Commentary: The intellectual energy in governance issues “is not what it used to be” and “ the commitment of leaders in international development seems to have waned,” writes Sina Odugbemi, a Senior Communication Officer (Policy) in the Operations Communication Department, External and Corporate Relations Vice-Presidency of the World Bank Group.
FIFA: A Transparency International study shows that 168 of the 209 FIFA member football associations fail to make financial reports publicly available.
United Nations: David Kaye, the new (Aug. 1) special rapporteur on the protection and promotion of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, has presented a goals statement (available here) and issued a report on whistleblower protection. Kaye is a clinical professor at the UC Irvine School of Law. From 1995 to 2005, he served in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the State Department. Follow him on Twitter at (@davidakaye). Also see whistleblower.org article on him by Bea Edwards.
UNESCO: “Privacy and transparency do not balance each other, but complement each other”, asserted by professor Joseph Cannataci at the University of Groningen, who has led the new UNESCO research project “Balancing privacy and transparency in the context of promoting online freedom of expression.” Thus starts a UNESCO report on a Nov. 11 UNESCO panel. The workshop serves a final consultation with stakeholders on the new research, which will be finalized by the end of year 2015. This study has also been prepared as a contribution to UNESCO’s comprehensive study titled Keystones to Foster Inclusive Knowledge Societies: Access to information and knowledge, Freedom of Expression, Privacy and Ethics on a Global Internet as mandated by Resolution 37 of the UNESCO General Conference.
Spain: “In an important decision from Spain’s Transparency Council, Access Info Europe has won access to the names of participants in meetings held to discuss the Open Government Partnership,” reports Access Info Europe.
Anti-Corruption: Transparency International issues “Just for Show? Reviewing G20 Promises on Beneficial Ownership” assessing the extent to which G20 members are fulfilling their legal and regulatory commitments implicit in the G20 principles one year after their adoption.
SE Asia: A regional dialogue, held Oct. 12-14 in Bangkok, was organized by UNESCO Bangkok and the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), with the support of the Swedish International Cooperation Development Agency (SIDA), according to a UNESCO summary. Swedish Ambassador to Thailand, Staffan Herrström spoke of the importance of improving access to information throughout the region. “Access to information, freedom to information is a right … not a favour by governments to journalists. It is a right of citizens,” he said. In his opening remarks, UNESCO Bangkok Director, Gwang-Jo Kim, emphasized the direct link between FOI and wider development goals. “[Access to public information] is an essential means to ensure accountability, fight against corruption and promote good governance,” he said.
Open Data: Haishan Fu, the World Bank Director of Development Data, writes about the new Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, or GPSDD.
United Kingdom: Nate Jones of the National Security Archives writes about why a British court should order disclosure of a report entitled “The Detection of Soviet Preparations for War Against NATO” — the first comprehensive report that warned that a November 1983 nuclear release exercise called Able Archer 83 could have spooked the Soviets into a preemptive nuclear attack against the West.
United Kingdom: Using Twitter to make a FOI request is denied, writes FOI Man.
T&AI: The London-based group discusses the future in a blog post, “Re-imagining the Transparency and Accountability Initiative.”
My Society: Read a new goals statement.
Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives: A new resource has been developed to challenge the conventional wisdom of multistakeholder initiatives and evaluate them as an option for collective action. A report released this week by international nongovernmental organization Global Development Incubator — in partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development and philanthropy investment firm Omidyar Network — establishes a practical user guide to help funders, implementers and interested stakeholders answer the “whether” and “how” of multistakeholder initiatives, writes Naki B. Mendoza in Devex.
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