Transparency violations common theme for World Bank Inspection Panel, by Toby McIntosh and Rebecca Harris, April 21, 2009 (Freedominfo.org website)
Frank praises changes to World Bank "Doing Business" report
4/28/2009 World Bank
Congressman Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, welcomes Bank decision to reexamine and revise indicators that rewarded countries for having the least amount of labor regulations and discouraged the provision of social protection programs.
Read more (BIC website)
5. Announcements and Resources:
World Bank extends online comment period on Information Disclosure Policy
The World Bank has extended their online comment period from May 22, 2009 to June 5, 2009, reflecting the extension of in-country consultation period. You can submit your comments on the World Bank's disclosure policy review page.
New on BIC website: BIC launches Climate Change page
In preparation for the World Bank Energy Sector Strategy Review, BIC announces the launch of our Climate Change Campaign webpage, specifically detailing the World Bank's role in climate change. This page will be updated frequently over the coming months, so be sure to check the page regularly!
BIC's new Climate Change Campaign page
Reminder about BIC's multilingual site
Please continue to make use of the BIC website's multi-lingual function. You can find links to various languages including Spanish, Arabic, and Russian in the top right hand corner of any BIC webpage. While we try to translate as many of the cross-program campaign materials as possible (for example, materials related to our Transparency campaign), we also do our best to translate any pages that are relevant to the region where that language predominates (for example Arabic in the MENA region, etc.). If the page you are viewing is available in that language, you will automatically be directed to that page, and if not, then you will be directed to the homepage in that language. We encourage you to e-mail bbryan@bicusa.org if you have any questions or suggestions concerning the website.
View BIC's homepage
We would also like to draw your attention to the BICECA website which is now housed within the BIC site and is available in both English and Spanish.
View BICECA homepage
6. New at BIC! BIC welcomes Erin Carey as Climate Coordinator, and Nadia Daar as Program Assistant for the Middle East and North Africa Program
Erin Carey joined BIC in May 2009. She recently completed her MS degree in Natural Resource Management at the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment where she studied environmental policy and climate change, including international climate finance. She conducted her thesis research in rural Alaska on indigenous knowledge of climate change and implications for adaptation policy. Prior to Michigan, Erin worked at Peace Corps’ regional office in Seattle, Washington where she directed recruitment campaigns in Washington and Alaska. Erin served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali, working on community based natural resource management and responses to drought and desertification. While in Mali, Erin also coordinated the Gender and Development committee and worked extensively with women’s groups on literacy and entrepreneurship. Erin was raised in Washington State and has traveled, studied and volunteered throughout Latin America, Africa and Europe. She speaks Bambara and French.
Contact Erin at ecarey@bicusa.org
Nadia Daar joined BIC in November 2008 as an intern in the Information Services Program. After transitioning to a fellow and doing some work with the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) program, she took on a full time staff position as MENA Program Assistant in May 2009. Nadia grew up in Oman and moved to Toronto, Canada to pursue her Honors BA in Political Science, Economics, and Music History and Culture at the University of Toronto. She went on to do her Masters at York University where she focused on the political economy of the Middle East. Her thesis explores the role of civil society participation in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers process in Yemen. Through her two years serving on the Board of the Ontario Public Interest Research Group-Toronto, Nadia gained experience working on a range of social and environmental campaigns in Canada including indigenous land rights, immigrant and refugee rights, and ethical investment among others. She has also done work around education issues, most recently traveling to the West Bank to help produce a documentary about education under occupation. She speaks Arabic and some French, and has limited knowledge of Spanish and Swahili.
Contact Nadia at ndaar@bicusa.org