financial_institutions/access_information/other thematic issues/global priorities

Transparency in International Financial Institutions

Improving transparency in international institutions is a vital step towards greater accountability to stakeholders: citizens affected by them as well as member states. Without transparency, citizens can neither monitor nor influence decisions and expenditures that affect their daily lives. Business cannot know for certain what the rules are, leaving opportunities for manipulation and distortion in decision making in processes such as allocation of contracting bids - an area prone to corruption risks.

International financial institutions play an increasingly influential role in economies of countries around the world - their projects affect millions of lives. Corruption has infiltrated their work on many fronts, in many projects financed by these institutions. Greater information on policymaking as well as at the project level will be an effective deterrent to corrupt practices.

This also applies at the international level. International Financial Institutions, among them development banks, have a significant influence on the lives of millions of citizens worldwide. These institutions are largely responsible for making resources available to modernise countries, to build infrastructure or to support structural or industrial changes. The source of these resources is public money - taxpayers' money - contributed by the states which are members to these institutions. Hence, the principle of accountability still applies.

Global Transparency Initiative

The Global Transparency Initiative (GTI) is a network of civil society organisations promoting openness in the International Financial Institutions (IFIs), such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Investment Bank and Regional Development Banks.

The Global Transparency Initiative believes that people have a right to information from public institutions and a right to participate in development policies and projects that affect their lives. In activities supported by international institutions, transparency can help reduce corruption, identify potential social, environmental and economic risks and benefits, and avoid damaging communities and sensitive ecosystems.

Public disclosure of information, can help change the rules of the game. It can create political space for civil society to engage meaningfully with the financial institutions. The Global Transparency Initiative aims to strengthen IFIs' accountability to the public interest and to expand political space to debate development models.

Despite some encouraging moves towards greater openness by some of the international financial institutions, there is still a long way to go if the current public disclosure policies are to make a real difference to the public accountability of these institutions. The GTI aims to impact positively on this process and to contribute constructively to the debate about how the "right to know" can be implemented by the IFIs.

The initiative brings together two communities of activists and experts from around the world - groups campaigning for full accountability in the use of public power vested in the IFIs as well as groups that have been campaigning for the right to access to information at the nation-state level.

Projects led by the Global Transparency Initiative:

Development of a comprehensive IFI transparency resource which compares the transparency standards of ten international financial institutions.
Case studies and transparency audits illustrating the impact of transparency or the lack thereof
Comparative legal studies looking at specific exceptions of particular importance to IFI openness
Advocacy around ongoing IFI disclosure policy reviews
Providing small grants to individuals and organizations to contribute to any of the above listed activities.

For more information on the GTI, please visit www.ifitransparency.org

International Financial Institutions Transparency Charter

One of the main projects undertaken by the Global Transparency Initiative is the formulation of a Charter setting out the standards and norms that should govern IFIs disclosure policy, and the principles that should guide its practice.

The Charter is the key discussion document for widening and extending the global IFI transparency and accountability movement, launched in 2006.

International Financial Institutions Transparency Resource

Another important resource developed by the Global Transparency Initiative is the IFI Online resource.

This resource systematically documents access to information at ten financial institutions, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. This is an effort to identify best practice, develop a comprehensive vision for necessary transparency reforms, and help interested organisations and individuals access relevant information. The data in the resource deconstructs the operations of these institutions into thirteen broad categories, like governing bodies, policies and strategies, the lending cycle. These in turn are further broken down into almost 250 indicators of transparency. Comparing ten institutions has produced the most comprehensive baseline analysis of access to information at the IFIs ever assembled.

The IFI Transparency Resource not only contains comprehensive data on the transparency of operations and projects, but also provides users with a library of related resources, including: disclosure policies, civil society reports, useful websites, and more.

To access the transparency resource, please visit www.ifitransparencyresource.org