USA: The IDB closed the second of the three phases of the public consultation process in Washington DC with expert organizations in transparency and access to information

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) concluded the series of virtual and face-to-face consultations meetings in real time, as well as the online open consultation. The last one, took place at the IDB headquarters bringing together leading expert organizations working for Latin America and the Caribbean on transparency, open government, and access to information matters.

The consultation process started on 2019 and have now successfully completed 20 real-time consultations, and a 120-day deferred consultation period where thousands of organizations have been reached and hundred have participated on two of the three phases of the process. On this direction, the Bank reaffirms its commitment to move towards greater transparency and accountability.

A team of more than 60 people of the Bank led by the Vice-Presidency for Countries made it possible to successfully carry out the entire consultation process. The Bank have received  hundreds of contribution from diverse interested parties during the virtual and deferred time consultation through the Public Consultation Portal).

Additionally, the face-to-face meetings brought together organizations from 26 countries in the region whose representatives were invited to take part in the meetings held in Costa Rica, Jamaica, Colombia and Uruguay and -the last one- in Washington DC, USA.

Last consultation in USA

The consultation at the IDB HQ in Washington DC, with the moderation of Alejandro Gamboa, part of the Bank’s Secretariat team, and the presentation of Flavia Milano, advisor to the Vice-Presidency for Countries and Marcelo Cerna, chief of the Access to Information Section. The meeting allowed the main changes introduced in the draft policy under consultation to be presented promoting a fluid technical exchange with representatives of American University, Bank Information Center, Center for International Environmental Law, International Finance Corporation, World Bank, and other colleagues from the Inter-American Development Bank.

At the end of the consultation, the feedback from the participants regarding the public consultation process in general and the face-to-face meeting at HQ in particular, was extremely positive, highlighting the openness of the institution to carry out a completely inclusive and transparent process, the commitment and excellent disposition of the moderators and the Bank teams involved.

Next steps and the final phase of the process

The public consultation will be finished its phase III by March 2023 (to be confirmed). Given the growing interest and at the request of some organizations, extended its period to receive inputs from 90 to 120 days, closing deadline the last December 28, 2022. During this time, all interested parties have provided comments through the Public Consultation Portal.

Between December 2022 and March 2023, the Bank will be processing all the received inputs elaborating of a proposal for the new policy document that will be shared publicly after receiving comments and recommendations from internal IDB teams.

All details and updates of the process in its last phase will be published on the Portal, as well as on the Access to Information web page and WiConnect.