One hundred ATI Laws in the World, now what?

In the coming days, when Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes signs the Access to Information Law-already approved by Congress-a big milestone for ATI and the open government movement will be reached: 100 countries with ATI laws. All of us who care about open government should be happy.

We should be happy for our colleagues in Paraguay. This is indeed a great step forward and the culmination of years of efforts by many stakeholders from civil society such as IDEA Paraguay, one of the leading NGOs there. The adoption of the law also means that Paraguay will meet their first commitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... in the OGP action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen....

And we should be happy for the global open government movement as well. One hundred countries with ATI laws is a significant milestone, as highlighted by AccessInfo Europe recently. More so when we remember that only 30 years ago, there were less than ten. This means that with more ATI laws in the world, more people have their right to informationThe legal right to request information from the government allows the public to follow government decision-making, participate in ensuring better decisions, and hold the government accountable. Techni... guaranteed legally.

Amid the celebration, this moment is also an opportunity to reflect on what has been achieved world wide with the enacted ATI laws, as well as the shortcomings that we see. This is particularly important because, while ATI is in nature a basic human right, when linked to open government, we acknowledge that it is a powerful tool that can contribute to achieve other socio-economic rights. In this sense, there are various examples about how ATI can transform the lives of people:

In Mexico, among many other examples, marginalized communities in a region with water scarcity—aided by CSOs and the Mexican ATI oversight body IFAI—linked the use of the ATI law to water-related issues, thus request information about permits for drilling wells, in order to ensure the proper use of water resources (link).

In South Africa, Villagers living without basic services—water and electricity—requested information to local government agencies, with support from ODAC about plans to address these issues. They obtained the mid and long term plans of the government to solve the problems, while also prompting authorities to implement an interim solution to ameliorate the situation in the short term; this meant a water tank that was refilled regularly (link)

In Indonesia, parents, through support from Article 19 and its Indonesian partner CSO PATTIRO, used the country’s ATI law to learn how school resources were used. This resulted in better accountability in the use of such resources (link)

These and other examples from several other countries—e.g. India, Bangladesh—illustrate the transformational power of ATI. However, as AcessInfo Europe stresses in the recent article, it is fair to say that the true transformative potential of ATI is yet to materialize across the board. Thus there are still various shortcomings that need to be addressed.

Poor implementation of this kind of laws is a major constrain in ATI realizing its potential. It doesn’t matter if a country has the best law, if implementation is limited, people will not be able to use it to its full advantage.  

Efforts to enhance implementation include capacity buildingEnhancing the skills, abilities, and processes of public servants, civil society, and citizens is essential to achieving long-lasting results in opening government. Technical specifications: Set of ac... for officials responsible for ATI, strengthening the oversight body, development of clear mechanisms for information disclosure—information requests and proactive transparency—etc. These efforts should certainly continue in order to ensure effective ATI regimes that benefit the people.

However, even in countries with effective ATI, it is critical that, as a tool in the context of open government, information is used by the people. In other words, ATI needs to be seen as a tool to empower citizens to participate and demand other socio-economic rights, as seen the examples above. Furthermore, there needs to be space for informed dialogue and collaboration between government and citizens in order for the government to address the needs of the communities, to be responsive.

Addressing these challenges requires collaboration among various stakeholder groups, including civil society, media, government agencies, accountability institutions, etc. It also requires a paradigm shift from confrontation to collaboration, in which stakeholders from government and civil society sit at the table and agree how to join forces in addressing emerging challenges.

In this context, the OGP offers some opportunities to enhance the implementation of ATI legislationCreating and passing legislation is one of the most effective ways of ensuring open government reforms have long-lasting effects on government practices. Technical specifications: Act of creating or r... as well as foster the use of ATI as a tool to empower citizens and improve the lives of people. As we know, ATI is at the core of the OGP, and country after country are including ATI in one way or another in their action plans. Practitioners working on these issues should take advantage of the opportunities that the OGP brings to address current challenges. For example: access to knowledge and good practices from different countries; linkages with experts around the globe for learning and cross-fertilization of ideas; synergies with stakeholders working on other issues that could benefit from ATI (such as sectoral NGOs or practitioners in other open government areas like open dataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici..., open budgets, open contractingA transparent procurement process, known as open contracting, increases competition, improves public service delivery, and ensures governments better value for their money. Technical specifications: C... More), engagement with the OGP ATI working group. In doing so, not only ATI regimes will be better implemented, but the impact of these will increase, while contributing to make open government meaningful for people.

 Photo credit: Flckrs. Author: Michael Grimes.