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p. 2 of 18 BACK | NEXT Definitions Executive Summary Introduction Public Communications and Development Effectiveness ADB’s Experience in Public Communications The Policy The Strategy Implementation Arrangements Staffing and Resource Implications Compliance Review Recommendation

The Public Communications Policy of the Asian Development Bank: Disclosure and Exchange of Information

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Executive Summary

For the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to be effective, it must work with a broad range of people and organizations. If it is to create strong and productive partnerships, ADB must be widely known, its motivations and objectives must be clear and well understood, and it must be respected as a professional, results-oriented, and practical institution. To gain trust and support participatory development, ADB must demonstrate openness and accountability by proactively sharing information with, and seeking feedback from, all of its stakeholders. ADB must also respond to information requests from its stakeholders.

Effective external relations and disclosure of information-i.e., more open and proactive public communications-are central elements in building these partnerships.

In the past decade, there has been a clear global trend toward greater openness and access to information and it is now widely accepted that information sharing is essential to participatory development. This trend toward transparency, coupled with the global communications revolution, has raised public expectations about the type, range, and delivery of information provided by institutions in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. ADB must adapt to this new era of greater openness to remain in step with its comparator institutions, the practices of many governments and the private sector in member countries, and public expectations.

ADB's public communications policy (the Policy) provides a framework to enable ADB to communicate more effectively. It replaces two policies that were adopted in 1994: the Information Policy and Strategy and the Policy on Confidentiality and Disclosure of Information. It expands the scope and type of information ADB will make publicly available.

The Policy aims to enhance stakeholders' trust in and ability to engage with ADB. To ensure ADB's operations have greater development impact, the Policy promotes:

• awareness and understanding of ADB activities, policies, strategies, objectives, and results;
• sharing and exchange of development knowledge and lessons learned, so as to provide fresh and innovative perspectives on development issues;
• greater two-way flow of information between ADB and its stakeholders, including project-affected people, in order to promote participatory development; and
• transparency and accountability of ADB operations.

To these ends, ADB will proactively share its knowledge and information about its work with stakeholders and the public at large. In the absence of a compelling reason for confidentiality, ADB will presume information can be disclosed. The Policy will ensure that ADB does not selectively disclose information; people should have equal access to the information that ADB makes publicly available under the Policy.

Improving Awareness and Understanding of ADB

ADB faces increasing pressures to respond to some of the most critical challenges of our time, including poverty, global insecurity, environmental sustainability, and economic uncertainty. The dynamism of the Asia and Pacific region is transforming the countries where ADB works, with global consequences. As a result, demands from governments, business, and civil society for ADB to provide expert knowledge and insights into the region's development challenges are continually increasing.

ADB must enhance its intellectual leadership and articulate and communicate its substantial knowledge of the region more effectively. Member country governments, journalists, civil society organizations, and ADB staff have expressed the need for ADB to speak out and be heard on critical economic and social issues confronting the world's most populous region.

The Policy addresses these concerns by providing institutional mechanisms for more proactive communication on ADB operations, greater dissemination of information about ADB, and better access to information about ADB operations.

Through the Policy, ADB seeks to enhance the understanding of its members, civil society organizations, businesses, media, academic institutions, development partners, and the public at large of its role in poverty reduction in Asia and the Pacific.

Sharing Development Knowledge and Results

ADB has a responsibility to provide the public with a clear, balanced picture of its work. Moreover, as ADB now fully endorses a results-based management approach to delivering country assistance and helping its developing member countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals, it also has a greater public responsibility to report on those results.

With increased competition for scarce donor resources, there is greater public scrutiny of the cost-effectiveness of development programs. ADB produces numerous worthwhile studies, and their findings and insights must be widely disseminated.

The Policy meets these challenges. In an effort to improve performance by learning from experience, the Policy allows for ADB to report failures and disappointments as well as successes. Information will not be withheld just because it is negative. Such openness will encourage constructive dialogue on policies and operations. As a public institution, ADB should be publicly accountable.

Strengthening Communications

To ensure development effectiveness, ADB must expand opportunities for people affected by ADB-assisted operations to be informed about, and influence, the decisions that affect their lives. To facilitate greater community-level participation in decision making, ADB, member country governments, and private sector project sponsors need to adopt processes to inform stakeholders and allow them to provide feedback.

The success of projects often depends upon building trust with people, communities and organizations; explaining project aims; receiving local inputs; and securing the commitment of people living in the project areas. If it is to strengthen its links with project beneficiaries and other affected people, ADB must upgrade its communications policies, practices, and capacities.

The Policy supports the right of people to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas about ADB-assisted activities. Through the Policy, ADB seeks to provide information in a timely, clear, and relevant manner and to share information with project-affected people early enough to allow them to provide meaningful inputs into project design.

Improving Transparency

ADB recognizes that transparency not only enhances development effectiveness, but increases public trust in the institution. ADB seeks to be a positive example of transparency, and to act consistently with the advice it provides to members on transparency issues.

ADB also understands that full disclosure is not always possible for legal and practical reasons. For example, ADB needs to explore ideas, share information, and hold frank discussions internally and with its members, and in doing so, ADB must safeguard the privacy of its staff and protect confidential business information of private project sponsors and clients. However, exceptions are limited.

Implementation of the Policy

The Policy contains a strategy that ADB will use to implement its general principles. The strategy describes the approaches ADB will adopt to make its external relations more proactive and to improve access to information about ADB operations. The strategy describes information outreach, information sharing, and feedback from stakeholders; the key audiences ADB is aiming to reach; translation; and the roles of those responsible for implementing the Policy.

ADB will reinforce and refine its approaches to external relations by defining a focused external relations strategy. ADB will develop clear positions on issues of importance to its members, improve its information products to explain these positions, and disseminate these products more widely. To clarify the importance of external relations within the organization, ADB will align its organizational arrangements and modify its staff skills mix accordingly.

To ensure greater transparency, ADB is expanding the range of publicly available documentation covering both its public and private sector operations. The strategy describes the specific documents and other information ADB produces, indicates what will be made publicly available, and lists the exceptions to presumed disclosure.

To support participatory development, ADB will provide information to people affected by projects. The strategy describes how ADB staff will ensure that comments, advice, criticism, and other feedback on ADB's work are given due consideration. It also explains how ADB's response will be communicated clearly to the stakeholders who provided feedback.

A Public Disclosure Advisory Committee will be responsible for the interpreting, monitoring and reviewing the Policy's disclosure requirements. ADB's Office of External Relations (OER) will be the focal point for all public information activities and will bear overall responsibility for the implementation and consistent application of the Policy. OER will conduct training on the Policy. A new public information and disclosure unit in OER will monitor the disclosure requirements of the Policy, help operations departments to develop communication plans, create a network of public information centers, and establish a translation framework.

The Policy is the first step toward improving awareness and understanding of ADB and the development challenges of the region. ADB aims to provide the public with a clear, balanced picture of its work and results in the Asia and Pacific region. Through the effective dissemination of knowledge, ADB can achieve greater development effectiveness.

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