THE ACCESS INITIATIVE
OGP COMMITMENTS RELATED TO THE ENVIRONMENT
May 21, 2012
1. Introduction.
34 countries have submitted commitments to the Open Government Partnership (OGP) and another 21 are preparing their commitments[1].
The TAI Secretariat reviewed commitments from 12 governments[2] that have submitted Action Plans to the OGP Secretariat that have commitments related to transparency, access to information and participation in environmental and natural resources decision making processes. These 12 governments are: Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, United Kingdom and the United States.
TAI has active partners in Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Indonesia, Peru, Philippines, Mexico, South Africa and the United States.
This proposal provides (i) a determination on how to classify commitments as being related to the environment and natural resources (ii) a TAI monitoring process with specific follow up strategies for Access to Information(ATI) and Public Participation(PP) commitments and (iii) a proposal on ATI and PP standards to assess the commitments.
This proposal is to be discussed at the TAI Global Gathering to be held in Rio, Brazil.
The objective of this proposal is to implement a pilot monitoring process during 2012 that then can be improved and implemented in 2013 and to provide a framework for joint fund-raising around the OGP process.
2. Environmental information:
The Aarhus Convention defines “Environmental information” as any information in written, visual, aural, electronic or any other material form on:
(a) The state of elements of the environment, such as air and atmosphere, water, soil, land, landscape and natural sites, biological diversity and its components, including genetically modified organisms, and the interaction among these elements;
(b) Factors, such as substances, energy, noise and radiation, and activities or measures, including administrative measures, environmental agreements, policies, legislation, plans and programmes, affecting or likely to affect the elements of the environment within the scope of subparagraph (a)
above, and cost-benefit and other economic analyses and assumptions used in environmental decision-making;
(c) The state of human health and safety, conditions of human life, cultural sites and built structures, inasmuch as they are or may be affected by the state of the elements of the environment or, through these elements, by the factors, activities or measures referred to in subparagraph (b) above;
Commitments in OGP have also been made specifically around Natural Resource governance. In this area specific commitments to transparency that address – oil, gas, minerals (extractives), forests, fish, water and land . These categories of resources are sometimes addressed together as they present a number of challenges to the transparency and accountability agenda.
3. TAI Monitoring Strategy
The objective of this proposal is to monitor the fulfillments of commitments related to the environment and natural resources.
Following is a table with countries, TAI partners and government’s commitments related to the environment[3]
|
Country
|
TAI Partner
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Government’s Commitment(s)
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Date of Completion
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Access rights
|
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Brazil
|
FGV
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Facilitation of the Access to Specific Databases on the Transparency Portal: the initiative will allow for increased citizen access to information on federal budget execution, transparency, and oversight of Government expenditures, in addition to more effective tracking of the investments directed to Civil Defense responses to natural disasters and environmental catastrophes
|
September 30th, 2012
|
ATI
|
|
Chile
|
PARTICIPA
|
Get more Latin American governments to support a Regional Convention on P10.
|
Not mention, but it has to be before the Summit
|
|
|
Indonesia
|
ICEL
|
EITI[4]: Publication of revenue information of the government (central & region) from the extractive industry (oil & gas, coal).
|
October of 2012
|
ATI
|
|
|
|
Develop One-Map Portal to Promote efficiency on Forestry Management. The initiative will digitalize the data and information related to primary and secondary forests (including peat lands) on a single portal. Those data and information will be synchronized with licenses data attached to the land area.
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December 2013
|
ATI
|
|
|
|
Promoting transparency and accountability of public services at Land Administration Office. The data and information to be published include: types of services, processes required for service provisions, estimated time to complete a service, costs for service provision, status/progress of service request. The data and information are required to be published at the institutional website.
|
December 2011
|
ATI
|
|
Philippines
|
Atheneo School of Law
|
Participatory Social Audit for Public Infrastructure Projects. The Commission on Audit, in partnership with Executive departments and CSOs will craft a roadmap to institutionalize social audit for general public works and agriculture infrastructure projects for implementation throughout 2012.
|
|
ATI and PP
|
|
South Africa
|
ODAC
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Formalise partnerships with civil society organisations in all nine provinces to establish Service Delivery Improvement Forums (SDIFs) at local level to provide timely citizen report cards on service delivery levels at community level, especially in relation to primary health care, water, sanitation, environmental management and housing.
|
None provided
|
ATI and PP
|
|
|
|
Explore the feasibility of establishing a single agency mandated by Government to develop a comprehensive and publicly accessible portal of environmental management information.
|
None provided
|
ATI
|
|
United States
|
??
|
EITI: Will Work in Partnership with Industry and Citizens to Build on Recent Progress. The Federal Government will work with industry and citizens to develop a sensible plan over the next two years for disclosing relevant information and enhancing the accountability and transparency of our revenue collection efforts.
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None provided
|
ATI and PP
|
|
|
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Expand Public Participation in the Development of Regulations. For two and a half years, the Administration has promoted public participation in rulemaking, which covers such diverse subjects as energy, education, homeland security, agriculture, food safety, environmental protection, health care, and airline and automobile safety
|
None provided
|
PP
|
|
|
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Launch International Space Apps Competition. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration and key space agencies around the world will gather with scientists and concerned citizens to use publicly-released data (e.g., Earth science and planetary observations) so as to create solutions for global challenges such as weather impacts on the global economy and depletion of ocean resources. An international collaboration website will be created to facilitate citizen participation.
|
None provided
|
ATI and PP
|
The Strategy contains 3 steps:
1. Request governments to prepare a more detailed Action Plan based on their commitments.
2. Follow up on ATI commitments.
3. Follow up on PP commitments.
1. Request governments to prepare an Action Plan based on their commitments.
It is relevant as a first step to request governments to prepare an Action Plan that has a clear responsible agency for action, a deadline and a clear outcome/output.
2. Follow up on ATI commitments.
Brazil, Indonesia, Philippines, South Africa and the United States have ATI commitments. The proposal is that each TAI partner:
· Ask the government exactly why type of information they are planning to publish.
· Organize a matrix that the government agrees on. It is possible that each matrix will be very specific for the country and its commitment.
· TAI establishes a common standard for assessing the quality of the published information.
3. Follow up on PP commitments.
Philippines, South Africa and the United States have PP commitments. The proposal is that each TAI partner:
· Contact the governmental agency responsible for the public participation process to learn about objectives, timeline, among others aspects.
· Declare that TAI partner is interested in being invited to be part of the process.
· TAI establishes a common standard for assessing the quality of the public participation process that was implemented.
· Prepare monthly/bimonthly report on the process using the standards that are agreed upon.
4. Draft Standards for ATI and PP.
The standards for assessing ATI commitments will include that the information that is released is:
· In accordance with the date of completion established in the Action Plan.
· Is easy to understand ( is in people’s language)
· Is meaningful/relevant (it addresses the key aspects of the issue).
The standards for assessing the PP commitments will include:
a. Planning and Preparation: The agency should implement an adequate and inclusive planning process and ensure that the design, organization, and convening of the process serves both a clearly defined purpose and the needs of the participants. 1
b. Inclusion and Demographic Diversity. Ensure that stakeholders have fair and equal access to the public participation process and the opportunity to influence decisions. Equity incorporates diverse people, voices, ideas, and information to lay the groundwork for quality outcomes and democratic legitimacy. Effort is to be taken to reach stakeholders and people interested and/or affected by the issue.
c. Process for the invitation to participate.
i. Use different means, not limited to a website.
ii. Means adapted to the different stakeholders.
iii. Give reasonable time for people and organizations to learn about the pp process and decide whether to participate.
d. Balanced & detailed informationabout the issue at hand, provide participants with the information they need to participate in a meaningful way.
e. Level of public participation: At the beginning of the PP process the Agency must be clear on the level of participation. We can distinguish 5 levels: Inform, consult, involve, collaborate and empower.
f. Effort from the participants: there must be a reasonable number of meetings, number of reports to read, among others. It cannot be so time consuming that CSO will no longer wish to participate.
g. Feedback to participants: Starting from the level of consultation, public participation includes the promise that the public’s contribution will influence the decision. After the PP is over, it is key that the Agency gives back feedback to the participants, such as which proposals and recommendations were incorporated and which ones were not and why. Public participation must communicate to participants how their input affected the decision.
h. Neutral public participation process: The agency in charge should advocate for the public participation process and not for interest, party, or project outcome.
References:
1. Resource Guide on Public Engagement. National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation.
2. The Aarhus Convention
3. IAP2 Core Values of Public Participation. International Association for Public Participation.
4. IAP2 Code of Ethics for Public Participation Practitioners. International Association for Public Participation.
5. EPA Public Participation Guide.
Annex 1: Levels of participation.
Source: Public Participation Guide. Environmental Protection Agency. United States
INFORM
The Inform level of public participation does not actually provide the opportunity for public participation at all, but rather provides the public with the information they need to understand the agency decision-making process. This level is on the spectrum to remind agencies that sometimes there is no opportunity for the public to influence decision-making and simply informing them is the appropriate activity. When you conduct the “inform” level of public participation, it is important to recognize that you are not trying to persuade or manipulate the public in any way. As such, the inform level is not the same as a public relations campaign. Rather, the inform level of public participation requires the agency to serve as an honest broker of information, giving the public what they need to fully understand the project and decision and to reach their own conclusions as to the appropriateness and adequacy of the decision.
- Both the public participation goal and promise at the inform level is to keep the public informed.
CONSULT
The Consult level of public participation is the basic minimum opportunity for public input to a decision. Consult simply means to ask. There is no invitation to sit down together and work on things in any cooperative way. The agency merely asks the public for their opinions and considers the input it receives as it makes the decision. At consult, agencies generally ask for input at set points in the process and do not provide an ongoing opportunity for input.
- The public participation goal at the consult level is to obtain and consider public input.
- The promise at the consult level is to consider the public input received and to provide feedback as to how that input influenced the decision.
INVOLVE
The Involve level of public participation is more than a consultation. To involve means to include. At the involve level, the public is invited into the process, usually from the beginning, and is provided multiple if not ongoing opportunities for input as decision-making progresses. However, the agency is still the decision-maker and there is no expectation of building consensus or providing the public with any sort of high-level influence over the decision.
- The public participation goal at the involve level is to work directly with the public and consider their input throughout the decision-making process.
- The promise at the involve level is that the public will have access to the decision process and decision makers and will be provided the opportunity to give input throughout the process and receive direct feedback on how their input helped to influence the decision.
COLLABORATE
The Collaborate level of public participation includes all the elements of involve. To collaborate means to work together. At the collaborate level, the public is directly engaged in decision-making. Collaborate often includes the explicit attempt to find consensus solutions. However, as at involve, the agency is still the ultimate decision-maker. The degree to which consensus will be sought and how much decision authority the agency is willing to share must be made explicit. In the end, the agency will take all of the input received and make the decision. Conducting a collaboration level program is time-consuming and resource intensive and should not be entered into lightly. If stakeholders do reach consensus and this is not given serious consideration by the sponsoring agency, it can have serious negative consequences on the project and on future relationships with stakeholders.
- The public participation goal at the collaborate level is to design a process that allows for effective partnering with the public on all aspects of the decision.
- The promise at the collaborate level is that the public will be engaged in all key activities and decisions, and their input will be incorporated to the maximum extent possible. Consensus is not always sought at the collaborate level; the degree to which consensus will be sought should be an explicit part of the promise.
EMPOWER
At the Empower level, agencies provide the public with the opportunity to make decisions for themselves. The most common activities at this level are public voting or ballots, but there are other techniques available as well. Government agencies rarely conduct public participation at the empower level. In general, agencies are not permitted to delegate their decision authority to the public, and creating a fair, legitimate, and inclusive process for empowerment beyond basic voting is complex and challenging. Basic voting by itself often fails to create the level of public knowledge and broad range of public input that is needed for meaningful public participation.
- The public participation goal at the empower level is to create a program that allows the public to make an informed decision.
- The promise at the empower level is that the agency will implement what the public decides.
[2] We took countries where are TAI partners and others that might be interesting.
[3]This information was obtained from government´s Plan of Action.
[4] Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative.