ADB approves new access to information policy

M Humayun Kabir
The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Board of Directors has approved a new ‘Access to Information Policy’ with a view to maintaining ADB’s high standards of transparency.
The policy will come into effect on January 1, 2019 and it will replace the current Public Communications Policy (PCP), reports Asian Age.
Bambang Susantono, ADB Vice-President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development, said, “Transparency and openness are keys to maximizing the development impact of our work.”
“We want to make sure that ADB continues to be a top performer in terms of transparency. Principles-based accesses to information policies are now considered to be international best practice.”
The Manila-based bank yesterday said that the new policy retains the key information disclosure and sharing principles and exceptions of the PCP.
It 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, it said.
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 organization.
The index assessed 45 of the world’s leading development organizations.
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.