TAI Background: Relevant International Commitments governments sign the Rio Declaration. Principle 10 mandated appropriate access to information, encouragement of public participation, and effective access to judicial proceedings WSSD Plan of Implementation calls on governments to implement Principle 10.

The Access Initiative’s goal… …is to promote the accelerated and enhanced implementation of Principle 10 at the national level.

The Access Initiative’s strategy is to… Develop and continuously refine an indicator-based tool to assess government performance Support civil society teams in an increasing number of countries to conduct assessments Utilize the Partnership for Principle 10 to urge governments to act on assessment results

What does TAI attempt to assess? Access to information Public participation Access to justice Capacity building Law and practice related to:

The Access Initiative A global civil society coalition promoting access to information, participation, and justice in national decision-making that affects the environment. 6 organizations jointly lead The Access Initiative

The Access Initiative Countries – Pilot Phase Chile Hungary India Indonesia Mexico South Africa Thailand Uganda United States

Expanding the Network: Europe: Estonia, Poland, Bulgaria, Portugal, UK, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Germany, Ireland Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroon, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Venezuela Southeast Asia: Vietnam, Philippines, China Repeat assessments: Hungary, India, Chile, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand, Uganda, US, Indonesia

With what results?  Enhanced credibility for civil society critiques  Platforms for constructive government-civil society dialogue and collaboration  Explicit commitments from all participants to improve law, practice, and capacity

The 10 TAI assessment steps 1.Learn about TAI and the access principles 2.Build a coalition of TAI researchers and reviewers 3.Choose case studies and sectors for assessment 4.Prepare for research and divide up the workload 5.Conduct research 6.Use the TAI CD-ROM to record and analyze your research 7.Review your results and write your country report 8.Publish and publicize your results 9.Put your results into action – publications, meetings 10.Get involved as an active member of TAI and its related coalition, the Partnership for Principle 10.

TAI and PP10: Strategies TAI National constituencies Common tools to monitor implementation of Principle 10 National indicators and a global database PP10 Shared commitments to promote assessment and to implement Principle 10 and WSSD Plan Article 128 Action-oriented specific commitments by each partner An accountability, matchmaking, and learning mechanism

TAI and PP10: Differences TAI Coalitions of NGOs Tracking of progress in implementing Principle 10 PP10 Partnership of governments, NGOs, and international organizations Implementation of Principle 10 and Article 128