APRIL 2003
Formation of Global Working Group, New Alliances

A number of new advocacy plans are under way, outgrowths of a meeting in early February attended by several dozen transparency activists from around the world.

Brought together for the weekend session by freedominfo.org (with grant funding from the Arca Foundation and The Open Society Institute) were representatives of civil society groups that work on IFTI-related issues and representatives from organizations that focus on freedom of information legislation at the national level.

"The idea was to identify ways for the two groups to work together to challenge IFI secrecy," in the words of a follow-up letter inviting wider participation in a Global Working Group on IFI Transparency. A regular e-mail report on this campaign is being delivered. For more information write Jen Kalafut at the Bank Information Center (jkalafut@bicusa.org). Also see information posted on the BIC webs site <http://www.bicusa.org>.

The new alliance is proceeding along several lines. For one thing, to ratchet up pressure for the release of IFTI documents, one subcommittee is developing lists of documents to be requested under national FOIA laws.

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