Research and Results

Below please find links to The Access Initiative's country research results and findings, analyses, and papers. For TAI's formal publications, please visit our publications page.

Research

TAI tested and subsequently improved its framework methodology by conducting pilot tests in nine countries. The methodology establishes a set of common practice standards in four broad areas:

• Comprehensiveness and quality of the General Legal Framework;
• Degree of available access to selected types of Information about the Environment;
• Degree of Public Participation in decision-making processes; and
• Comprehensiveness and quality of Capacity Building efforts to encourage informed and meaningful public participation.

The research questions in the TAI framework were tested and revised by all nine pilot-test national teams while conducting assessments of their public participation systems. The test results for each country can be found by following the links below.

• Chile
• Hungary
• India
• Indonesia
• Mexico
• South Africa
• Thailand
• Uganda
• United States
  

Analyses

Please read TAI's Guidelines for Public Participation Systems and TAI's analysis of Commitments to Public Participation in Multilateral Agreements and Institutions.

Please read TAI's analysis of public access to information, participation and justice in environmental decision-making (in our pilot-study countries), and how access affects:

• Corporate Accountability
• Energy
• Water

Water Work

The TAI methodology provides national civil society organizations with a generally applicable set of indicators to assess good governance in terms of access to information, public participation, and justice in decision-making that affects the environment. National coalitions are encouraged to select case studies from sectors important to the national economy in order to illuminate key gaps in law and practice. The methodology has successfully been applied to such diverse sectors as forestry, port development, and electric power generation.

However, cognizant that particular economic sectors may present unique access challenges not fully captured by the general methodology, the TAI core team has decided to invest in adapting the indicator toolkit for application to the information and decision-making related to specific sectors, starting with water. With close to half of the world's population estimated to live under conditions of water stress or scarcity by 2025, conflicts and potential human rights abuse over water are expected to increase dramatically. Increasing access to water can have a substantial impact on education, health, and economic livelihoods, and can also lead to increased access to other basic needs such as food. Privatization of water service delivery and the construction of large dams are only two examples of decision-making in the water sector that have proven to be highly contentious. With such a wide range of potential impacts and conflict emanating from water sector governance, it is critical to expand decision-making to include constituencies for the poor and for the environment.

Accordingly, in September 2005, TAI partners started a new activity to evaluate access in the context of water sector governance. TAI will facilitate pilot application of TAI indicators to water sector cases in order to determine how they need to be modified or supplemented to capture sector-specific issues. TAI partners will share their findings this spring at the TAI global meeting and the World Water Forum in an attempt to influence the global dialogue on water governance and help countries work to achieve Millennium Development Goal 7, Target 10 (Millennium Development Goal 7 is to ensure environmental sustainability, Target 10 aims to reduce the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water).