COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

To: Peter Burgess Increasing WB transparency 4 messages From: David Shaman Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 4:03 PM To: peterbnyc@gmail.com Peter, to keep the momentum going on increasing the Bank's transparency, I am circulating this letter that will be sent to President Zoellick. The Bank Information Center and Government Accountability Project have signed on and I think many others will soon join. I would be pleased if you and your group would join and grateful if you think appropriate to circulate with your own network. A positive outcome for re-establishing B-SPAN, the Bank’s Internet-based webcasting station as a channel of unedited broadcasts of Bank policy dialogues and debates would open a whole new world to civil society groups and the public. Please feel free to contact me with questions or for the latest update on signers. Best regards, David Shaman * * * * * Mr. Robert Zoellick President World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, DC Dear President Zoellick: We, the organizations and individuals undersigned, write to urge you to use your authority to expand funding for B-SPAN, the Bank’s Internet-based webcasting system, so that it can fulfill its original mandate. A recent New York Times article on transparency issues at the World Bank [1] mentioned the important role that B-SPAN used to play in promoting the transparency of the institution. In the aftermath of the Times story, the Center for Global Development, a major Washington think tank on international development, called on the Bank to re-invigorate B-SPAN with appropriate resources. [2] As background, B-SPAN was initially a joint venture of the Development Economics Research Group and World Bank Institute (WBI) and was launched in 2000. The objective of the service was to film the plethora of policy dialogues, seminars and conferences taking place inside Bank headquarters and stream the content to the public. B-SPAN was launched with a crucial principle: absolute transparency, meaning no editing of the webcasts. B-SPAN was designed to be a conduit of information between the Bank and the public. The motivation to begin B-SPAN was to provide development practitioners across the world with an opportunity to access knowledge critical in helping them reduce global poverty and enhance sustainable development. It also provided Bank personnel with an opportunity to connect and expand communications opportunities with external constituencies. After its launch, B-SPAN was enthusiastically embraced by thousands of Bank staff and the viewing public. Between 2000 and 2004, B-SPAN disseminated more than 700 unedited webcasts of Bank events to the public. In 2004, B-SPAN webcasts were watched by one-quarter million viewers and its website accounted for almost 2% of the entire Internet traffic the Bank received that year. Unfortunately, in 2005, WBI decided to use its resources elsewhere. Its funding of B-SPAN declined precipitously and the cost of the service for Bank staff became unaffordable. The service entered a rapid decline in the amount and diversity of content it could make available. It remains in this condition today. However, much has changed since 2005. New streaming and social media technologies that didn’t exist then can now disseminate B-SPAN streams at very low cost and with mobile phone applications these events can now reach countless millions. As demonstrated by the updated Access to Information Disclosure Policy, Open Data Initiative, financial data disclosure and plaudits for its aid transparency from a Publish What You Fund report, the World Bank has made important progress in recent years on transparency. The re-invigoration of B-SPAN as an open, uncensored channel of internal policy dialogues being streamed to the public would be another fundamental leap forward. The knowledge it would provide government officials and policymakers in shareholder countries – content often generated from their sources and resources – as well as academics, researchers and development practitioners globally would have a profound impact on the development and aid communities. It would also have tangible benefits for the Bank as it would focus global attention upon the institution as the best source of knowledge on development, thereby generating new business opportunities. In the words of the Center for Global Development: “literally thousands of events go uncovered every year because they don’t have dissemination budgets — a great loss to the global development community that can be rectified by the stroke of a high-level pen in the President’s office, or in the offices of the Bank’s External Relations Vice Presidency or the World Bank Institute. Thanks to President Zoellick and his colleagues, the Bank has opened many of its databases to the global community. We urge that the same coverage now be extended to the extraordinary diversity and depth of its internal development dialogue: Expand B-Span to fulfill its original mandate, using the latest innovations in low-cost web access to share the Bank’s internal treasure trove with the global community.” We urge you to follow this recommendation. Thank you for your consideration of this suggestion and your continued leadership on transparency issues. Sincerely, Bank Information Center Bruce Rich, author Mortgaging the Earth: The World Bank, Environmental Impoverishment, and the Crisis of Development David Shaman, author The World Bank Unveiled Government Accountability Project -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Stephanie Strom, The New York Times, World Bank Is Opening Its Treasure Chest of Data, July 2, 2011 [2] David Wheeler, Michele de Nevers, Center for Global Development, B-SPAN and a Broader Vision of Public Information from the World Bank, July 5, 2011 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Letter to World Bank President Zoellick on B-SPAN.doc 52K