A coalition of international nongovernmental organizations has recommended that the Sustainable Development Goal on access to information be measured initially based on one component – whether a country has an access to information (ATI) law.
Comprehensive international data isn’t available on the other key component of the SDG ATI target –“implementation” of ATI laws, according to the relevant section of a new website by the SDG16 Data Initiative. The initiative was announced July 14 in New York during this week’s United Nation’s High-Level Political Forum.
The website covers all the elements of the SDG 16 commitment to “promote peaceful and inclusive societies.” It “showcases currently available data on all SDG16 targets from a variety of official and nongovernmental sources.”
The specific SDG ATI commitment, 16.10.2, states:
16.10.2 Number of countries that adopt and implement constitutional, statutory and/or policy guarantees for public access to information
According to the SDG16 Data Initiative:
This indicator tracks three important components on access to information, including whether a country has guarantees for public access to information, the extent to which such guarantees reflect ‘international agreements’, and the actual implementation mechanisms in place for such guarantees. The data could be compiled and processed by UNESCO, which already collects some aspects of this data through the Media Development Indicators, but comprehensive global data aren’t available yet. In the interim, we proposed the simplified metric on whether countries have adopted access to information laws. These laws generally grant individuals a right to access information held by public bodies, and impose an obligation on public bodies to disclose key types of information. The data for this indicator are collected and verified by Article 19.
Article 19 produced a graphic on the number of countries with an ATI law (103 by Article 19’s count), with 40 having pending bills. A report with more details is not yet available.
The official UN body overseeing the measurement of the 230 SDG indicators is the United Nations Statistical Commission and the responsibility for developing plans for 16.10.2 has been delegated to UNESCO’s Division of Freedom of Expression and Media Development.
UNESCO has put forward general ideas on measurement in its “metadata” submissions to the Commission. (See FreedomInfo.org reports on March 17 and March 24.) UNESCO and the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD), the lead lobbyist for 16.10.2, are planning to convene an expert/activist ATI advisory group at the next GFMD world meeting in September, in Jakarta. A UNESCO official told FreedomInfo.org that one goal is to “establish ‘data partnerships’ for reporting on it.”
Nathaniel Heller, Managing Director of the Results for Development Institute (R4D), said in the SDG16 Data Collective press release, “We see this as a beginning, as a work in progress which will adapt and improve as more data sources become available and the UN begins its own monitoring of the SDGs.” Heller also said, “The purpose of this Initiative to start a global dialogue on the many challenges and opportunities for measuring progress on SDG16 in the coming years, so we welcome all comments and questions.”
The SDG16 Data Initiative is a collaborative effort by 14 independent international organizations working in the spirit of SDG16 to advance the cause of peace, justice, and accountable institutions: International IDEA; Institute for Economics and Peace; Global Forum for Media Development; Governance Data Alliance; Namati; Open Society Foundations; Peace Research Institute Oslo; Results for Development Institute; Saferworld; Small Arms Survey; Sustainable Development Solutions Network; TAP Network; Transparency International; and the World Justice Project.
UN Report Issued
Separately, the UN Secretary-General issued the first annual report on progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It does not deal specifically with ATI.
Relative to transparency, it states:
- Efforts are under way to make national and international institutions more effective, inclusive and transparent. Over the past 10 years, nearly two thirds of 144 countries with available data were able to plan their national budgets effectively (where final expenses remained within 10 per cent of original budgets). Voting rights assigned to various groups of countries in international institutions is one indication of inclusivity at the international level. For example, while developing countries account for 63 per cent of voting rights in the African Development Bank, this figure is only 35 per cent in the International Monetary Fund and 38 per cent in the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development of the World Bank Group.
- A free press is closely linked to access to information and the protection of human rights, but the trend in this regard is discouraging. The number of journalists killed increased from 65 in 2010 to 114 in 2015, despite the fact that, by 2013, 90 States had adopted laws on freedom of and/or access to information.
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