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WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 5 -- The International Finance Corporation (IFC) announced that its Board of Directors has approved revisions to its information disclosure policy that will strengthen the development impact of the Corporation's activities. Guided by principles of transparency, accountability, consultation, and responsiveness to clients, IFC management has formulated the new policy to achieve three objectives: o To broadly disseminate information about the Corporation's work and be as transparent as possible in undertaking its activities; o To enable public access to project specific information prior to management and Board decision making; o To ensure that environmental considerations and the views of local people affected by a proposed investment are taken into account in the project design. Commenting on the new policy, James D. Wolfensohn, President of IFC, said, "We have made substantial progress in improving the transparency of IFC's operations, particularly in the last few months. I am optimistic that we will maintain this momentum and continue to refine and improve IFC's disclosure policy." Jannik Lindbaek, Executive Vice President of IFC said, "We are striving to become even more transparent in our operations while maintaining our ability to serve our private sector client base. The revised disclosure policy represents a significant step forward in our effort to open a window on our decision-making process, take the views of people affected by proposed investments into account, and more fully integrate environmental considerations into our internal procedures."
"This is an evolving process," he added, "and we will continue to refine our disclosure efforts and make a review of our progress next year to assure that the policy continues to be dynamic." IFC's first information disclosure policy was approved by its Board of Directors in July 1994. At the time, it was agreed that the policy would be reviewed after a year to monitor its implementation and effectiveness. Assigned the task of overseeing the disclosure policy since mid-1995, Jemal-ud-din Kassum stated, "We evaluated our performance in carrying out the 1994 policy and identified two key components of the policy to be enhanced, public consultation and internal compliance. We are increasing emphasis on the early integration of environmental considerations and public views into the project appraisal process." "We have consulted a range of NGOs in reviewing our disclosure policy and their input has been extremely helpful to us," he added. Key improvements to IFC's disclosure policy are: o At the time projects are initially reviewed by management, IFC staff will be required to articulate a plan for disclosure of environmental and other project information. Such plans for projects with major environmental impacts will also include a program for consultation with those people likely to be affected by the project. To ensure the adequacy of public consultation in projects with significant environmental impacts, IFC will now require documentation of the details of public consultation in environmental assessments and subsequent project documents including: locations and dates of meetings, a description of affected parties consulted, an overview of issues discussed and resolved, the details of issues still outstanding and necessary future action.
To increase public access to information on environmental aspects of a proposed investment, an environmental assessment will be sent to the Public Information Center and be made available locally in the relevant country as early as possible in IFC's appraisal process, but no later than 60 days prior to the date that the project is presented to the Board of Directors for approval. o Increase dissemination of project documentation in the country where an investment is being considered. IFC will leverage its network of 27 resident representative offices as well as work closely with the World Bank to improve local distribution capabilities.
As a public institution acting in the public interest, IFC is held to a higher information disclosure threshold than private financial institutions. According to the report submitted to IFC's Board of Directors and made public today, IFC's on-going challenge is to formulate and implement a disclosure policy which strikes the right balance between full disclosure and protection of the confidential business information of clients. IFC's performance over the last year in meeting the deadlines for making project documents public, through the Public Information Center, has been good, according to the report. On average, project documents have been made public well ahead of the minimum deadlines which means that issues of concern to the public, particularly environmental issues, are being disclosed early in IFC's project review process.
Projects under consideration by IFC can be reviewed at the World Bank Group's Public Information Center. Located in Washington, D.C., at 1776 G Street NW Room CI-300, the Public Information Center is also accessible via the internet on the worldwide web at: http://www.worldbank.org// There are also offices in London, Paris, and Tokyo with public reading rooms, documents, and work stations. To order IFC documents through the Public Information Center, call (1-202) 458-5454, or fax, (1-202) 522-1500, or send an e-mail to pic@worldbank.org. IFC is a member of the World Bank Group and is the largest multilateral source of equity and loan financing for private sector projects in developing countries.
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