Attached, is a database of improvements in over 30 TAI Partner Countries. This database highlights changes in national laws towards access improvements from 2005 to 2010. The database highlights areas of change based on Access Pillars: Access to Information (A2I), Access to Justice (A2J), Public Participation(PP) and Capacity Building. Within the database, one can click on the link country tab to find the laws changes within each country.
Published: 2010
Attached, is a matrix of stories that have been written by TAI partners from October 2008 to July 2010 on access changes within their respective countries. The chart highlights the areas of change based on Access Pillars:Access to Information (A2I), Access to Justice (A2J), Public Participation (PP) and Capacity Building.
Within the chart, one can click on the link provided. This goes directly to a story or short blog post on this website explaining. The post provides first hand information from TAI partners working within that pillar of access.
Published: 2009
El Centro Ecuatoriano de Derecho Ambiental inició la construcción de una propuesta de objetivos y acciones estratégicas que permitan mejorar los procesos de gestión de la IA y su acceso.
Esta construcción se basó en el levantamiento de información sobre los principales problemas y debilidades en cuanto a la gestión de la IA, a través de un proceso que incluyó la investigación sobre los sistemas o redes de información existentes, la situación institucional y normativa para la gestión y acceso a la información ambiental y la realización de encuestas cuali-cuantitativas a generadores, gestores y usuarios de la IA para conocer su percepción sobre los principales problemas que se generan en toda la cadena de producción y socialización de información ambiental.
A partir de esta investigación, se identificaron problemas recurrentes en la gestión y socialización de la IA, así como fortalezas y oportunidades que manejan las distintas instituciones públicas y privadas. Esta información ha permitido plantear lineamientos estratégicos para mejorar la gestión y el acceso de la IA, que serán entregados a la autoridad ambiental a fin de apoyar las políticas y acciones para una mayor y mejor generación y socialización de la información en el Ecuador, promovidas por la Secretaría Nacional de Planificación y Desarrollo (SENPLADES) y, en el caso de la Información Ambiental, por el Ministerio del Ambiente.
Published: 2008
The Access Initiative (TAI) Thailand, an environmental governance coalition has conducted three national assessments on environmental governance in Thailand in order to find ways to improve its environmental accountability. Having proposed by friends in the non-governmental organizations that a citizen’s toolkit of environmental governance should be made available for the interested public to be used as guidelines in considering the governance performance of projects conducted in their local areas, TAI Thailand then produced this toolkit.
This toolkit is therefore designed for the public to use as guidelines in considering the levels of good governance for projects (or planning or policy making) only. It is not meant for the public or any organizations to use to assess good governance, because the number of indicators gathered in this toolkit is only half of the indicators of the full version. Moreover, in conducting a complete assessment, it would have to follow procedures and involve many analysts/researchers. This toolkit can also be used by the government agencies as guidelines to enhance good governance in conducting the work of your agency.
Published: 2009
Este documento recoge los criterios, análisis y discusiones generados en el Foro “Transparencia y Acceso a la Información Pública en el Ecuador. Retos y Análisis cinco años después de promulgada la LOTAIP”, y busca ser un medio para difundir y promover el debate sobre los retos existentes en el Ecuador en cuanto al acceso a la información.
Published: 2009
En el actual contexto normativo e institucional, la participación de la ciudadanía es uno de los ejes fundamentales de la gestión pública en todos sus ámbitos. La nueva Constitución de Montecristi consagra a la participación ciudadana como un derecho y un principio de organización e innovación institucional del Estado para garantizar los derechos de las personas. No podemos olvidar que el desarrollo requiere del aporte y la inclusión de todos los sectores sociales, no sólo como una forma de ser parte activa de su propio desarrollo, sino también como un espacio de corresponsabilidad para con lo público. Es así que la participación ciudadana cumple un rol articulador en los procesos de desarrollo, siempre y cuando ésta sea vista como una necesidad de articular visiones, propuestas, criterios, acciones y compromisos, y no como una mera formalidad para “avalar” procesos.
En la gestión ambiental, la participación ciudadana fundamenta los espacios de interacción de las comunidades, de las organizaciones de la sociedad civil y otros actores interesados, con el gobierno –nacional y local- en los procesos de toma de decisiones en relación al ambiente. Sin embargo, para que esta participación de la ciudadanía sea eficiente, efectiva y oportuna tiene que ser informada.
En este contexto, la edición del mes de agosto de nuestra serie de policy briefs “Temas de análisis”, analiza la importancia del acceso a la información como un insumo indispensable para la participación ciudadana en la gestión ambiental.
San José, Costa Rica. 2009
Last April 29th and 30th, representatives from TAI Coalitions from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Costa Rica gathered in regional workshop to create a common Action Plan to strengthen their work on the implementation of Principle 10.
The Action Plan has three sections:
A) Challenges and commitments of the leader organizations in each coalition: This point is related with the strengthening of the following aspects: 1) National coalitions to promote the Access Rights. 2) Information channels within the coalitions and between the coalitions. 3) Fundraising for national coalitions projects. 4) the inclusion of the Dominican Republic and Panama in the regional process. 5) Establishing a regional partnership that consolidates common work strategies and get funding for regional projects. 6) Political context challenges in each country. B) Regional Agenda: This point refers to issues related with: 1) access to information and communications between governments and civil society, 2) Legal framework on access rights. 3) Proceedings and institutional structures of public participation. 4) Education and training on access rights. 5) Funding for public participation and access to information. C) Building a regional partnership: It contains the actions defined to create a regional partnership of TAI Coalitions in Central America.
As part of the program, the meeting had two spaces to tend other topics: Daniel Barragán, from TAI Ecuador, presented the hemispheric strategic plan of Latin America Access Coalitions. Aldo Palacios and Diego Cooper from PP10Secretariat presented the components and the work of the Partnership for Principle 10.
This workshop is an activity of the project “Partnership 10 Central America” which is funded by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and executed by Foundation for Peace and Democracy(FUNPADEM).
Further information please contact Luis Diego Segura from Foundation for Peace and Democracy, FUNPADEM. Email sociedadcivil@funpadem.org or +506 2283 9435.
San José, Costa Rica. 2009
Last April 29th and 30th, representatives from TAI Coalitions from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Costa Rica gathered in regional workshop to create a common Action Plan to strengthen their work on the implementation of Principle 10.
The Action Plan has three sections:
A) Challenges and commitments of the leader organizations in each coalition: This point is related with the strengthening of the following aspects: 1) National coalitions to promote the Access Rights. 2) Information channels within the coalitions and between the coalitions. 3) Fundraising for national coalitions projects. 4) the inclusion of the Dominican Republic and Panama in the regional process. 5) Establishing a regional partnership that consolidates common work strategies and get funding for regional projects. 6) Political context challenges in each country. B) Regional Agenda: This point refers to issues related with: 1) access to information and communications between governments and civil society, 2) Legal framework on access rights. 3) Proceedings and institutional structures of public participation. 4) Education and training on access rights. 5) Funding for public participation and access to information. C) Building a regional partnership: It contains the actions defined to create a regional partnership of TAI Coalitions in Central America.
As part of the program, the meeting had two spaces to tend other topics: Daniel Barragán, from TAI Ecuador, presented the hemispheric strategic plan of Latin America Access Coalitions. Aldo Palacios and Diego Cooper from PP10 Secretariat presented the components and the work of the Partnership for Principle 10.
This workshop is an activity of the project “Partnership 10 Central America” which is funded by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and executed by Foundation for Peace and Democracy(FUNPADEM).
Further information please contact Luis Diego Segura from Foundation for Peace and Democracy, FUNPADEM. Email sociedadcivil@funpadem.org or +506 2283 9435.
San José, Costa Rica. 2009
Last April 29th and 30th, representatives from TAI Coalitions from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Costa Rica gathered in regional workshop to create a common Action Plan to strengthen their work on the implementation of Principle 10.
The Action Plan has three sections:
A) Challenges and commitments of the leader organizations in each coalition: This point is related with the strengthening of the following aspects: 1) National coalitions to promote the Access Rights. 2) Information channels within the coalitions and between the coalitions. 3) Fundraising for national coalitions projects. 4) the inclusion of the Dominican Republic and Panama in the regional process. 5) Establishing a regional partnership that consolidates common work strategies and get funding for regional projects. 6) Political context challenges in each country. B) Regional Agenda: This point refers to issues related with: 1) access to information and communications between governments and civil society, 2) Legal framework on access rights. 3) Proceedings and institutional structures of public participation. 4) Education and training on access rights. 5) Funding for public participation and access to information. C) Building a regional partnership: It contains the actions defined to create a regional partnership of TAI Coalitions in Central America.
As part of the program, the meeting had two spaces to tend other topics: Daniel Barragán, from TAI Ecuador, presented the hemispheric strategic plan of Latin America Access Coalitions. Aldo Palacios and Diego Cooper from PP10 Secretariat presented the components and the work of the Partnership for Principle 10.
This workshop is an activity of the project “Partnership 10 Central America” which is funded by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and executed by Foundation for Peace and Democracy(FUNPADEM).
Further information please contact Luis Diego Segura from Foundation for Peace and Democracy, FUNPADEM. Email sociedadcivil@funpadem.org or +506 2283 9435.
By David Heller (Posted: March 11, 2009)
The efforts of more than a hundred civil society organizations – including members of the TAI network – representing some thirty different countries in the Americas, have earned access principles a place on the agenda of this April’s fifth Summit of the Americas meeting in Trinidad and Tobago. But civil society’s intended role of influencing government officials there has been challenging, as the participation process has not been clear, and transparent and revised documents have not been released.
Civil society has met four times since October to draft a series of recommendations that will be presented to the more than thirty heads of state in Trinidad. Linda Shaffer, Project Manager for TAI Global Secretariat, has been involved with this process, and advocated for an explicit reference to the access principles in the recommendations.
Because of her and other TAI partners’ work, heads of state will have the opportunity to put words into action with respect to the access principles. In their current draft, the relevant sections of the recommendations read:
Paragraph 44 of the Declaration of the Port of Spain
We call upon governments to establish binding guidelines. We ask each country to prepare a report by 2010 that identifies specifically the steps the governments have taken to address issues of access to information. We call upon countries to accede to the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention).
We will also work towards promoting sound environmental governance by strengthening national environmental laws and building institutional capacity for the democratic management of natural resources, guaranteeing citizens access to environmental information, to participation in decision-making processes, and to mechanisms for environmental justice. In addition, the governments commit to developing a system of environmental indicators geared toward monitoring environmental information and justice, in coordination with civil society.
Importantly, the presidents and prime ministers – if they choose to approve these recommendations – will take action to seek entry into the Aarhus Convention, which would be an incredible development for TAI and the global promotion of access principles.
But originally, civil society was not so bold in its call for governments to protect the access principles.
It was not until civil society’s second preparatory meeting, in El Salvador, that the term “principle 10” was inserted in the recommendations. Then a few months later, in Lima, the access principles were explicitly referred to, but still there was no mention of Aarhus, a global manifestation of Principle 10.
Shaffer said that in the final and most recent civil society meeting in DC, she was given the opportunity to press for stronger language. Reactions were supportive, however she had to disabuse many members of the notion that Aarhus was strictly a European affair.
TAI’s success in including this ambitious language in the recommendations is more impressive considering that civil society was faced with far from perfect support from the Organization of American States, convener of the Summit of the Americas.
To begin, the latest drafts of the document (called “Draft Declaration of Commitment” and available here) that civil society was actually recommending alterations to, were not distributed to them for comment. Instead, they had to work off of copies made last July, before alterations were made.
In order for civil society’s oversight role to be effectively exercised, they need to be presented with the most up to date information about the documents they are intending to alter.
Additionally, there was concern among civil society members about the lack of information they’d received about the civil society forum to be convened at a separate site in Trinidad alongside the Summit. It’s during this forum that civil society will have prolonged and direct access to the heads of state, and also when the recommendations will be presented to these leaders.
More information about their role in Trinidad must be offered to civil society. This will enable organizations to effectively prepare for leveraging their influence and pressuring heads of state into approving the recommendations.
This neglect of civil society is especially troubling given the commitment the Summit of the Americas says it has to including this important sector in its affairs. According to its website,
the Summit of the Americas process is structured to consider ideas and proposals from civil society organisations and the private sector as well. In the days leading up to the main event, representatives of these groups will meet to debate the issues and offer their own perspectives on the challenges facing the region.
Let’s hope that the more than 30 heads of state present during the Summit will do more than “consider” the recommendations presented to them. Despite setbacks, civil society has drafted an ambitious set of recommendations, including membership into Aarhus, that the heads of state ought to act on.
See also: The Access Initiative in the V Summit of the Americas