The Access to Information (ATI) committee of the African Network of Constitutional Lawyers (ANCL) has launched a new publication on transparency and accountability in Africa entitled Access to Information in Africa; Law, Culture and Practice.
The publication details progress made and setbacks suffered in the application and implementation of access to information from an African perspective.
Senegalese constitutionalist, Fatima Diallo of the African Studies Centre in Leiden University and South African activist, Richard Calland of the University of Cape Town in South Africa, are the editors and they are hopeful that the book will boost the debate around ATI and transparency issues in Africa and elsewhere.
The editors are positive that the book will be beneficial to anyone interested in transparency and accountability in Africa, and anyone concerned with the practice or study of access to information or advocacy in support of the right in Africa.
The editors said: “For a long time, Africa has ‘lagged’ behind global advance in transparency, but there are now significant developments on the continent and this book captures such significant developments.”
The book accounts for the challenges and obstacles that confront both policy-makers and practitioners.
According to the editors, “There is need for these challenges to be resolved if greater public access to information is to make a distinctive, positive contribution to the continents democratic and socio-economic future.”
Access to Information in Africa is a collective contribution of African academics and practitioners to a growing body of scholarship that is now accumulating internationally. It offers a multi-dimensional perspective on the state of ATI in African jurisdictions.
The three-part book extensively discusses Access to Information: Theoretical Challenges in the African Context, Thematic Studies: Statistics, Internet, EITI and ATI, and ATI Regional Context and Country Studies.
