Road to 2030: Access to Information in the Driver's Seat

"Accurate facts and figures are needed to ensure education for all, to foster inclusive economic progress, and to better protect the environment. Any thriving democracy is built on well-informed, critical, and resilient citizens."

As part of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16, SDG Target 16.10 aims to "ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national legislation and international agreements". In a joint project aiming to highlight how open government supports not only the achievement of SDG 16 but also of the entire 2030 Agenda, Deutsche Welle Akademie, Free Press Unlimited, and the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) in consultation with the Centre for Law and Democracy and local partners assessed SDG 16.10 and the state of access to information (ATI) in Canada, Indonesia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Serbia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, and Ukraine. This global spotlight report sheds light on the initiative and includes specific recommendations for each country as well as overall recommendations distilled from the outcomes of the assessments and of multi-stakeholder meetings.

Organisers explain the importance of ATI, in part, as follows: "Without ATI, media are unable to keep the public informed and speak truth to power. Without freedom of expression and an enabling environment for independent media, the public cannot fully exercise its right to ATI. This close interconnection explains why independent media need to be closely involved in activities that support ATI. ATI should be seen as a way to provide journalists and media with an additional tool to carry out their jobs. It enables each member of the public to hold his or her government to account. Together with freedom of expression, ATI contributes to a more peaceful, inclusive, and accountable society and protects human rights as a whole."

The selection of the 10 project countries was based on their ATI legal framework and their intention to present a Voluntary National Review (VNR) about their implementation of the 2030 Agenda at the 2019 United Nations (UN) High-Level Political Forum (HLPF). ATI refers to information held by public authorities that fosters transparency, governmental accountability, and participatory decisionmaking. A first step in this regard is the adoption of laws enabling an open government, which have been enacted by a majority of countries across the world. Nevertheless, even after ATI laws have been adopted, their implementation remains a hurdle, mainly due to knowledge gaps. Specifically, there is a lack of awareness among the public and government bodies regarding the fundamental right of ATI, as well as a lack of data regarding the implementation of ATI.

As part of the project, multi-stakeholder meetings were held during the first quarter of 2019 aiming to raise awareness of the importance of ATI towards achieving the 2030 Agenda as well as including it in the official VNR. They provided a platform for civil society, government, and media representatives to engage on this topic. Prior to the meetings, data on the ATI were gathered and analysed via the Freedom of Information Advocates Network (FOIAnet) methodology, a research tool to help civil society organisations (CSOs) assess the extent to which states have implemented SDG Target 16.10 and, in particular, SDG Indicator 16.10.2.8 (number of countries that adopt and implement constitutional, statutory, and/or policy guarantees for public ATI). The methodology aims to be easily applicable and utilises an independent testing approach (i.e., to be applied by CSOs). Stakeholders implementing the methodology are encouraged to choose from a diverse spectrum of public authorities to measure a cross-section of performance. The methodology reviews 3 substantive areas: (i) the extent to which public authorities are proactively disclosing information; (ii) the extent to which institutional measures have been put in place to assist with implementation; and (iii) the extent to which requests for information are being responded to properly.

Brief results (see the report for an analysis of each country, as well as data shared in appendices) include:

• Canada: Public authorities are generally performing well in terms of implementing its ATI law.
• Indonesia: Public agencies have medium-range scores in enacting the law; implementation has started, but there remains room for improvement.
• Mongolia: The government has not appointed an ATI nodal agency, and there is a strong, persistent culture of secrecy without clear instructions on how to handle information requests.
• Pakistan: Public institutions showed average performance in regard to proactive disclosure, but all 10 failed and performed poorly on the availability of information about ATI.
• Serbia: After 15 years of the implementation of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, many public institutions are still hiding some information and are reluctant to provide information through ATI requests.
• Sierra Leone: In 2014, the Right to Access Information Commission (RAIC) was established to facilitate ATI, but the impact of RAIC in overseeing and enforcing the implementation of the RAI law is yet to be felt by the public.
• South Africa: After a strong civil society campaign, the right to ATI was written into the 1996 South African constitution under Article 32. However, the legislation has been plagued by implementation issues.
• Tanzania: The passage of the 2016 ATI law was the result of over 10 years of advocacy efforts, mainly by the Coalition on the Right to Information and its members. The passing of the law was a significant step forward, but challenges remain.
• Tunisia: Despite strong provisions in the ATI law, there is a lack of information proactively published, and institutions are slow to respond to citizens' requests. Public authorities are gradually adapting, but there is still resistance.
• Ukraine: The Ukraine law On Access to Public Information (OAPI) was adopted in 2011; Ukraine is generally performing well in meeting the mandated standards.

Recommendations are provided for each country, but overall recommendations include:

• Public authorities should proactively make information available.
• It is important to establish a nodal agency and an oversight body on ATI, as well as to appoint and adequately train public information officers in public institutions. National information commissions or ATI oversight bodies need to be able to enforce effective penalties on those who violate national ATI legislation and/or deny or poorly process information requests.
• ATI needs to be designed as a priority at all levels of government and be backed by sufficient resources and commitment.
• Raising awareness among the broader public is crucial to achieving better ATI implementation; independent media and investigative journalism play a vital role in this regard. (In some countries, the process toward adoption of ATI legislation was accompanied by significant awareness-raising campaigns led by civil society and the media and designed to reach key decision makers, whether in government or among members of parliament. Often, however, once the ATI law has been adopted, these actors incorrectly assume that the main goal has been achieved.
• Keeping track of granted and denied information requests allows for the identification of pressing needs and bottlenecks in the system and ATI implementation.
• Additional data collection on ATI implementation via robust and universally accepted methodologies is an integral part of closing the current knowledge gap. In addition, UN member states should take into account non-governmental data sources in all their evaluations of progress towards SDG 16.

In conclusion, organisers stress that data collection and raising awareness about ATI need to be prioritised: "The argument that ATI is conducive to the overall achievement of the 2030 Agenda will be accepted only if there is data actually confirming it." They also call on UN member states to continue their commitment to "ensure public access to information and to protect fundamental freedoms" by supporting the actual implementation of ATI legislation. To that end, "[p]olicymakers should be made aware of the significance of ATI for good governance, the importance of multi-stakeholder monitoring, and the relatively low threshold for improving ATI implementation."

"The outcomes and recommendations of this report provide building blocks for all stakeholders in developing additional strategies to strengthen ATI worldwide."