By Toby McIntosh
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) Council has adopted its first policy on access to information, including several broad exemptions.
Two years in the making, policy was approved Dec. 20 (noted in a meeting summary, with the short discussion described in a Dec. 22 GEF Bulletin).
Civil society organizations criticized the policy in advance of its adoption. The GEF CSO Network said in a statement that the policy “lacks (a) cohesiveness, (b) communication procedure and instruments of requesting information and (c) enforcement mechanisms at agency and country level.”
The approved access policy establishes guiding principles for the disclosure of “Council information,” lays out five exceptions and describes what information will be disclosed proactively.
The 32-member Council is the primary decision-making body for the multinational fund, which promotes environmental sustainable development by providing grants and concessional funding to support development projects with environmental benefits. Begun in 1992, the GEF has 183 member countries and 18 partner agencies, including the major development banks, UN agencies and environmental groups. The Council at its December meeting established a new work program for US$157.8 million. The World Bank serves as the Fund’s trustee and provides administrative services.
Exemptions to Disclosure
Of the five exemptions in Paragraph 8, two seem to provide considerable leeway for nondisclosure.
One allows confidentiality for information if the contributor considers it restricted.
Similar such “veto” provisions exist in access policies of development banks and other international organizations. The provision essentially permits member organizations or others providing information to the Council to claim confidentiality based on their own policies.
The GEF version says:
Information received in confidence or restricted under a separate disclosure/ access to information regime or equivalent and/or conveyed to the Council as restricted from public access in accordance with the owner’s policies on access to information or equivalent
Another potential opening for nondisclosure for “deliberative information as decided by the Council.”
The exception does not define “deliberative information,” which can be a slippery concept. The exception says:
(d) Information prepared by the Council as part of Executive Sessions and other deliberative information as decided by the Council
While exemptions to protect the deliberative process are common in access policies, they vary in the latitude provided. The GEF policy do not appear to set standards for Council decisions.
By contrast, the Global Transparency Initiative in 1999 issued a Model World Bank Policy on Disclosure of Information suggesting how to handle the deliberative process. The model policy is based on the GTI Charter, developed by the nongovernmental organization, which now exists only as an informal coalition.
The GTI model states:
Policy formulation and investigations 42. The Bank may refuse to disclose information where to do so would, or would be likely to: a. Seriously frustrate the success of a policy, by premature disclosure of that policy. b. Significantly undermine the deliberative process within the Bank by inhibiting the free and frank provision of advice or exchange of views. c. Significantly undermine the effectiveness of a testing or auditing procedure used by the Bank. d. Cause serious prejudice to an ongoing investigation by the Bank.
The new GEF policy introduces a commitment for the GEF to respond to requests for Council information within ten days. It does not describe where to send requests. (EYE has requested guidance.) The policy would allow any appeals of denials to be decided by the Council.
Documents to Be Disclosed
GEF Council meetings, held twice a year, are closed to the public, but the annex appears to open the door to advance disclosure of Council documents.
An annex in the Nov. 21 package sent to the Council lists documents that will be disclosed “provided that they do not contain or refer to information that is restricted from public access in accordance with the applicable policy on access to information….”
These include:
Joint Summaries of the Chairs • Highlights • Provisional Agendas • Provisional Lists of Documents • Lists of GEF Council Members, Alternates, and Constituencies • Reports of Council Committees and Working Groups • Reports of the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) • Reports of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) • Reports of the Trustee • Reports on Relations with Conventions and Other International Institutions • Portfolio Monitoring Reports • Work Program documents • IEO, Secretariat, STAP, and Trustee work plans and budgets • Proposed GEF Policies and Strategies
On timing, the annex says:
Council Working Documents and Information Documents are disclosed on the GEF website at the time of transmittal to the Council consistent with the Rules of Procedure for the GEF Council.
The GEF Bulletin about the discussion states that the GEF Secretariat “always aims to have Council documents on the website four weeks before a Council meeting.” The Council’s rules of procedure created the four-week time standard and says the documents go to members and “invited” attendees.
For Assembly meetings, held every four years, the policy says that “Assembly Working Documents, Information Documents, and Statements are disclosed on the GEF website at the time of transmittal to the Assembly consistent with the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly.”
The annex also discusses documents on replenishments, specific projects and evaluations.
Scientific Panel Not Covered
The GEF access policy does not apply to its major advisory body, the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel, which was established as a separate entity.
The new GEF access policy states:
The Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel and GEF Partner Agencies are subject to their respective policies and procedures on access to information.
The Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) “provides objective, strategic scientific and technical advice on GEF policies, operational strategies, programs and on projects and programmatic approaches; and, maintains a database of institutions, networks and individual scientists to provide the necessary expertise and advice for the GEF,” according to GEF’s website.
A description elaborates:
The Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel comprises seven expert advisers supported by a Secretariat, which are together responsible for connecting the GEF to the most up to date, authoritative, and globally representative science. The STAP Chair reports to every GEF Council meeting, briefing Council members on the Panel’s work and emerging scientific and technical issues. Advice to Council includes writing primers, or leading in-depth analyses, on themes influencing the sustainability of the global environment and development. In addition, STAP reviews and/or co- authorships GEF Policy papers where there are significant scientific or technical issues.
The STAP’s 2004 rules of procedure do not appear to address transparency.
STAP was created by the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) and is served by a Secretariat co-located at UNEP’s office in Washington and UNEP’s headquarters in Nairobi. “On all administrative, procedural and financial issues, the Secretary of STAP is accountable to the Executive Director of UNEP,” according to STAP’s website.
GEF has some control over STAP’s membership:
The Executive Director of UNEP, in consultation with UNDP, the World Bank and the GEF Secretariat, and subject to the approval of the GEF Council, shall appoint fifteen (15) members of STAP and shall designate a Chairperson and Vice Chairperson. The Chair and the Vice Chair are appointed for the duration of the GEF phase.
CSO Network Issues Statement
The GEF CSO prepared a one-page statement on the policy. It says:
The GEF CSO Network welcomes and endorses the ongoing work on the Policy on Access to Information.
The CSO Network noted that the Policy on Access to Information lacks (a) cohesiveness, (b) communication procedure and instruments of requesting information and (c) enforcement mechanisms at agency and country level.
Therefore, the CSO Network recommends:
The GEF Policy on Access to Information should have a holistic nature and cover not only the Council Information, but also the information of the Ethical Committee, the Ethics Officer, the IEO, the Secretariat, the Trustee and STAP and partner agencies instead of having to refer to several different policy documents.
The GEF Policy on Access to Information should set a higher standard than the policies of Implementing Agencies, and this should be a requirement of Agency accreditation.
The Policy on Access to Information should establish the communication procedure and instruments for requesting information.
The Policy should require key accountability information of Operational Focal Points to be available through the GEF website.
The policy should make clear under what exceptional circumstances access to restricted information is allowed.
The CSO Network would also recommend that the GEF policy refers not to only to stakeholders’ access to information but public accessibility.
