The Canada-based international non-governmental organization, Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD), has launched a methodology for assessing right to information implementation at a workshop in Islamabad, Pakistan.
The methodology, a sophisticated tool for assessing the quality of implementation of right to information (RTI), was developed by CLD over a period of about one and one-half years, working in close collaboration with the Information Commissions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces in Pakistan as well as other local stakeholders, to develop this methodology.
This methodology addresses the more complicated second part of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Indicator 16.10.2 by filling a gap in the assessment framework. It addresses the issue of assessing how well countries are doing in terms of implementing their laws. SDG Indicator 16.10.2 looks at whether States have adopted and implemented Right to Information legislation.
Though the Methodology was developed in the context of Pakistan, it can easily be adapted to other countries’ right to information law implementation and CLD plans to run a pilot assessment using the methodology in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.
CLD plans to develop the global version of the methodology soon and then to apply it in other countries. The Methodology was developed with the technical support of the German Development Cooperation and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.The methodology is available for download at: https://www.law-democracy.org/live/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Methodology.19-02-18.pdf.
