Malawi: WB launches Access to Information Policy

"The new Access to Information Policy is much more than a simple policy change. It is an enormous cultural shift for the institution, both in terms of how we engage with the outside world and how we view and handle information," said Jeff Gutman, VP, operations policy and country services in a press release issued early in June.

Info now available to the media

Recently, World Bank spokesperson for Malawi, Zeria Banda told a grouping of media practitioners that with the new policy in place the bank will be at the disposal of the media unlike in the past when it was pursuing disclosure policy.

"Initially, even when the World Bank inspection team has established anomalies in the way governments had handled resources, it was keeping a tight lid, but now the approach would be to make such information available," she said.

Information that the bank will now avail to the media will be on key decisions made during project development and implementation to enable greater awareness of bank-supported operations and better development results.