Strengthening Transparency and Accountability through Access to Information

Bellver, Ana ; Mendiburu, Marcos ; Poli, Maria

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ACCESS TO INFORMATION;    ACCOUNTABILITY;    ACCOUNTABILITY RELATIONSHIPS;    ADVOCACY;    ANTI-CORRUPTION;   

RP-ID  :  46979

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Providing citizens with open access toinformation is a cornerstone of good governance.Transparency is essential to allow citizens and markets tohold institutions accountable for their policies andperformance, to foster trust in government and minimizecorruption. In the Latin America and the Caribbean regionseveral countries have adopted Freedom of Information lawsand a few more are currently considering them. This movementprovides a unique opportunity to strengthen accountabilityrelationships in the region. The World Bank is providingongoing support to Access to Information (ATI)implementation through different instruments. In theDominican Republic legislation was adopted and draftlegislation to establish a regulatory body has beensubmitted to Congress. Finally, with Bank support forinstitutional development, the Honduran Congress adopted ATIlegislation in late 2006 and appointed Access to InformationCommissioners in 2007. As new oversight institutions arecreated and ATI legislation gets passed in America andCaribbean (LAC) it will be crucial for the Bank to provideassistance and build the capacity of the new Commissions.The importance of the Commissions and of ATI to the largergoals of the governance and anti-corruption agenda reinforcethe need for the Bank to remain actively engaged with thiscommunity and continue its convening and knowledge brokering role.