ADB approves new Access to Information policy to ensure transparency

BSS
The Board of Directors of Asian Development Bank (ADB) today approved a new Access to Information Policy that aims to maintain ADB’s high standards of transparency. The new policy, which will come into effect on January 1, 2019, will
replace the current Public Communications Policy (PCP), said an ADB press release. The new policy retains the key information disclosure and sharing principles and exceptions of the PCP, and includes a new overarching
principle of “clear, timely, and appropriate disclosure” that is underpinned
by a presumption in favor of disclosure and a commitment to sharing
information and ideas.
ADB has expanded some areas of disclosure. For example, the types of
information that will be made available after 20 years will now include
historical country financial information and certain external audit reports
on ADB-administered trust funds.
“Transparency and openness are key to maximizing the development impact of
our work,” said ADB Vice-President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable
Development Bambang Susantono.
“We want to make sure that ADB continues to be a top performer in terms of
transparency. Principles-based access to information policies are now
considered to be international best practice,” he added.
ADB was ranked first in the 2018 Aid Transparency Index, an independent
measurement of aid transparency, created by Publish What You Fund, a UK-based
nongovernment organisation. The index assessed 45 of the world’s leading
development organisations.
Asia’s dynamic economic growth over recent decades has brought different
challenges, ranging from environmental stress to rapid urbanization.
ADB’s activities and the issues ADB addresses are changing. Accordingly,
disclosure and information-sharing practices have to evolve to ensure that
stakeholders, including civil society, get information in a timely and
appropriate way.
Details on what documents ADB will routinely disclose and how they will be
disclosed will be found in the policy’s implementation arrangements on the
ADB website. These implementation arrangements will also detail the process
of requesting information from ADB.