African Platform on Access to Information (APAI) Campaign

In order to promote access to information, the Working Group identified the following as key strategies:

• developing a campaign around Access to Information that would educate government, civil society, media stakeholders, and the public about their right to access information;
• forming partnerships with international and regional organisations, civil society, and media stakeholders;
• drafting a regional declaration that would set out the principles of Access to Information, and lobbying for its adoption at a regional (AU) and international (UN) level;
• lobbying national governments to ensure that national Access to Information legislation is enacted;
• calling for a Right to Information day to be celebrated on September 28 each year; and
• organising a Pan African Conference on Access to Information, which would bring together experts from all over the continent, and see the signing and adoption of a Regional Declaration.

In September 2011, experts on Access to Information convened in Cape Town, South Africa at the Pan African Conference on Access to Information. After months of public commentary, consultations, and working group meetings, the final draft of the African Platform on Access to Information (APAI) Declaration was finalised, signed, and adopted on September 19 2011. National lobbying efforts intensified, with the conference in Cape Town been attended by Ministers and Parliamentarians from Liberia, Nigeria, Kenya, Botswana, Uganda, and South Africa, amongst others. September 28, currently celebrated as "Right to Know" day, was commemorated by launching a signatory campaign.

According to MISA, an informed population can better its situation through converting information to applicable knowledge. In turn, that requires not just rights and practical access to information, but also information literacy skills. What is therefore important is that access to information includes developing citizen's capacities to distinguish between information and disinformation, what is public and what is private, what is ethical and what is not. Further, there is the need for skilling the public to manage its information reception and consumption in a knowledgeable way – not least, by exploiting ICTs to the full. It is also widely recognised today that effective development and democracy require interactive communication and dialogue, in which quality information can serve as the currency of social creation and self-actualisation.

People can join the campaign and access resources from the African Platform on Access to Information website

Access to Information, Governance, Freedom of Expression

MISA launched the campaign for the enactment of a declaration on Access to Information in Africa in 2011, recognising that information is indispensable in exercising meaningful expression and that information is the cornerstone of accessing all other social and economic rights. According to MISA, 2011 alone saw the adoption of Access to Information legislation by five countries in Africa, bringing the total number to 10. However, Access to Information is a right that many African citizens are still struggling to realise. The African continent houses some of the most secretive governments in the world, and public information is simply not accessible to most African citizens