Contact In the Dominican Republic:
Alejandra De La Paz
(+809) 566-6815
adelapaz@worldbank.org
SANTO DOMINGO, 28 November 2007 — The Executive Director of the National Council for State Reform (CONARE in Spanish), Marcos Villamán, and the World Bank’s resident representative in the country, Christina Malmberg Calvo, signed today in front of the Japanese Ambassador, Nobutaka Shinomiya, a $527.200 donation agreement destined to support circulation in rural areas of the General Law of Free Access to Public Information Nr. 200-04, with a view to improving its usage in marginalized and vulnerable communities.
The donation will be made through the Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF), which is administered by the World Bank. CONARE will be in charge of selecting the local agency to execute the task according to criteria laid down in the agreement.
“This donation will contribute to those people in communities away from the capital and in poor areas, to educate and have access to public information that relates to them”, stated Christina Malmberg Calvo during the signing ceremony.
“Access-to-information laws and their appropriate use are key tools in strengthening governance and making up to the demand for transparency”, she added.
Marcos Villamán, on his part, indicated that “this initiative will reinforce efforts carried out by the government intended to close the social gap that exists between remote communities and those in bigger cities”.
He stated that “because of this donation, the poorest individuals will be able to train in data analysis and take part in meetings on public policy and program design”.
The focal points of this donation are rural residents and vulnerable groups, who will be provided with the knowledge of citizen’s rights that this law stipulates. Funds will be used to design ways to access that public information of greater interest to the public and to provide tools, technological and communicational, that allow both information requests and sustain demand for them.
The main criteria in the selection of the executing agency will be having a participatory methodology, proposed through a competitive bid led by CONARE and the World Bank.
The Government of Japan and the World Bank established the Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) in June 2000 as a means to provide direct assistance to the most disadvantaged and vulnerable groups.
This donation forms part of the guidelines of the World Bank Assistance Strategy for the Dominican Republic 2005-2009, which is intended to assist in improving governance and strengthening public institutions.
For more information on the JSDF visit http://go.worldbank.org/U5OQZVF200
For more information on the World Bank and the Dominican Republic, visit
http://www.bancomundial.org.do
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