By Toby McIntosh
Eight months ago, on Sept. 29, 2025, EYE asked the World Bank for specific documents about a road development project in Mozambique.
Since then, EYE has periodically asked for updates on the Bank’s progress toward an answer, receiving courteous replies and sympathy.
The Bank has hinted for months at a forthcoming response.
Dec. 1 – “… we are following up with the relevant staff.”
Feb. 10 – “We’re pursuing a decision.”
March 2 – “… hope to wrap this up soon …”
April 21 – “… we’re now very close to closing this one out.”
May 28 – “… hope we can get back to you soon.”
Should this really take so long?
The Bank’s Access to Information Policy pledges answers in 20 business days, unless a request is complex (in which case there is no deadline).
But this request isn’t complex, a Bank official admitted.
“You’re right that this has taken a long time, and I understand your frustration — especially given that this isn’t a complex request,” wrote Senior Communications Officer Claudia Gabarain on April 21.
But, she continued: “Even with relatively straightforward cases, it can sometimes take longer than it should to work through all the internal steps and get the necessary inputs from colleagues, particularly when they’re in different offices and time zones. That said, I do believe we’re now very close to closing this one out.”
You might have thought the World Bank would have figured out managing different offices and time zones.
More likely the issue is a deep-seated reluctance to disclose aide memoires.
What Documents Are Involved?
This request was for aide memoires about a roads project in Mozambique, which was approved in 2018, to be finished by June 2026.
Aide memoires are descriptive about the projects and reflect information from Bank officials and government officials. They can be disclosed at the discretion of the Bank and the borrowing country. But a very low percentage of them end up on the Bank’s website. Usually done once a year, there may be 10 of them for the Mozambique project. (See EYE article Sept. 25, 2025.)
The Bank issues less substantive annual project assessments, known as an Implementation Status and Results Reports (ISRs). Actually what’s released is known as the “Disclosable Version” of the ISR. Nine ISRs have been released during the course of the Mozambique project.
The latest public report on the Mozambique project, dated Dec. 24, 2025, rates progress as “satisfactory.” The 10-page document grades the project against benchmarks and also provides financial data. Aide memoires are typically twice as long and more detailed.
World Bank Opposes Releasing Aide Memoires
The Bank has strenuously resisted releasing aide memoires, but the oversight body for the access to information policy has rejected blanket nondisclosure and sometimes ordered aide memoires released.
Making a critical distinction, the independent three-person Access to Information Board (AIAB) has ruled in three cases that the Bank must distinguish between factual information, which the AIAB said should be disclosed, from opinion, which may be covered by the “deliberative process” exemption. After reading the content, the Board has in some instances overturned Bank decisions and ordered aide memoires released.
Still, disclosures have been few because the Bank will not redact documents. So if a document contains any material covered by an exemption, the whole document stays secret. Essentially an “all or nothing” disclosure policy.
In quiet response to the AIAB’s decisions, the Bank in 2024 issued a revised interpretation concerning aide memoires.
Interpreting a footnote in its Access to Information Policy, the Bank said all aide memoires are covered by the deliberative process exemption and therefore exempt from disclosure. This interpretation was done “to clarify the original intention,” according to a Bank statement to EYE. (See EYE article Sept. 25, 2025.)
Whether the Board will accept this interpretation has not yet been tested.
EYE also requested aide memoires for a project in Lesotho, P177814, the Pathways to Sustainable Livelihoods Project. The Bank denied the requests completely on Feb. 10, 2026 (so only took four months), citing the deliberative process exemption.
On April 13, EYE filed an appeal contesting the denial to the first stage of appeal, the internal Access Information Committee. The appeal questions whether the Bank is properly applying the deliberative process exemption in light of the AIAB’s decisions.
The committee’s answer may come shorty. The access policy says the committee “makes its best efforts to reach a decision on appeals within 45 working days of receiving an appeal ….”
In the meantime, the Bank’s review of the request for the Mozambique project documents remains ongoing.
“… [T]he case is active and we are seeking an informed assessment in accordance to the Access to Information Policy,” according to the most recent Bank email, dated May 28.
The Bank adds, “I understand the frustration and hope we can get back to you soon.”
