The Access Initiative (TAI) seeks to ensure that people have a voice in the decisions that affect their environment and their communities.TAI partners promote transparent, participatory, and accountable governance as an essential foundation for sustainable development.To achieve this goal, partners form national coalitions, assessgovernment progress using a common methodology, raise public awareness, and set priorities for improvements in policy and practice.

How well is your government upholding the commitment it made at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit to strengthen public participation in decision-making that affects the environment? The Access Initiative national teams answer this question by conducting assessments of national-level laws and practices regarding public access to information, participation, and justice in decision-making that affects the environment. These three "access principles" empower individuals to have a meaningful voice in decisions that affect the health of their family, the prosperity of their community, and the development and security of their country.

TAI partners engage in the following strategies.

Build Civil Society Coalitions
TAI partners build coalitions of civil society groups that collaborate with
regional and global networks to research government policies and practices,
engage stakeholders, and disseminate information.

Assess Government Progress
TAI provides a complete toolkit that supports civil society groups to research and
monitor their government’s performance in providing public access to information,
participation, and justice in decision-making that affects the environment.

Set Priorities for Reform
TAI partners use their research findings to work with policymakers to set
priorities for improvement in public access at the national level. Supported
by an internationally recognized research methodology and connected to TAI
coalitions worldwide, partners gain increased access to national decisionmakers
as well as relevant international organizations, and are better able to influence
their country’s public participation policies.

Raise Public Awareness
TAI partners disseminate their research findings broadly to increase awareness
about the rights of the public, government initiatives to solicit public input,
and how to obtain environmental information. Activities have included hosting
public forums, developing websites, and publishing “citizens’ manuals”.

Click here for general information about TAI in French.