Research: “Does Access to Information Empower the Poor? Evidence from the Dominican Republic,” a report by Emmanuel Skoufias (World Bank), Renata Narita (Universidade de São Paulo) and Ambar Narayan (World Bank). World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 6895 (on SSRN) and on Bank website.
This paper assesses the impact of an effort in the Dominican Republic to educate citizens in poor municipalities about their legal right to request and receive information from government institutions. No impact is found on awareness and the use of information, according to the research. “However, it is observed that individuals address more general complaints to governments as a result of the Access to Information program regardless of whether these are classified under the ATI law or not. Some positive and statistically significant impacts are found on local government responsiveness, prioritization and decisions about the municipal budget, and trust in and satisfaction with some local government services.”
India: The department of civics and politics at Mumbai University is set to start a six month certificate course on RTI Act, to empower those struggling to learn its use. The course, likely to start from January 2015, aims at targeting social activists, journalists, bureaucrats and members of civil society, to ensure more effective use of the tool. More.
Pakistan/Journalism/RTI: “Strengthening Investigative Journalism through Right to Information – Baseline Survey Report” by the Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives. The findings in part:
There was no story based on certified information attained through the use of right to information legislation for investigative reporting. The interviews with journalists reinforce findings of the analysis of newspapers. This study adequately highlights and reinforces the prevailing perceptions pertaining to reporting gaps in the stories filed by journalists. As the project ‘Strengthening Investigative Journalism through Right to Information’ aims at providing technical support to journalists on the use of right to information legislation for investigative reporting, it is hoped that when the findings of this baseline study will be juxtaposed with those identified by the similar study at the end of the Baseline Survey project, improvement in the quality of reporting will be discernable and more investigative stories will be filed by journalists as is presently the case.
CPDI has set up RTI Helpline to facilitate journalists in filing information requests. (0512224496 on week days from 1000 hr. to 1700 hr or by sending e-mail at rtihelpline@cpdi-pakistan.org)
Pakistan Award: The Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives has established an RTI Champion Award which will be given to a journalist who will collect information from government departments through the use of right to information laws for his/her investigative reporting. The award ceremony will be held on Sept. 28, 2014, on International Right to Know Day.
Canada: Newspapers Canada releases its 8th annual National Freedom of Information (FOI) Audit report. A press release summarizes:
The audit represents an important tool for asserting the public’s right to access government information,” says John Hinds, CEO of Newspapers Canada. “The results of this audit show that we’ve still got a long way to go before we really have a culture of openness and accountability around government data.”
This year’s study put special emphasis on asking for electronic data, to test governments’ commitment to the concept of open data. “We found that governments may boast about being open with their data, but they don’t always live up to that talk,” says Newspapers Canada’s Senior Advisor, Policy and Public Affairs Jason Grier. “Open data doesn’t really mean much if it’s only carefully manicured data, with anything interesting or newsworthy stripped out before the public has access.”
United States: “Successes in FOIA Administration: Part V – Improving Timeliness & Reducing Backlogs,” a largely statistical short report by the Justice Department.
United States: A new report entitled “Citizen Participation and Technology:” has been issued by the National Democratic Institute. The top findings are:
Technology can be used to readily create spaces and opportunities for citizens to express their voices, but making these voices politically stronger and the spaces more meaningful is a harder challenge that is political and not technological in nature.
Technology that was used to purposefully connect citizens’ groups and amplify their voices had more political impact. There is a scarcity of data on specific demographic groups’ use of, and barriers to technology for political participation. Programs seeking to close the digital divide as an instrument of narrowing the political divide should be informed by more research into barriers to access to both politics and technology.
There is a blurring of the meaning between the technologies of open government data and the politics of open government that clouds program strategies and implementation
Attempts to simply crowdsource public inputs will not result in users self-organizing into politically influential groups, since citizens lack the opportunities to develop leadership, unity, and commitment around a shared vision necessary for meaningful collective action.
Political will and the technical capacity to engage citizens in policy making, or providing accurate data on government performance are lacking in many emerging democracies. Technology may have changed institutions’ ability to respond to citizen demands but its mere presence has not fundamentally changed actual government responsiveness.
Environmental Transparency: A July 7, 2014, deadline has been set for comments on the Plan of Action (English and Spanish) to implement the Declaration on Principle 10 (environmental democracy) in Latin America and the Caribbean. Comments are requested on:
– contents on capacity-building and cooperation to be included in the regional instrument; and,
– matters to be considered in the regional instrument, on the basis of the document prepared by ECLAC.
Inputs can be sent via e-mail: principio10.lac@cepal.org. Such input will be uploaded to the website www.cepal.org/rio20/principio10 in a specific section.
India: MoneyLife interviews Subhash Chandra Agrawal, a leading RTI crusader, who has been appointed as the RTI consultant to the Delhi government.
Open Data/India: An open data census of Indian cities is under way. Census content will be peer-reviewed periodically by a volunteer team of Open Data Census Librarians led by Open Knowledge India.
Whistleblowers: The Guardian announces a “SecureDrop platform” that “allows sources to submit documents and data while avoiding most common forms of online tracking.”
Revenue Transparency: “The Revenue Watch Institute – Natural Resource Charter, a leading NGO in the governance field, has been renamed the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI),” according to a press release.
Legislative Transparency: A report on a conference sponsored by the US House of Representatives.
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