World Bank reform

Peter Chowla missed many of the World Bank's recent reforms ( Comment , April 14). Increasingly, the World Bank is seen as a transparency leader. Publish What You Fund has rated the Bank "best performer" in terms of aid transparency out of 58 donors for two years running. And the Centre for Global Development and the Brookings Institution both ranked the Bank's Fund for the Poorest, IDA, as a top donor in transparency and learning. The Bank recently added an additional seat on our board for sub-Saharan Africa, to increase the voice of developing countries. About half of our senior officers are women; almost half are from developing countries. Key donors give the Bank high marks. At their request, we're helping 130 developing countries on climate change adaptation and mitigation. The Bank's open data initiative has unlocked our world-class knowledge and development data. We now provide free access to more than 8,000 indicators, including GDP data and development statistics. And last week we announced a new open access policy for our research outputs and knowledge products. Finally, our shareholders provided us record financial support during the global economic crisis. All of this highlights a changing institution with growing, not declining impact. Cyril Muller Vice-president, external affairs, World Bank, Washington DC