MENA: A new newsletter has been started to follow access to information developments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Said Almadhoun, now a human rights officer at the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and an adjunct professor of law at the University of Palestine, writes about “the way forward” in the region. The newsletter includes an interview with consultant Alexandra Balafrej-Dhorne, author of the UNESCO report “Towards access to public information in Morocco – Comparative study with international norms and best practices.” The ATI-MNA Newsletter is a publication from the “Regional Dialogue on Supporting Coalitions and Networking to Advance Access to Information in MENA”, which aims to support the exchange of information and knowledge between different stakeholders from Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia on Access to Information (ATI). The Regional Dialogue is facilitated by the World Bank Institute and the Social Development Department at the World Bank’s Middle East and North Africa Region in collaboration with the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability – Arab World (ANSA-AW). Arabic English
Canada: The Centre for Law and Democracy has compared right to information rules in four Canadian provinces. The assessment was done using the RTI-Rating, an analytical tool designed to assess the strength of legal frameworks for the right to information, developed by Access Info Europe and CLD. The study found significant differences between the overall strengths of the provincial laws, while concluding that all four had deficiencies. The province of British Columbia topped the rankings, scoring 97 points out of a possible 150, while Alberta came in last, with 80 points. CLD plans to apply the RTI Rating to all 14 Canadian jurisdictions – the federal level, the ten provinces and the three territories, all of which have adopted right to information laws – in order to provide a comprehensive picture of the situation in the country. The results of the provincial study are available at: http://www.law-democracy.org/?p=1875. More information on the RTI Rating tool is available at: http://www.RTI-Rating.org.
Open Data: The Journal of Community Informatics has just published an issue focusing on open government data. A number of the articles highlight key challenges that open government data policy and practice will need to engage with in coming years, writes co-editor Time Davies. An editorial is titled: “The Promises and Perils of Open Government Data (OGD).” In “Two Worlds of Open Government Data: Getting the Lowdown on Public Toilets in Chennai and Other Matters,” Michael Gurstein discusses OGD and development. Also posted on his website.
United States: “The steps necessary to making government more transparent are often not that expensive or cumbersome,” according to a new report on the state of New York. What is needed more than anything is a change of mindset among government officials. Several civic organizations including Citizens Union, Common Cause New York, League of Women Voters of New York State, and the New York Public Interest Research Group , and Reinvent Albany, have released a report that highlights how to make the operation of government in New York State more open and transparent.
Procurement: The Global Integrity Report: 2011 covers 31 countries, examining transparency of the public procurement process, media freedom, asset disclosure requirements, conflicts of interest regulations, and more.
United Kingdom: The true cost to a university of processing a FOI request is studied by JISC infoNet. The research (Executive Summary) shows that in the seven institutions surveyed, a FOI request takes a university an average of 5 hours 2 minutes to respond, at a cost of £99 rising to £121 when employment overheads are taken into consideration. However, the report suggests that there are factors influencing these costs including the size of the institution, the nature of the request and possibly the maturity of the institution’s records management system.
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