The Access Initiative

Topics: Principle 10

La Inciativa de Acceso en Centro America

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.

El Principio 10 en Costa Rica: Situación y desafíos

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.

TAI inicia la implementación de su Estrategia Regional en América Latina / TAI starts the implementation of its Regional Strategy in Latin America

By Daniel Barragan (Posted: March 30, 2009) 

Las organizaciones socias de la región trabajamos durante el año 2008 en la construcción de un Plan Estratégico de Incidencia para América Latina para los próximos tres años. Este Plan fue presentado, y luego aprobado, por los socios presentes en la Reunión Global TAI realizada en Sligo en octubre de 2008. El principal objetivo de este Plan es el fortalecimiento de la Iniciativa y los socios de la región, para lograr una mayor incidencia tanto en las políticas públicas como en la capacidad de dar mayor visibilidad a las temáticas que trabaja TAI en cada país. Al mismo tiempo este Plan, al ser un proceso regional, permite dar continuidad al trabajo que ya se ha venido realizando en América Latina.

Para cumplir el objetivo propuesto, se plantea la realización de un proceso de capacitación a los miembros de la Iniciativa en el cual adquieran competencias concretas para mejorar sus capacidades de incidencia y las transmitan a los demás integrantes de las coaliciones en cada país.

La estrategia de capacitación se enfocará en saber cómo aumentar la incidencia de la Iniciativa de Acceso (TAI) en la región de América Latina y el Caribe. Particularmente, buscamos compartir experiencias de incidencia que hayan resultado exitosas, con el propósito de obtener indicadores que permitan guiar procesos de incidencia posteriores. Esto a raíz de que, por una parte la evaluación TAI es principalmente un instrumento para incidir; por otra, en la última reunión global TAI realizada en Irlanda, los/as diferentes participantes reconocieron debilidades al momento de incidir en los/as tomadores/as de decisión.

El componente de capacitación de la Estrategia Regional tiene los siguientes objetivos:

Objetivo general:
Empoderar a las organizaciones socias, mediante un proceso de capacitación orientado a mejorar su capacidad de incidencia en los temas de acceso.

Objetivos específicos:

  • Identificar y difundir experiencias exitosas de incidencia en temas de acceso, para generar lineamientos que sirvan de guía para el trabajo de las distintas coaliciones en la región.
  • Obtener indicadores de eficacia para procesos, necesarios en la realización de actividades de incidencia e identificando también indicadores de mal funcionamiento de estrategias de incidencia con el objeto de no replicarlas.
  • Construir una herramienta guía que permita apoyar a los/as socios/as procesos de incidencia necesarios para promover una mejor implementación de los derechos de acceso a nivel nacional y regional.
  • Aportar a la generación de conocimiento mediante el uso de las comunidades de prácticas que ofrece el sitio web global de la Iniciativa de Acceso.

Los pasos de la estrategia son los siguientes:

1. Recopilación de información

Como paso inicial, se recopilará información sobre las actividades y acciones de incidencia que hayan tenido resultados exitosos y medibles en el trabajo de los/as socios/as. Para esto se estructurará y circulará una convocatoria de recopilación de experiencias a través del sitio web TAI. Se seleccionarán 4 casos para trabajar durante la jornada.

Además se recopilará y sistematizará un conjunto de herramientas de incidencia, concretas y prácticas, mediante el análisis de los 4 casos de estudio seleccionados de los enviados por los/as socios/as participantes desde diferentes metodologías participativas. . A cada caso seleccionado se le otorgará la suma de $1000 dólares. Estos recursos servirán para que los/as socios/as puedan asignar horas de trabajo para apoyar la construcción de la metodología de análisis a partir de información que se les solicite respecto de los casos seleccionados.

2. Taller de capacitación

Se desarrollará una jornada de capacitación sobre mecanismos de incidencia durante la Reunión Regional que tendrá lugar en Lima, Perú, los días 14 y 15 de julio de 2009, En esta jornada se realizará el análisis de los casos propuestos que permitirá identificar distintos aspectos de incidencia y se buscará responder a las siguientes preguntas:

  • ¿Cómo se construyen procesos de cambio social?
  • ¿Cuáles son los elementos fundamentales?
  • ¿Cómo opera el poder en nuestra sociedad, y cómo podemos incidir a partir de esto? ¿Qué habilidades nos faltan para realizar un proceso de incidencia más eficaz?
  • ¿Cómo podemos definir estrategias de incidencia a mediano y largo plazo sin estar solamente respondiendo a la contingencia?, entre otras.

A partir de este trabajo obtendremos los insumos necesarios para la construcción de una herramienta que sirva como guía on-line para los procesos de incidencia de las diferentes coaliciones, la cual será publicada en la página web TAI.

Al mismo tiempo se espera que los representantes de las coaliciones participantes adquieran compromisos concretos como la transferencia de la metodología y algunos otros más, necesarios para el desarrollo eficaz de la estrategia de incidencia en América Latina.

3. Seguimiento

Cada socio asistente tendrá el compromiso de replicar la capacitación en su país , con al menos la asistencia de 2 personas pertenecientes a cada una de las organizaciones de la coalición TAI de su país y/o otras organizaciones sociales de base que trabajen en temáticas y proyectos que sean coherentes con los lineamientos estratégicos de TAI. Durante la jornada de capacitación se trabajará también en la elaboración de propuestas para realizar seguimiento y comunicación/ apoyo constante a los/as socios/as en temas de incidencia.

Los socios de la región pueden acceder a mayor información sobre este proceso, a la convocatoria de experiencias exitosas en Plaza Latina.

The Access Initiative in Latin America and the Caribbean starts the implementation of its Regional Strategy for Advocacy

The partner organizations in the region worked during 2008 on the creation of a Strategic Advocacy Plan for Latin America for the next three years. This Plan was presented and approved by the partners that participated in the TAI Global Gathering held in Sligo, Ireland in October of 2008. The main objective of this Plan is to strengthen the Initiative and the partners in the region, in order to achieve a higher level of outreach, both in terms of public policies and the ability to make the issues with which TAI works in each country more visible. At the same time, as a regional process this Plan allows for continuity in the work that has already been taking place in Latin America.

To fulfill the proposed objective, it is proposed to carry out a training process for members of the Initiative in which they would acquire concrete skills to improve their Advocacy abilities and to be able to transmit this knowledge to other coalition members in each country.

The training strategy will be focused on knowing how to increase the Access Initiative’s (TAI) advocacy in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean. Specifically, we seek to share advocacy experiences that have been successful, in order to obtain indicators that would allow us to guide posterior advocacy processes. As such, on one hand the TAI evaluation is mainly an instrument for advocacy; on the other hand, in the last global TAI meeting held in Ireland, the different participants recognized weaknesses as far as their ability to influence decision makers.

The training component of the Regional Strategy has the following objectives:

General objective: Empowerment of social organizations, through a training process oriented towards improving their advocacy capabilities regarding the issues of access.

Specific objectives:

  • Identify and disseminate successful advocacy experiences regarding issues of access, in order to produce baselines that serve as a guide for the work carried out by the different coalitions in the region.
  • Obtain indicators for the efficiency of processes, which are necessary when performing outreach activities, and identifying indicators for the poor functioning of advocacy strategies as well, in order to not repeat them.
  • Creating a guiding tool that supports our partners with the advocacy processes necessary to promote a better implementation of the rights of access at national and regional levels.
  • Contributing to the production of knowledge through the use of practice communities offered by the global web site of the Access Initiative.

The steps of the strategy are the following:

1. Collection of information

As an initial step, information will be collected on the advocacy activities and actions that have had successful and measurable results for the partners that implemented them. To do this, a call to collect experiences will be formed and circulated through the TAI website. Four cases will be selected to work with during this stage.

In addition, a set of concrete and practical advocacy tools will be collected and systematized through the analysis of the 4 case studies selected from those sent by the participating partners, from different participative methodologies. The sum of $1,000 will be granted to each case selected. These resources will help the partners to be able to assign working hours to support the construction of the analysis methodology based on information that will be asked of them regarding the cases selected.

2. Training workshop

A training session on advocacy mechanisms will be held during the Regional Meeting that will take place in Lima, Peru, on July 14 and 15, 2009. In this session, the analysis of the proposed cases that will allow us to identify different aspects of outreach will take place, and we will seek answers to the following questions:

  • How are processes of social change constructed?
  • What are the fundamental elements?
  • How does power operate in our society, and how can we influence its operation? What skills do we lack to be able to carry out a more effective advocacy process?
  • How can we define medium and long-term advocacy strategies without just responding to contingency? Etc.

From this work we will obtain the necessary input for the construction of a tool that serves as an on-line guide for the advocacy processes of the different coalitions, which will be published on the TAI web page.

At the same time, it is expected that the representatives of the participating coalitions take on concrete commitments such as the transfer of the methodology, among others, which are necessary for the effective development of the advocacy strategy in Latin America.

3. Follow-up

Each attending partner will take on the commitment to replicate the training in his/her own country, with at least 2 people belonging to each of the organizations participating in that country’s TAI coalition, and/or other grassroots social organizations that work on issues and projects that are on line with the strategic bases of TAI. During the training session, we will also work on the creation of proposals to perform constant follow-up and communication/support for the partners working on issues of advocacy. 

An Aarhus for the Americas?

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

Environmental Democracy

Published: 2006

An Assessment of Access to Information, Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters in Selected European Countries; The Access Initiative European Regional Report

This report was conducted using the assessment method developed by The Access Initiative, a global network of civil society organizations. Unless otherwise noted, the opinions, interpretations and findings presented in this document are the responsibility of the authors and not of The Access Initiative. For additional information about The Access Initiative, including its members and leadership, please see www.accessinitiative.org.

Supported by The European Commission, Directorate General Justice, Freedom and Security Sole responsibility for this publication lies with the authors, and the Commission of the European Union is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

Highlights from the TAI Global Gathering

By Monika Kerdeman (Posted: March 6, 2009) 

50 people representing 29 countries participated in the second TAI Global Gathering, held in Sligo, Ireland at the Sligo Institute of Technology. The gathering was the largest international conference held at Sligo Institute of Technology. Highlights from the meeting include:

  1. Jeremy Wates, from the Aarhus Convention Secretariat in Geneva, opened the conference by discussing the importance of access work in the role of shaping environmental policy.

  2. The deputy leader of Seanad Eireann (the Senate of Ireland), and Green Party chairperson, Senator Dan Boyle, addressed the gathering. He spoke on Ireland’s need to ratify the Aarhus convention and the importance of access to information in a mature democracy.

  3. TAI partners shared ideas, stories, successes and solutions for moving the network to more action on the ground.

  4. Latin American partners agreed on next steps for a collaborative regional advocacy plan.

  5. The TAI Secretariat shared major themes and messages from its publication, Voice and Choice: Opening the Door to Environmental Democracy.

  6. Partners discussed case studies on access rights for the poor carried out by five TAI partners and next steps for including poverty-access rights analysis in all future TAI assessments.

  7. The Thailand Environment Institute (TEI) introduced partners to a draft citizen’s toolkit.

  8. New sectors were explored in the context of TAI, including climate change, forestry and aid effectiveness.

Click here to read the full report from the gathering.

TAI Global Gathering 2008

Published: 2008

This report is a detailed account of the objectives and outcomes from the second TAI Global Gathering, held in Sligo Ireland. At the gathering more then 50 TAI partners from 29 different countries met to discuss network activities and share access rights success stories.

Mixed Results From Nairobi

By David Heller (Posted: March 4, 2009) 

During its annual meetings in February, the UNEP Governing Council failed to adopt guidelines that would have directed developing country governments to create national legislation that respects and protects access principles. Unfortunately, adoption was postponed until the Council’s next set of meetings in 2010 because of a flawed UNEP process that neglected to include civil society organizations and developing countries in the process of drafting the guidelines.

Though on its face this development is a significant setback for access advocates, other news from Nairobi leaves ample reason for hope: failure was not due to fundamental opposition to access principles, and the U.S. no longer stands in the way of such a global access movement from happening.

Adoption would have been a concrete step towards ensuring all global citizens have the right to access information, participate in their government’s decision making process, and seek judicial redress in matters affecting the environment. Still, we cannot interpret their failure to adopt as a lack of respect for these principles.

Why?

Language in the decision also reflects an interest in using the guidelines to inform national law. In addition to “taking note of” the guidelines, the Council requested that the UNEP Secretariat “carry out further work on the guidelines with a view to the adoption by the [Governing Council] at its next special session.”

With adoption imminent, some “further work” is a necessary but ill-timed element of getting relevant parties to agree on proper guidelines; such preparatory activities should have been carried out prior to Nairobi.

We owe this pending setback to the flawed consultative process used by UNEP when it drafted the guidelines.

Though they were written by a select group of high-level experts and judges, UNEP failed to oversee a process of consultation where civil society and developing country delegations could deliberate on the guidelines’ merits and influence its content. Out of 192 member countries, for instance, only 40 participated in the drafting.

This lack of inclusion is especially troubling considering the burden that adopting these guidelines would entail for many nations. Since essentially states are being asked to graft a series of ambitious multilateral standards into their own domestic law, it’s logical that they’d want to have a say in the content of whatever it is that they’d be committing to.

Instead, most developing nations were simply presented with a finished product and asked to sign off on it in Nairobi.

It was no surprise then that during the meetings, developing nations representing the G-77 were the guideline’s most outspoken opponents. Sources privy to deliberation say that their reactions of disapproval stemmed from the aforementioned procedural issues; as opposed to disagreement with the guidelines’ substantive content.

These nations had little prior knowledge of the substance of the guidelines due to their lack of participation and consultation in their construction, and were understandably unwilling to undertake the burden of implementing what they had no hand in creating.

Noticeably absent from the list of opposing delegations were the E.U. and U.S. During deliberation, both influential parties supported adoption. Moreover, both acknowledged that the grievances expressed by developing nations were legitimate.

The U.S.’s position represents an about-face from previous policy under the Bush administration. This drastic change, according to Augustine Njamnishi,TAI coordinator in Cameroon and part of his country’s UNEP delegation, did not go unnoticed.

“Wholehearted U.S. support of the guidelines raised eyebrows and suspicions,” Njamnishi says.

U.S. officials must recognize the diplomatic anxiety that their changed policy preferences cause. The U.S. should fully explain the rationale behind its decisions, justifying votes with principled reasons that can be universally followed.

Despite this apparent improvement in U.S. policy towards governmental transparency, newly appointed UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner was visibly disappointed by the Council’s decision to forego adoption, according to Njamnishi.

But this disappointment should not have been a surprise. By failing to include an overwhelming majority of UNEP members in the drafting of guidelines, the access principles promoted within these documents were ironically neglected by UNEP and absent from its method of guideline creation.

Seeing a silver lining in Nairobi’s outcome, some UNEP officials remarked that the further consultative work called for in the Governing Council’s decision would be a valuable learning experience for developing countries. While it pays to be optimistic, this doesn’t excuse the missed chances for consultation prior to Nairobi.

And we must be wary of assuming that the upcoming consultation will be any more inclusive than it was before. If UNEP’s halfhearted effort to extend an invitation to civil society and the developing world prior to Nairobi is any indication, their future involvement is far from guaranteed.

UNEP must learn from its mistakes and go to great lengths to include as many civil society and developing country representatives as possible in forthcoming consultations. Come the next Governing Council meeting, this will ensure more delegations will be presented with guidelines they’ll be more likely to support – those that they have agreed to and are fully prepared to implement.

Given its re-discovered priorities, the U.S. ought to embrace its global influence and lead this process.

The agenda is ambitious, but no more so than the goal.

TAI in Africa

By Monika Kurdeman (Posted: February 24, 2009) 

The Access Initiative (TAI) expands into African, raising awareness on Principle 10 and environmental governance through the local media. These clips from local television and radio shows highlight the work of TAI partner’s and their intentions for expanding the network further into African.

This video clip from Le Journal du Matin Morning News highlights the important role local civil society organizations play in implementing Principle 10 of the 1992 Rio Declaration. Two TAI partners Sophie Kutugeka, Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE) in Uganda and Augustine B Njamnshi, Bioresources Development and Conservation Programme Cameroon (BDCPC) Cameroon are shown at a workshop between civil society and government officials. In attendance is British High Commissioner representative Enow Etta. click here

This is a video taken during a meeting between the Cameroonian government and the TAI-Cameroon coalition. At the meeting the TAI-Cameroon coalition shared their findings and recommendations for how the government and civil society can work together to bring about environmental governance changes in Cameroon. The recommendations are based on the coalition’s 18 months of research on environmental laws pertaining to access to information, access to justice, public participation and capacity building . click here

Radio Spot from TAI-Cameroon : Radio coverage of TAI Cameroon