ELLA: Transparency and Access to Information

Mexico: A Moment of Opportunity - Increasing Transparency and Accountability in the Extractive Industries

Thu, 05/16/2013 - 20:28

Mexico’s oil and mining sectors are highly significant sources of economic development for the country with profound impact on the daily lives of the nation’s people. It is therefore crucial to have timely, comprehensive information that allows citizens to hold the government and companies accountable.

GOVERNANCE | Accountability | Transparency and Access to Information

Implementing Right to Information: A Case Study of Mexico

Thu, 03/21/2013 - 22:30

In June 2002, President Vicente Fox (2000－06) signed a landmark transparency bill into law. The adoption of the Access to Public Information and Transparency Law (Transparency Law) was a distinctive moment in Mexican politics.

GOVERNANCE | Accountability | Transparency and Access to Information

Brazil: No Easy Miracle - Increasing Transparency and Accountability in the Extractive Industries

Fri, 02/08/2013 - 22:35

The future of many resource-rich countries no longer rests mainly on foreign aid but on the extent and effective use of the country’s own resources and how they use them. For that to occur, a focused and concrete approach to improve governance and accountability is critical.

GOVERNANCE | Accountability | Transparency and Access to Information

Open Government and Targeted Transparency: Trends and Challenges for Latin America and the Caribbean

Wed, 01/02/2013 - 20:12

Led by IDB's Institutional Capacity of the State Division (IFD/ICS), this publication presents a conceptual framework and collects different experiences and lessons learned in the design and implementation of targeted transparency and open government policies in LAC.

GOVERNANCE | Accountability | Transparency and Access to Information

ELLA Expert Review: Transparency and Access to Information

Tue, 11/06/2012 - 15:14

Here Toby Mendel, Executive Director of the Centre for Law and Democracy, offers his reaction to the ELLA knowledge materials on Transparency and Access to Information.

GOVERNANCE | Accountability | Transparency and Access to Information

VIDEO: Using Strategic Litigation to Enforce the Right to Information in Latin America: a Case from Argentina

Wed, 07/18/2012 - 15:18

Through strategic litigation, in 2008 the Argentinean Association for Civil Rights (ADC) secured a transparency win, forcing a national-level public institution to comply with providing access to information.

Strategic litigation, or the use of the courts to achieve structural reforms in institutions and legislation, is a common practice used by civil society organisations (CSOs) in Latin America. In this video, Alvaro Herrero, Executive Director of the Association for Civil Rights (ADC), describes the process undertook by ADC to compel the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses to disclose the methodology used to calculate the Consumer Price Index. Focusing on the context of Argentina, he explains the reasons why it is sometimes necessary to resort to strategic litigation and the challenges faced by CSOs in using the strategy to enforce the right to information.

GOVERNANCE | Accountability | Transparency and Access to Information

Parliamentary Power to the People: Analysing Online and Offline Strategies in Latin America

Mon, 07/16/2012 - 16:37

With their ability to shape a nation’s economic, social, and political future, national parliaments wield an incredible amount of power and influence over the citizens they represent. Yet in Latin America, public trust in the deliberative branch of government is alarmingly low.

GOVERNANCE | Accountability | Transparency and Access to Information

VIDEO: Opportunities and Challenges in Access to Public Information: Experiences from Latin America

Mon, 07/09/2012 - 18:02

In implementing their Freedom of Information Acts, Latin American countries are facing challenges - but also promising opportunities – in guaranteeing transparency and access to information.

Through interviews with members of civil society organisations, this short documentary describes the situation of the right to information in Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and El Salvador. The interviewees also share their perspective on the challenges and opportunities of accessing public information in their countries, showing just how similar experiences are across countries.

GOVERNANCE | Accountability | Transparency and Access to Information

VIDEO: From the Law to Practice: The Creation of the Mexican Federal Institute for Access to Public Information and Data Protection

Wed, 06/27/2012 - 16:55

Mexico’s 2002 Freedom of Information Act was the first in the world to create an autonomous oversight body with the authority to enforce compliance with the law.

The Mexican Freedom of Information Act is one of the most innovative transparency laws, thanks to its creation of an autonomous oversight body whose resolutions are binding. In this video, Altzimba Baltazar, former Case Researcher for Appeals at the Federal Institute for Access to Public Information and Data Protection (IFAI), analyses the factors that enabled the IFAI’s establishment, as well as the critical features guaranteeing its autonomy and mandate. She also describes the opportunities that this oversight body offers in terms of strengthening access to information.

GOVERNANCE | Accountability | Transparency and Access to Information

PODCAST: Getting a Freedom of Information Act Approved: The Story of Brazil

Wed, 06/20/2012 - 15:45

In 2011, Brazil joined the 65% of Latin American countries that have approved a Freedom of Information Act, making the first step in guaranteeing citizens’ right to information and in promoting government accountability.

The eight-year approval process of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in Brazil is one of the most recent in Latin America, since the law was finally passed in 2011. In this podcast, Paula Martins, lawyer and Coordinator of the Brazil office of the civil society organisation Article 19, analyses the contextual factors that enabled the approval of this law in Brazil, after providing a brief summary of the approval process itself. Among the contextual factors that she identifies are the political will of the federal executive, the pressure exerted by civil society and the media, and Brazil’s commitment to the international community through its membership in The Open Government Partnership.

GOVERNANCE | Accountability | Transparency and Access to Information

VIDEO: The Process of Approving the Freedom of Information Act in El Salvador

Wed, 06/06/2012 - 16:35

Culminating a six-year advocacy process characterised by its extensive citizen and civil society participation, in 2011 El Salvador passed one of the strongest Freedom of Information Acts in the world. This is the story of how the law got passed.

As part of a twenty-year long process of democratic consolidation, El Salvador finally approved its Freedom of Information Act in 2011, guaranteeing citizens’ right to information and aiming to improve government accountability. In this interview, Carmina Castro, Analyst in the Democratic Institutions Department at the Salvadoran Foundation for Economic and Social Development (Fundación Salvadoreña para el Desarrollo Económico y Social), describes the six-year lobbying process that Salvadorian civil society undertook to guarantee this fundamental right. She also talks about the approval process itself, its challenges and the enabling and contextual factors underpinning this successful advocacy process.

GOVERNANCE | Accountability | Transparency and Access to Information

A Practical Guide to Social Audit as a Participatory Tool to Strengthen Democratic Governance, Transparency and Accountability

Wed, 05/30/2012 - 20:59

This Practical Guide analyzes social auditing experiences around the world and extracts important lessons that intend to provide practical guidance to United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and other United Nations agencies officers, advisers, and partners, as well as development practitioners, donors and governments. It examines the required elements for the design and implementation of social audits, explains the enabling environment that make these exercises successful, and offers practical insights based on practices and experiences.

GOVERNANCE | Accountability | Transparency and Access to Information

Spotlight on Publications: Public Procurement and Disclosure of Public Officials’ Personal Assets

Mon, 05/28/2012 - 23:13

The following selection of publications showcases how public officials and civil society organisations in Latin America have dealt with the challenges of opening public procurement procedures and public officials’ personal assets to citizen scrutiny. These publications could be useful for those in other regions who are looking to tackle corruption by improving transparency and access to information in these two key areas.

GOVERNANCE | Accountability | Transparency and Access to Information

Spotlight on Organisations: Key Civil Society Groups Using the Right to Information

Wed, 05/16/2012 - 21:49

This Spotlight On highlights some of the key Latin American CSOs using the right to information to carry out independent assessments of policies and programmes in different sectors. CSOs from other regions could likely benefit from gaining access to the variety of creative ways these Latin American groups are using the right to information to push for accountability and reform.

GOVERNANCE | Accountability | Transparency and Access to Information

Effectiveness of International Anticorruption Conventions on Domestic Policy Changes in Latin America

Thu, 05/10/2012 - 15:36

This study evaluates the effectiveness of Transparency International Latin America and Caribbean Department (TI-LAC) Conventions Program’s strategy. This strategy tries to generate a dynamic stimulus for the effective implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption and the United Nations’ Convention against Corruption in the Americas.