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p. 11 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 A. Roles and Responsibilities B. Procedures for Accessing Information C. Effective Date and Transitional Period D. Monitoring and Reporting E. Review and Amendment Staffing and Resource Implications Compliance Review Recommendation

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

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A. Roles and Responsibilities

131. The aim of the Policy is to enhance stakeholders' trust in, and ability to engage with, ADB. All its departments and offices will be accountable for implementing the Policy. The specific roles and responsibilities of ADB Management and staff are outlined as follows.

1. Management

132. Management will demonstrate its commitment to strengthening external relations by intensifying its engagement with external audiences and media, and encouraging all staff to actively participate in external relations activities. Management, through regular Management Committee meetings, will define and update ADB's external relations approaches-priority areas, key messages, outreach opportunities-and lead and monitor their implementation to ensure maximum impact. Management will promote open and effective internal communications to ensure staff at all levels are aware of Management views and positions.

2. All Departments and Offices

133. All ADB departments and offices will be responsible for implementing the Policy. As ADB's key communicators, heads of all departments and offices will proactively communicate with external audiences and lead efforts to strengthen ADB's external relations, expand understanding of ADB's motivations and objectives, and build stakeholder trust in the institution. Staff from operational departments will play a key role in communicating with project-specific stakeholders, and in ensuring the disclosure requirements are met. They will seek to ensure that people from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors with whom they interact are aware of the Policy and the public's right to access information from ADB in accordance with the Policy.

3. Office of External Relations

134. While ADB Management and all departments and offices, including resident missions and representative offices, are responsible for implementing the Policy, OER will bear overall responsibility for its implementation and consistent application. To ensure well-coordinated approaches to external relations, the work of the representative offices will be integrated into OER. To raise the profile of external relations within ADB and enable effective management of expanded responsibilities, OER will be upgraded to a department and work under the close guidance of Management. To maximize its impact within available resources, the department will sharply define its roles and rigorously prioritize its functions based on the new strategic directions discussed in the Policy.

135. Within 3 months of approval of the Policy, OER will develop a detailed action plan and monitoring framework to guide and assess implementation of the external relations component of the strategy.

a. Disclosure

136. A new public information and disclosure unit (InfoUnit) in OER will provide advice and policy interpretation to all ADB departments, and monitor the disclosure requirements of the Policy. The InfoUnit will also design and conduct mandatory training for operations staff on the disclosure requirements of the Policy, and will develop alert systems and staff incentives to ensure ADB is in compliance with the Policy. It will support operations departments to develop communications plans for strategies, programs, and projects. It will directly support the work of the PDAC, and submit to the PDAC monitoring reports on progress in carrying out the Policy (see paragraph 151). The InfoUnit will regularly update the list of operational documents produced by ADB and keep the public informed about publicly available operational documents. It will also maintain a system for tracking requests in accordance with the requirements of the Policy.

137. OER's web team will create and maintain an e-mail notification system that enables users to indicate what types of information they are interested in and to receive e-mail alerts as the relevant documents become available.

138. OER will encourage a culture of openness among ADB staff and seek to develop incentives for the proactive sharing of information.

b. Translation

139. In consultation with interested stakeholders, the InfoUnit will prepare a translation framework within 6 months of approval of the Policy. The translation framework will outline the ways in which ADB will expand the extent of information made available in languages other than English, the working language of ADB.

140. The InfoUnit will also coordinate translation work within ADB, create a centralized record of major translation efforts across ADB, and maintain a database of translators proficient in the languages used in ADB members. The InfoUnit will promote awareness among ADB departments and offices of the translation services available to them.

c. Public Communications Policy Handbooks

141. OER will produce a public communications policy staff handbook with step-by-step procedures to guide ADB staff in making operational information and documents publicly available. The staff handbook will be made readily available to Management and staff. A separate handbook will be developed to guide ADB's borrowing governments and private sector project sponsors to implement the Policy. OER will update its media guidelines to clarify and further streamline procedures for communicating with the media. All handbooks would be publicly available (see paragraph 68).

d. Network of Public Information Centers

142. During the first year of the Policy's implementation, OER will conduct a review of ADB's depository library program and develop a strategy for upgrading ADB's public information centers. The strategy and program for public information centers will be finalized within 2 years of the Policy's effective date.

143. The strategy may include ADB's creation of and/or participation in information centers in partnership with other international agencies. It will also identify ways in which civil society organizations, such as umbrella and apex NGOs, and nongovernment research institutions, can be used to disseminate information about ADB-assisted activities.

4. Representative Offices and Resident Missions

144. Representative offices and resident missions play a critical "front line" role in building and maintaining ADB's profile, given their proximity to target audiences, their operational and economic expertise, and their understanding of unique cultural and communications realities in the country or region where they are based.

145. Heads of representative offices and resident missions are key ADB communicators and will be tasked with expanding and strengthening ADB's interactions with media, opinion leaders, and decision makers in their country or region. ADB should appoint individuals with the operational expertise, communications skills, and appropriate attitude required to carry out these responsibilities.

146. ADB will gradually increase the number of external relations staff at resident missions.³⁰ External relations staff will provide professional support and advice to the heads of their mission or office, will be part of the resident mission management team, and will be fully aware of all activities at the mission. Resident mission external relations staff will have consistent job descriptions and qualifications and will receive structured and ongoing training.

147. Major responsibilities of the resident mission external relations staff will include establishing and cultivating relationships with a wide variety of public and private groups to facilitate interaction with senior ADB staff; ensuring regular access for local and international media to ADB representatives and information; assisting resident mission staff to implement disclosure aspects of this strategy; helping the public within the country to interpret the disclosure requirements of the Policy; and monitoring local, national, and international news in English and local language(s) for coverage of issues of interest to ADB.

148. To improve consistency and maximize the benefits of information sharing, an external relations network comprising all external relations staff at representative offices, resident missions, and OER will be created and meet regularly by videoconference (and annually in person). Resident mission external relations staff will have dual reporting lines to the respective country director and OER.

149. Resident missions and representative offices will coordinate the translation of documents and review the accuracy of translations as necessary.

5. Borrowers or Private Project Sponsors

150. For ADB projects, much of the responsibility for disclosing information will rest with the borrowing government or private sector sponsor. The borrower will work with staff from operations departments to provide focal points in project areas to dialogue with affected people about the project (paragraph 74). Project focal points may use ADB's website to access project- and country-related information and to disclose such information to interested parties, using locally- and culturally-appropriate delivery mechanisms.

6. Public Disclosure Advisory Committee

151. ADB will create a Public Disclosure Advisory Committee (PDAC) as an oversight body to interpret, monitor, and review the disclosure requirements of the Policy. The PDAC will be composed of the Managing Director General (serving as chair), the Principal Director of OER, the Secretary, and the General Counsel, and will report directly to the President. It will convene as needed to review requests for information that have been denied by other ADB departments or offices.

152. The PDAC will contribute to the annual report on the public communications policy (paragraph 162) by assessing the implementation of the disclosure elements of the Policy. The annual report will include a summary of refusals to provide information to the public, as well as any recommendations for changes to the Policy, the Operations Manual, or the organizational structure supporting ADB's public disclosure of information.

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