Commonwealth Voices is a podcast about citizens coming together to participate in democracy and influence the institutions that shape their lives.
Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or your chosen podcatcher.
In June the Foundation’s Knowledge, Learning and Communications (KLC) and Grants team went on mission to Sri Lanka to learn more about our partner’s work.
We met with RTI civil mobilisation coordinators from different districts in Sri Lanka who shared both stories of positive change and resistance. We observed an RTI awareness raising and RTI filling training session in Nonagama and we spoke to elderly community members in Matara who consider themselves torch bearers of the RTI Act.
Before the Act came into law, TISL advocated for its adaptation to the Sri Lankan context. This involved representations in the drafting committee’s final meetings and working with parliamentarians to sensitise them and broaden their understanding of what RTI is about. Post-enactment of the RTI Act, TISL have adopted a watchdog role to ensure compliance.
On the advocacy side of the project the RTI team provide feedback and advise the government on how best to implement the law. This includes work with the RTI Commission who provide the Act’s guidelines and the Ministry of Finance and Mass Media who raise awareness of the Act. In addition to this TISL have worked to ensure that other legislation does not interfere with right to information laws. A recent examples is the National Audit Bill which, while still in drafting stage, has certain provisions that prevented information disclosure.
In Sri Lanka people file RTI’s for many reasons. Amongst the most common are:
Awareness raising around the RTI Act is key to the project’s success. TISL’s RTI team, led by Sankhita Gunaratne conduct awareness raising in the form of street dramas (in local languages of five districts), press advertisements and newspaper articles. In addition to the RTI van, a dedicated website called RTI Watch and a film on RTI has been created; providing personal stories that have been be shared with wider audiences.
Although outcomes for citizens are overwhelmingly positive, it is clear that some information requests are not being dealt with in the correct way. Pushing for the full realisation of the RTI Act in practice is the task ahead for the TISL RTI team.
Please use this link to read more about TISL RTI teams work Right to Information: a success story from Vavuniya, Sri Lanka written by Sankhita Gunaratne.
Anita Nzeh is Senior Programme Officer for Knowledge and Learning at the Commonwealth Foundation.
The site in question had not been updated since 2015. Information was also requested about the steps the Divisional Secretariat had taken to help and facilitate members of the public who submit RTI Forms.
The Divisional Secretariat responded by updating their website in June 2018 . Furthermore, an information board was displayed in front of the Secretariat Office, containing details about the information officer of the Divisional Secretariat. This enabled easy access to the Secretariat’s RTI Unit for members of the public, and set a precedent for proactive disclosure.
The picture depicts the website last updated on 18 December 2014 and the update following the RTI request on 19 June 2018.
Sri Lanka marked a historic victory in August 2016 when the right to information act was passed. The law now enables all citizens to access information held by the State and was internationally acclaimed: ranking third in Centre for Law and Democracy’s RTI rating.
Even though the passage of the law was a result of 20 years of agitation by civil society, journalists, politicians and activists, beyond this circle, knowledge of the law and its significance was mostly non-existent. The grant provided by the Commonwealth Foundation enabled Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) to be one of the lead organisations in Sri Lanka demystifying the law for citizens – in Colombo, Matara, Ampara, Trincomalee and Jaffna, spanning the Northern, Western, Eastern and Southern provinces, and other districts as well.
Sri Lanka’s rank on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (91 ) demonstrates the challenge set before the country and hopes and were fostered that the RTI law would open up the space for transparency, accountability, and an avenue for ordinary citizens to better understand government processes.
However, since the law’s enactment little effort has been made to educate people on RTI, and it is civil society that has filled that space. Through this grant, TISL has employed several techniques aimed at doing so.
Very early on, as RTI was operationalised, TISL used an ‘RTI Van’ with a large LED screen and loudspeakers, to drive through the districts, stopping in strategic locations. It ran audiovisual content on the RTI process, with staff members interacting with the public, and in certain cases, helped them to formulate RTI requests on the spot. Notably, in the Trincomalee districts, over 150 RTI requests were facilitated covering issues of corruption, access to education and health facilities. Street dramas around International Right to Know Day 2017 , newspaper advertisements, missed call campaigns and SMS shots are among the other techniques that were used.
A Manual and information leaflets were created and mirrored on a website which was regularly updated. These described case studies and the law in local languages in a simplified and accessible manner. TISL has continued to visit communities conducting small pocket meetings, listening to people’s needs and brainstorming as to how people can use RTI creatively and at times collectively to resolve problems. TISL also facilitates constructive discussions with government counterparts.
RTI has been working in unforeseen ways in Sri Lanka. While it has in many instances led to information disclosure, government actors have been known to remediate issues causing discontent without disclosing information.
For example, the residents of Akkaraipaththu in Ampara made a complaint to the Medical Officer of Health (MOH), about garbage accumulation affecting 10 families and a school in Akkaraipaththu in May 2017. The issue was communicated to the President via the ‘Tell the President’ campaign in July 2017, but no action was taken. In January 2018, a RTI was filed, requesting information on the actions taken by the MOH pursuant to the complaint. Within four days of making the request, the garbage was cleared and the MOH even asked the citizen if he could withdraw his RTI.. The citizen has refused.
Another manner in which RTI has assisted the average citizen is that it has given them access where formerly she might have been stonewalled. The stringent timelines for disclosure stipulated in the law has ensured that citizens with a good understanding of the RTI process could follow a few simple and non-confrontational steps to hold a public institution accountable.
RTI is both weapon and deterrent, enforcer and protector. Stories of the law’s success have now begun trickling in from many parts of the country. It is eminently important that these hard-won victories continue to be used for the benefit of all.
Sankhita Gunaratne is a project manager at Transparency International Sri Lanka.
Recycling in Johannesburg has become compulsory as of last year due to persisting landfill issues. However, the new separation at the source initiative is threatening the livelihoods of thousands of informal waste pickers, whose contribution has gone unrecognised.
Listen to John Maytham’s discussion below on the impact this is having on the income of waste pickers.
Informal waste pickers in South Africa have been committed to improving the environment as well as their livelihoods. Waste pickers make an income by combing through waste and selling recyclables from cardboard and plastic bottles to metal, providing a useful service for thier communities.
Fin 24 reports that ‘now they are fighting, not only for recognition, but also for assistance to end their dependence on a series of “middlemen” companies that buy salvaged material to sell on to large corporations.’
Read Fin 24’s report on the waste pickers’ struggle for recognition here.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation’s segment documents the impact of privatisation of recycling on the waste picker community in South Africa and provides an illuminating discussion on how the waste picker community are treated in society.
Significant legislation has been passed in Pakistan that protects the rights of women to participate in political and electoral processes: 33 per cent of seats are reserved for women in local government and 17 per cent in provincial assemblies, national assemblies and the senate. Despite this progress, there are still 11.7 million more men on the electoral role than women. In 2017, the federal cabinet reformed electoral laws making it mandatory for political parties to allot five percent of their tickets to women candidates to boost women’s representation in political decision-making and law-making.
To support these reforms, Health and Rural Development (HARD) is seeking to improve the participation of women in politics and local governance in the Balochistan province by creating informal district assemblies to discuss the sociocultural, religious and structural impediments to women’s participation in politics in tandem with building the capacity of young women and their groups to engage in participatory governance and civic leadership. The young women are being encouraged to come forward and engage with the wider civic landscape including other civil society organisations and government. To support participation from the general public, a political resource centre for women to access information on civic and political rights, is being established. The resource centre provides guidance on registering for voting and obtaining the national identity card.
At the end of the project, it is expected that there will be increased participation of women in democratic processes at the local level; more women will be able to vote and contest elections; and there will be improved governance through the participation of more women.
HARD Balochistan is a 80% young women led organisation and registered in 1961 and 1860 Act as a non-governmental organisation in Pakistan, which is working on a broad range of issues from health, education, human rights, democratic governance to girls and women rights and advocacy. HARD has experience of working within the province of Balochistan for the empowerment of women and marginalised communities .
Adverse effects of climate change in South Asia threaten the livelihoods of individuals. Sustainable and green solutions are needed to mitigate disasters in the region with the help of those at the grassroots.
Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA), in cooperation with 149 local partners Janathakshan in Sri Lanka and Poorvanchal Gramin Vikas Sansathan (PGVS) in India, is supporting the domestication of the international climate change plans so they tangibly benefit local communities in Sri Lanka and India.
The project is focusing its intervention on four development sectors: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Education, Nutrition and Health across India and Sri Lanka in the regions of Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha in India and the provinces of Western, Eastern and North Western Sri Lanka. CANSA is undertaking a careful analysis of government plans at the sub-national level to determine the extent in which climate resilient action is included, before building the capacity of local government and civil society organisations to access funds, collaborating to design and implement recommendations and gather and disseminate good practices to promote replication by other states and provinces.
By the end of the project sub-national level governments in target states and provinces will have developed plans and interventions that can better contribute to localising international commitments to fight climate change.
Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA), in cooperation with 149 local partners Janathakshan in Sri Lanka and Poorvanchal Gramin Vikas Sansathan (PGVS) in India, is supporting the domestication of the international climate change plans so they tangibly benefit local communities in Sri Lanka and India. It works towards linking policy, research and action based work in the region to address the adverse effects of climate change on the region. The network has been working with its members to convert international decisions into actions at national and sub-national level. As the only network on climate change in the region, CANSA has been working to promote the voices of CSOs from South Asia in regional and global forums, including at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Janathakshan seeks to promote sustainable and green solutions in development to Sri Lanka and beyond. Its main areas of focus include sustainable energy, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. The organisation works at grassroots level on policy advocacy around climate change issues. It has been following up and engaging in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change processes.
PGVS has been working in India since 1987 on development and humanitarian response. Its main areas of work are disaster preparedness and risk reduction and emergency action in disaster situations. PGVS seeks to mobilise local communities to engage critical thinking and action for developmental issues.
In Papua New Guinea, the informal economy is central to the livelihoods of approximately 80 to 85% of the population. The informal economy revolves around women’s food production, distribution and trade, and street trading. Since early 2000s, the Papua New Guinea government has made efforts to develop laws and policies for the promotion and protection of the informal economy. The Informal Sector Development and Control Act 2004 opened the doors to legalise informal trade by facilitating and encouraging the development of informal businesses in urban and rural areas. However, challenges in implementing laws and policies at provincial and local government level have resulted in vendors, who are mostly women, sometimes working in unsafe and unhealthy environments.
PPPA, alongside partner organisations, is using a comprehensive approach to improve conditions for informal vendors. They are strengthening the capacity of the vendors to better understand the relevant laws and policies and to be able to plan, organise and advocate with local governments, and strengthening the knowledge of provincial and local governments on relevant laws and policies, as well as facilitating gender sensitising and social inclusion trainings. Meetings are being facilitated between the vendors, their organisations, local government and key stakeholders on the collection, analysis and the use of data in support of enhanced planning. The scheme is also piloting a new model of participatory governance, in local informal economy development, through the development of a business case that can be scaled up for replication by provincial and national governments.
At the end of the project, it is expected that East Sepik and Jiwaka provinces will be more committed to effective local implementation of the relevant laws and policies, with informal vendors benefitting from a safer and more conducive working environment.
Photo Credit: HELP Resources
Pacific People’s Partnership Association (PPPA), has been working in the South Pacific region for over forty years mainly in the areas of peace building, environmental sustainability, social justice and community development. PPPA is currently focused on promoting climate resilience and gender equity in South Pacific communities, and on facilitating knowledge exchange between Pacific Islanders and the Indigenous peoples of Australia, New Zealand and Canada. www.ckc.victoriafoundation.bc.ca/org/pacific-peoples-partnership-association
HELP Resources, established 1999, has experience of working on human rights, gender equality and social development. HELP Resources has served as a partner working on projects with PPPA, for more than a decade particularly in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. In the past, HELP Resources has been supported by UNICEF, UNDP, DFAT Australia and New Zealand Aid.
Voice for Change, established in 2003, has grown from a small NGO working with rural women famers to become a provincial NGO working on advocacy, women’s empowerment and gender based violence. VFC has been successful in mobilising men and women in a major campaign to against violent conflict and violence against women. VFC has received funding support from Global Fund for Women, OXFAM PNG, and the UN Global Trust Fund.
Australia Volunteers International, is an Australian not-for-profit organisation committed to achieving economic and social development outcomes by connecting people to share experience and knowledge. They have experience of providing technical assistance to local NGOs in Papua New Guinea and are able to contribute to bring about economic, social and environmental change for communities.
Discover grant and job opportunities, stories from civil society and updates on our work