Proactive Transparency: A webinar on proactive transparency will be held at Feb. 19 at 10 a.m. EST (| 4:00 – 5:00 PM Spain, 3:00 – 4:00 PM UK (15:00 GMT), featuring HelenDarbishire, (Executive Director, Access Info Europe) and Kevin Dunion (Executive Director, Center for Freedom of Information, University of Dundee). It is sponsored by the OGP Networking Mechanism (Global Integrity) and the World Bank Institute.
REGISTER for this webinar HERE. Click HERE to join the Webinar 5 minutes before the scheduled start time
Abstract:
1. Does the right of access to information imply that governments must publish information without an access to information request?
2. Which information should be prioritized? What types of information are becoming emerging international standards as part of government obligations to publish proactive information?
3. What is the relationship between “open data” and proactively published information?
4. What are good practices from different countries around the world?
5. What should the proactive publication priorities be for countries which are members of the Open Government Partnership?
OGP: Civil Society Coordination Newsletter, the first newsletter from OGP Civil Society Coordinator Paul Maassen.
United States: Sunshine Week 2013 launches with new website, renewed partnerships for open government – a summary of events planned for the week of March 10-16. Also see the Sunshine Week website (www.sunshineweek.org).
Open Data Day: A posting on the Open Knowledge Foundation blog describes events for Open Data Day 2012, Feb. 23, including plans to update the open data census.
Presidential Health Information: The Regional Alliance for Free Expression and Information in Latin America has issued report “Access to Health Information of Heads of State” (in Spanish), about some of the most familiar and the most recent presidents’ diseases (particularly in Latin America) and access to this information from the public. The paper examines the need for access this information. The report was prepared by the Paraguayan member organization, IDEA, with contributions from Transparency Venezuela, Association for Civil Rights and Transparency Colombia.
Peru: El Campus Virtual del Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS) launches an online course on access to information for Peruvian journalists.
Fellowships: The Open Society Fellowship program is looking for innovative thinkers from around the world – scholars, journalists, activists, policy experts and others – who work on issues of human rights, international migration, government transparency and accountability, economic governance and development, citizen empowerment and participation, access to justice and information, and other areas of interest to OSF. The deadline is Feb. 1, 2013.
China: Yeling Tan of the Harvard Kennedy School has an article entitled, “Transparency without Democracy: The Unexpected Effects of China’s Environmental Disclosure Policy,” in Governance. “Information disclosure by itself won’t automatically lead to change,” said Tan, a doctoral candidate in the public policy program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. In the article she analyzes the complex pathways through which the Chinese government’s 2008 Open Environmental Information (OEI) measures have impacted stakeholders such as citizens, businesses, and non-government organizations (NGOs) and MNCs.
Taxes: MANS in Montenagro (Mreza za afirmaciju nevladinog sektora – MANS/ The Network for Affirmation of NGO Sector) is planning to enforce monitoring of tax data disclosure in various countries, to be able to foster advocacy activities in those countries regarding transparency in taxation area. According to Vuk Maraš, “Our plan is to gather organizations interested in tax data, and to perform joint advocacy activities in all countries these organizations operate in, to be able to make pressure on our decision makers to publically disclose information on tax returns of public official and other relevant data. This is the reason why I would like to ask all of you who have already submitted requests for information to tax authorities in your respected countries (or plan to do so) to contact me directly, if you are interested to be part of this initiative.”http://www.mans.co.me/ e-mail: vuk.maras@mans.co.me
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