Posts Tagged ‘transparency research’
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9 April 2015
Design of WJP Open Gov Index Skews Results
By Helen Darbishire The author is the Director of AccessInfo Europe. From a right of access to information perspective, a significant structural flaw in the World Justice Project Open Government Index is to have conflated this right with access to personal data, and other types of “information requests” such as obtaining information for local business […]
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9 April 2015
WJP Open Government Index Raises Interesting Questions
By Ben Worthy The author is Lecturer in Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London, and the author of the OpenDataStudy blog. In March 2015 the World Justice Project published its analysis of government openness in 102 countries, as measured by its Open Government Index. You can read the report here and browse the data and […]
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8 April 2015
Judge Orders Nigerian Parliament to Report Constituency Payments
A Nigerian Federal High Court judge has ordered the National Assembly to disclose details of budgetary allocations made to individual legislators for physical projects and the details of the progress of the projects. Justice Abdu Kafarati issued the ruling in response to a of Information suit filed by the a nongovernmental organization, the Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP). The […]
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2 April 2015
TI Rates UK Openness; Plans Reports on More Countries
A new rating of open government in the United Kingdom is the vanguard of a much larger evaluative project planned by Transparency International. The Berlin-based nongovernmental organization already has applied the new methodology to Ghana, Indonesia, Peru and Ukraine, with results to be released soon. Plans for much wider use of the tool are in […]
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2 April 2015
Slower Growth Rate Seen in Indian RTI Requests
The rate of growth in the number of Right to Information Act requests filed in India is slowing, according to the preliminary findings by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI). “So the question to ask is whether RTI fatigue is setting in or will the numbers go up considerably if all public authorities were to report their […]
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26 March 2015
US Group Creates Ratings on Open Government, RTI
The World Justice Project has created an “Open Government Index” that rates 102 countries in four categories, including right to information. “Instead of measuring what the law says, we measure how these laws are experienced by ordinary people interacting with their governments around the world,” according to the report issued March 26 by the Washington-based […]
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13 March 2015
Proactive Disclosure Lags in US, Archive Audit Finds
Only 40 percent of US government agencies systematically post online the records released through Freedom of Information Act requests, according to an audit done by the National Security Archive. The Archive team audited 165 federal agencies and found only 67 with online libraries populated with significant numbers of released FOIA documents and regularly updated. Proactive […]
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12 March 2015
FOI Notes: Open Data, World Bank, FOI Research, Mexico, US, India, Construction Transparency
United States: The FOIA Project is conducting a poll on the “worst FOIA failure,” with six candidates. Awlaki Memo FBI Drones Snowden Damage Secret Surveillance Bay of Pigs History Kennedy FBI File Open Data/FOI: Reflections by Lauranellen McCann urges attention to the civic role of technology, not just the proliferation of tools. Looking back at […]
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11 March 2015
US Agencies Improve Slightly in ATI Scorecard Ratings
Eight of 15 major U.S. agencies improved their scores on an “Access to Information Scorecard,” according to a report by a nongovernmental organizational, which reported that federal agencies “are still struggling to effectively and consistently implement public disclosure rules.” The report was the second comparative study by the Center for Effective Government and it concerns […]
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11 March 2015
Women Disadvantaged on Access to Info, Study Finds
Guatemalan women “face deep inequities in exercising their fundamental right of access to information,” according to a study (in Spanish) from The Carter Center’s Global Access to Information Initiative. At a Feb. 18 stakeholders meeting, participants developed recommendations in response to the findings. The study was carried out in five government departments and Guatemala City. […]
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6 March 2015
DFID Says Transparency, ATI Medium Corruption Solutions
A 110-page British government report evaluating the causes of corruption, and possible solutions, rates access to information as having “medium” value in fighting corruption, linked to one of two “large” impact factors — social accountability mechanisms. The summary section states: “Transparency and ATI emerge as important for the exercise of other rights, improving service delivery […]
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26 February 2015
Jamaican Activist Urges Donor Push on Transparency
Foreign aid should be more directly tied to governments’ efforts to improve their transparency and donors should place more emphasis on greater grassroots involvement, according to Aylair Livingstone, a Jamaican transparency activist who presented an overview of access in the Caribbean at a World Bank webinar. Livingston summarized the freedom of information situation in the […]
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26 February 2015
FOI Notes: Country Reports, Open Data, US States, More
Canada: “Alberta Premier Jim Prentice has personally ordered that documents from all general freedom of information requests be publicly posted, despite serious concerns from the civil servants responsible for implementing the new policy, CBC News has learned.” according to a CBC report that highlights negative reactions to the move. Oregon: Incoming governor Kate Brown announces […]
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19 February 2015
FOI Notes: Research, Country News, Tips, More
FOI Research: Gregory Michener has an article in Governance titled “How Cabinet Size and Legislative Control Shape the Strength of Transparency Laws.” Also see shorter version in Democratic Audit UK. Summary: When are governments likely to adopt strong transparency laws? Greg Michener says that too much of the existing research has tried to answer that […]
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5 February 2015
Mendel Paper Suggests Ways to Improve Implementation
Ideas for improving the implementation of right to information laws are discussed in a new “working paper,” by Toby Mendel, Director of the Centre for Law and Democracy. The 30-page “Designing Right to Information Laws for Effective Implementation,” was the subject of a webinar sponsored by the World Bank Feb. 5. Some of the suggestions are […]
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20 November 2014
Study Examines Success of FOI Request Platforms
The first study of the growing number of nongovernmental platforms that facilitate freedom of information requests has found limited evidence of measurable impact but some encouraging signs. The 27 sites studied, most of which have emerged in the last four years, have been technologically workable, weathered government resistance and face future sustainability challenges, according to […]
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19 November 2014
World Bank Previews Study of RTI Law Implementation
The World Bank Nov. 19 previewed a detailed analysis of the factors that determine effective implementation of right to information laws, The analysis is based on a closer look at 12 case studies done over the last several years by the Bank. Analysts coded the information from the studies to isolate factors that influenced implementation effectiveness. […]
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12 November 2014
Asia Foundation Report Finds Many Implementation Issues
Awareness of right to know laws in three Southeast Asian countries is very low and public officials report many obstacles to implementing the RTI laws, according to a new report by the Asia Foundation. The study was done in partnership with civil society organizations in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan, and with the foundation’s country office […]
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6 November 2014
FOI Notes: Corporate Transparency, Tshwane, India, UK, US, Open Data, More
Corporate Transparency: Transparency International issues a report on Transparency in Corporate Reporting about the websites of the world’s 124 largest publicly traded companies. Also see Guardian article. Tshwane Principles: Open Society Foundations issues “a new and final version of the Global Principles on National Security and the Right to Information (the Tshwane Principles) in Spanish. […]
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30 October 2014
FOI Notes: UK, India, UK, OGP, Open Budgets, Pakistan, More
United Kingdom: Joe Reddington in a blog post writes about a paper by Alexander J Fowler, and others: “The UK Freedom of Information Act (2000) in healthcare research: a systematic review.“ In an interview, Fowler says among other things: I think the FOI Act is a hugely powerful tool for medical research – especially policy type […]