WRI Publications Feed: The Access Initiative (TAI)

A Seat at the Table: Including the Poor in Decisions for Development and Environment

Maggie Barron — Tue, 04 May 2010 16:59:37 -0400

For more information, and to watch a webcast of the launch of “A Seat at the Table,” visit the Access Initiative website.

En Español

Executive Summary

Decisions that have significant environmental and social consequences are often made without the involvement of those whose interests are directly at stake. For poor people whose lives and livelihoods often depend on natural resources, and who are therefore most vulnerable to environmental risks, the consequences of exclusion can be especially severe. Weak access to decision-making may expose poor communities to high levels of pollution, remove them from productive land, and deprive them of the everyday benefits provided by natural resources.

The three pillars of sound decision-making for the environment that are key to responding to the challenge of providing “access” are: access to information, public participation, and access to justice. Many countries, regardless of their level of economic development, have promoted these pillars as policy aspirations or as enforceable legal rights. Yet even where progress has been significant, more work remains if such laws are to be implemented in a way that is meaningful to all citizens, especially the poor.

To better understand the obstacles to access facing the poor, and the efforts by governments to reach this population, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and its civil society organization (CSO) partners in The Access Initiative (TAI) closely examined access rights and practices in four countries—Cameroon, Paraguay, Philippines, and Sri Lanka.

The case studies highlighted in this report cover a range of environmental concerns including water quality, land use, data availability, and the use or absence of environmental impact assessments (EIAs). The findings and literature review show that the poor in these countries face a daunting array of barriers to access, including low literacy, high costs (including the costs of corruption), exposure to risk from participation, and lack of documentation of legal identity or rights to a resource that is necessary to influence decisions. Additionally, cultural norms that limit who may speak in public disproportionately exclude the poor.

The case studies also provide examples where civil society organizations, community groups, and - most importantly - governments have taken steps to overcome these barriers. Based on the findings and literature review, we have identified six poverty-related barriers to access to decision-making and proposed eight categories of policy responses to overcome these barriers. Importantly, a general lack of access to information for all citizens had a commensurately larger impact on access to information for the poor.

En Español

Las decisiones que tienen consecuencias medioambientales y sociales significativas suelen ser tomadas sin la participación de aquellas personas cuyos intereses están directamente en juego. Para las comunidades vulnerables cuyas vidas y medios de subsistencia suelen depender de recursos naturales, y quienes, por lo tanto, están más expuestas a los riesgos medioambientales, las consecuencias de la exclusión pueden ser particularmente severas. Un acceso precario a la toma de decisiones puede exponer a las comunidades vulnerables a altos niveles de contaminación, apartarlos de tierras productivas, y privarlos de los beneficios cotidianos que los recursos naturales les proveen.

Los tres pilares de la toma de decisiones sobre el medioambiente que resultan claves para responder adecuadamente al desafío de dar “acceso” son: el acceso a la información, la participación pública, y el acceso a la justicia. Muchos países, independientemente de su nivel de desarrollo económico, han promovido estos pilares como objetivos de sus políticas públicas o como derechos legales vinculantes. Sin embargo, aun ahí donde el progreso ha sido significativo, hay mucho por hacer si se desea que las leyes que norman los derechos de acceso sean implementadas de una manera que resulte significativa para toda la ciudadanía, y especialmente para los grupos vulnerables.

Para aportar a una mejor comprensión de los obstáculos al acceso que afectan a las comunidades vulnerables, y de los esfuerzos que los gobiernos pueden hacer por alcanzar a esa población, el Instituto de Recursos Mundiales y sus socios de la organización de la sociedad civil La Iniciativa de Acceso examinaron detenidamente los derechos y prácticas de acceso en cuatro países—Camerún, Paraguay, Filipinas y Sri Lanka.

Los estudios de caso destacados en este informe cubren una variedad de asuntos medioambientales incluyendo la calidad del agua, el uso de la tierra, la disponibilidad de datos, y el uso o ausencia de Evaluaciones de Impacto Ambiental (EIA). Los hallazgos de la investigación y la bibliografía revisada muestran que en estos países los grupos vulnerables enfrentan un abanico enorme de barreras para ejercer sus derechos de acceso, incluyendo el bajo alfabetismo,
los altos costos (incluidos los costos de la corrupción), la exposición a los riesgos de la participación, y la falta de documentos de identidad o del derecho a algún recurso necesario para participar o influir en la toma de decisiones. Adicionalmente, las normas culturales que definen quiénes pueden hablar en público excluyen a los grupos vulnerables desproporcionalmente.

Los casos de estudio también proveen ejemplos en los que organizaciones de la sociedad civil, grupos comunitarios, y –más importante– algunos gobiernos han dado pasos para superar o eliminar estas barreras. En base a los hallazgos y la revisión bibliográfica, hemos encontrado seis barreras al acceso a la toma de decisiones que se relacionan con la pobreza y propuesto ocho categorías de medidas de política pública (policy responses) que sirven para superarlas (ver Tabla 1). Es importante señalar que la falta generalizada de acceso a la información por parte de la ciudadanía tiene un impacto apreciablemente más alto en la falta de acceso a la información por parte de los grupos vulnerables.

Voice and Choice: Opening the Door To Environmental Democracy

Tim Herzog — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:32:55 -0400

This publication represents the culmination of several years of research, experimentation, and reform by governments, civil society organizations, and industry in implementing access to information, public participation, and access to justice in decisions that affect the environment. Voice and Choice is an interim report of the Access Initiative, and captures the results of the network’s first efforts to assess the adoption and implementation of environmental access rights. As an interim report, its main purpose is to begin to answer the questions, “Where are we?” and “Where do we go from here?”

Chapter 1 Opening Access provides a theoretical and historical background for access rights and the relationship these rights seek to establish between governments and people in the context of environmental decision-making. Reformers at the convergence of agendas in environment, governance, and human rights have already made significant inroads in measuring, analyzing, and promoting more open and transparent governance around natural resources. The chapter also presents The Access Initiative (TAI) method for assessing government provision of access rights and shows a number of general results of these assessments.

Chapter 2 Strengthening the Argument for Access provides access proponents within and outside of government a broad palette of arguments to use in order to spur reform in decision-making processes. The chapter outlines three key arguments for access rights, under the assumption that access proponents and governments will find some arguments more compelling than others given their unique circumstances. First, the chapter argues that access rights are human rights grounded in international law. Second, the chapter briefly touches upon the larger arguments other researchers have made about the positive relationship between good governance and growth at the national level. Third, the chapter looks at evidence about how public participation, access to information, and access to justice affect the quality of decisions on the small scale.

Chapter 3 Access Hurdles presents and draws lessons from original research completed by the TAI network. Aggregated data from this research shows that while access to information law and public participation law have grown, implementation is still lacking. In order to deal with this, the chapter identifies hurdles to further implementation of access rights and presents case studies where access proponents have encountered, and in some cases, overcome these hurdles. We group the sections of this chapter under four headings:

Managing Vested Interests and the Politics of Access. Data from TAI country assessments and case studies suggests that vested interests play a signifi cant role in controlling the fl ow of information and participation. We attempt to address this challenge by proposing strategies for overcoming these interests through coalition-building and highlight the importance of messaging to engage the public.
Identifying the Gaps in Information Systems. Not all systems for releasing environmental information suffer from the same gaps. We look at the elements of a complete environmental information system including collection, analysis, and dissemination. A series of case studies and fi ndings highlight the importance of ensuring the availability, publicity, and usability of information.
Fostering a Culture of Openness. This section describes how opening participation to the public affects the ‘environmental quality’ of a decision. While not offering a defi nitive answer on the subject, lessons on how to reconcile the need for expert deliberation with the demand for public input.
Investing in Access Capacity. Support for government offi cials and for civil society organizations to supply and demand access is essential for environmental democracy. This section examines the extent and the sustainability of efforts to create this cycle of engagement.

Chapter 4: Recommendations culls lessons from the previous chapters. The fi rst part of the chapters presents next steps for governments in implementing access rights while the second section presents ideas for access proponents to use to promote these reforms more generally.

Assessing Access to Information, Participation, and Justice for the Environment: A Guide

admin — Wed, 01 Jan 2003 23:00:00 -0500

The Access Initiative (TAI) has developed a unique methodology allowing users to assess implementation of several “access principles” as they relate to environmental decision-making - access to information, access to participation, access to justice, and capacity-building. Assessing Information, Participation and Justice for the Environment: A Guide contains the actual tools for this assessment, with accompanying instructional text. With the resources on this CD-ROM and web-based application, new TAI partners around the world will be able to score their countries’ performance in providing access.

Download the Microsoft Access database file (MDB, 3.7 Mb) for computers with Access 2000 or Access XP only. - This version is interactive and allows you to run reports and store data. If you do not have Access 2000 or Access XP on your computer then you should request a full CD, which has files and instructions for older computers. If you would like to request a free copy of the CD, please email us at access@wri.org with “How-to Guide Request” in the subject line.

Closing the Gap: Information, participation, and justice in decision-making for the environment

admin — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 00:00:00 -0400

This report addresses the status of access to information, participation, and justice in nine countries – Chile, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand, Uganda, and the United States.

In the report, WRI and Access Initiative colleagues around the world ask the question, “What have national governments done – and what do they still need to do – to create effective systems of public participation in their countries?”