“Poorer countries have significantly less transparent and consultative rulemaking processes than richer counterparts,” according to World Bank data based on a survey of practices in 185 countries, just published on its Citizen Engagement in Rulemaking website.
“Only 27% of low income economies measured give notice of proposed business regulations to the general public and publish draft texts in a place where stakeholders can view them (for example, on websites or in the federal register).” The report names the countries.
“This is compared to 78 percent of high income economies,” the Bank researchers wrote. “Where poorer countries do engage the public for feedback before passage, they tend to do so through low-cost methods like public meetings (for example, Niger, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone) rather than websites (Myanmar).”
The report also found:
Many low-income countries have some sort of web presence for rulemaking, but comprehensive web platforms are predominantly used in high-income countries. Yet, 32 percent of economies in the East Asia and the Pacific and 23 percent in the Latin America and the Caribbean regions use unified websites to notify stakeholders about proposed regulatory changes.
The ability for citizens and firms to engage with governments on proposed business regulations depends on the region. The Middle East and North Africa has the lowest regional level of transparency and engagement around rulemaking, with Morocco as a notable exception. Latin America has a clear divide between Caribbean and Central American countries, which tend to conduct only targeted consultation with identified stakeholders, and the larger regional economies with more systematic and open consultation processes (for example, Brazil, Colombia and Peru).
Of the 185 countries, about a three-quarter (74.6 percent) give notice of proposed regulations to the general public. Almost two-third of them (64.9 percent) publish the text of proposed regulations. Requesting comments on proposed regulations from the general public is done in 56.7 percent of the countries and reporting on the results of the consultation is done in 41.6 percent of them. An assessment of the impact of proposed regulations is done slightly less than half the time (45.5 percent) overall.
Impact assessments are relatively absent in low and middle-income economies, according to the World Bank. It summarized:
Only 18 percent of low income economies surveyed by the project report conducting some analysis of the impact of the proposed regulation on administrative costs for government, competitiveness and market openness, on the environment or private sector, or other factors. Among high income economies, the 21 percent that do not conduct impact assessments are predominantly Caribbean and Middle Eastern economies.
The information is based on the results of survey sent to government officials and private sector experts.
The data presented were collected November 2014 – April 2015. A new round of data collection started in November 2015 with the results scheduled to be released July 2016. An academic paper is nearing completion and a report is expected to be done later in the year.
The countries that do not give notice of proposed regulations, share draft texts or request comments from the general public are: Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belize, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Dem. Rep., Djibouti, Eritrea, Fiji, Gabon, Ghana, Grenada, Haiti, Honduras, Iran, Islamic Rep., Iraq, Kiribati, Kuwait, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mongolia, Nepal, Oman, Qatar, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Syrian Arab Republic, Vanuatu, West Bank and Gaza, Zimbabwe.
The data presented covers 185 economies: 46 in Sub-Saharan Africa, 30 in Latin America and the Caribbean, 32 in the OECD high-income group, 26 in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 25 in East Asia and the Pacific, 19 in the Middle East and North Africa, and 7 in South Asia.
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