Out of concern that many countries fail to fully and effectively implement their freedom of information laws, the Carter Center has announced an Implementation Assessment Tool (IAT).
The Atlanta-based organization founded by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said that “at present there is no objective means of analyzing and addressing this critical problem.”
The tool is expected to serve “the dual purpose of diagnosing the extent to which the public administration is capacitated to respond to requests and to provide information, as well as providing an implementation roadmap for the government.” The IAT is constructed to be “an input for each public agency in which it is applied, and not as a comparative index across countries.”
The Carter Center said it will begin piloting the tool in selected countries, adapting the tool based on its initial application. “Before the end of 2011, the Center plans to complete the first series of pilots, utilizing Global Integrity’s Indaba, an online platform for researchers, engage in a series of additional peer reviews, and make all necessary modifications to the tool in order to begin the final series of pilots.”
The IAT will assess a total of 44 indicators, with a number of sub-indicators.
The indicators cover activities (such as leadership, rules, systems, and resources) and government functions/responsibilities (such as responding to requests, automatic publication, etc.). The indicators will be scored on the “stoplight method,” with a scale including green, yellow, and red.
Data will be drawn through desk research and interviews, and all findings will go through a validation process and peer review.
The proposed set of indicators has quantitative and qualitative assessments of the comprehensiveness of implementation.
“The first phase of the pilot will assess three or four countries, and then include additional countries in the later phases, as we modify and perfect the indicators,” according to the center.
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