ľ¹ÏÓ°Ôº believes that transparency and accountability are fundamentally important to the development process and central to achieving the Bank¡¯s mission to alleviate poverty and improve development effectiveness. The Bank¡¯s commitment to openness is also driven by a desire to foster public ownership, partnership, results and participation in World Bank operations from a wide range of stakeholders. With this purpose on November 17, 2009, the World Bank¡¯s Board approved the Bank¡¯s new policy on access to information, which shifts the focus from disclosure of information to access to information.