Frances Seymour

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Frances Seymour Regional Environmental
Forum, Bangkok January 29, 2004
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The Access Initiative

• A global civil society coalition promoting access
  to information, participation, and justice in
  national decision-making that affects the
  environment.

Five organizations jointly lead The Access
Initiative.
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Purpose Accelerate Implementation of Principles
of

• Access to Information
• Access to Participation
• Access to Justice

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International Commitments

• 1992
• 178 governments sign the Rio Declaration.
  Principle 10 mandated appropriate access to
  information, encouragement of public
  participation, and effective access to judicial
  proceedings.
• 2002
• WSSD Plan of Implementation
• calls on governments to implement
• Principle 10.

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Why is Information and Participation Needed in
Decision-Making?

• Processes that provide
• Access to Information
• Participation in Decisions
• Mechanisms for Accountability

• Decisions that
• are more likely to be
• Equitable
• Environmentally Sustainable
• Actually Implemented

lead to
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Are people satisfied with information and
participation?
Data from Gallup Poll, 2002
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The Access Initiative Strategy

• Develop common tools to measure access
• Support national coalitions to conduct
  assessments of government progress
• Provide international legitimacy

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The Access InitiativeWhat we Assess
Our methodology looks at national-level law and
practice in

• information disclosure
• public consultation
• access to justice
• capacity building

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A brief history of TAI

• 2000-2001 TAI convened partners and developed
  methodology for measuring environmental
  governance.
• 2001-2002 Coalitions in 9 countries tested pilot
  indicators and used results.
• 2003 Revised methodology enables expansion and
  new assessments.
• Ongoing Partners use results to set priorities
  for raising awareness and working with government.

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The Access Initiative Pilot Assessment Countries

• Chile
• Hungary
• India
• Indonesia
• Mexico
• South Africa
• Thailand
• Uganda
• United States

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Pilot Assessment Results Access to Information

• Weak
• Access
• Intermediate Access
• Strong
• Access

• Water Quality
• Industrial Compliance and Performance
• Industrial Accidents
• Air Quality
• Newsworthy Emergencies
• State of the Environment Reports

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Pilot Assessment Results Participation

• Weak
• Access
• Intermediate Access
• Strong
• Access

• Policy-making in non- environmental sectors
• Project-level decisions (permitting, concessions)
• Environmental policy-making
• Land use planning
• None

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Pilot Assessment Results Access to Justice

• Conditions for rule of law, such as review
  procedures, diverse mechanisms, and broad
  standing
• Affordability of justice
• None

• Weak
• Access
• Intermediate Access
• Strong
• Access

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Assessing Access to Information, Participation,
and Justice for the Environment A Guide
A new CD-ROM tool from The Access Initiative
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Priorities for the Future

• Expand TAI to additional countries
• Adapt assessment method to specific problems and
  sectors
• Support follow-up at national and global levels

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TAI Expansion to Additional Countries

• Europe
• Bulgaria, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Poland, Portugal,
  Ukraine
• Latin America
• Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador,
  El Salvador, Peru
• Africa
• Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania
• Asia
• ???

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The Partnership for Principle 10

• .a partnership among public interest groups,
  international organizations, and governments
  launched at the WSSD committed to

• assisting governments to improve implementation
  of the access principles, and
• improving their own performance.

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For More Information and Updates

• Visit www.accessinitiative.org and www.pp10.org
  for more on TAI and its related initiative, the
  Partnership for Principle 10.