Feature story

New policies support transparency and accountability

The EBRD is committed to transparency and accountability. Part of the Bank's own check on its record for good governance is constant dialogue with shareholders as well as other stakeholders such as non-governmental organisations. The process of self-review and dialogue over the past year has produced several important initiatives that further hones the policies guiding transparency and accountability. The revised Public Information Policy and Environmental Policy, and the new Independent Recourse Mechanism were approved by the EBRD Board of Directors on 29 April 2003.

Public Information Policy

The Public Information Policy is the EBRD's main policy governing disclosure to the public. The Policy sets out that the Bank will publish its Country Strategies, which analyse of the economic and political climate of each country, and provide the framework for the EBRD's investment in that country every two years. Partly in response to encouragement by member governments and NGOs, the Policy has been revised so that the public can provide comments to be considered in the drafting of Country Strategies. Country Strategies will also now be translated, during a trial period, into the national language of the relevant country.

In the interests of greater transparency, the Board of Directors also agreed to publish its schedule of policy and strategy discussions on the EBRD website and to publish some evaluation reports of projects.

Environmental Policy

The Environmental Policy sets out the EBRD's commitment to environmentally sound and sustainable development in all the EBRD's activities. After extensive public consultation, the Policy has been revised to increase transparency through an annual environmental report, including data on environmental expenditure in the Bank's portfolio, the Bank's own environmental achievements, and greenhouse gas emissions in the EBRD's countries of operations. Other initiatives include making information locally available to the public for certain projects, and requiring public consultation and disclosure to be developed at an early stage of the project cycle for the Bank's most sensitive projects. It also will now provide for the release of Environmental Impact Assessments in local languages and public information on project implementation, particularly for those projects that are likely to have a big impact on the environment.

Independent Recourse Mechanism

The Independent Recourse Mechanism (IRM) is a new mechanism to receive complaints from groups who are, or are likely to be, directly and adversely affected by a Bank-financed project to determine whether there has been material non-compliance by the Bank with specific policies, including the Environment Policy. The IRM may also assess whether the Bank could usefully employ problem-solving techniques, such as independent fact-finding, mediation or dialogue facilitation, to assist in resolving the cause of complaint.

These three policies guide the EBRD's transparency and accountability and will be translated progressively into all the official languages of the countries of operation.

30 April 2003