As part of the World Bank’s support to the adoption and implementation of Access to Information legislation in the LAC region, a workshop on “Lessons learned on Access to Information Implementation” took place in Mexico City, on October 22-25, 2007. Government officials responsible for access to information (ATI) implementation as well as representatives from government and civil society from Argentina, Dominican Republic and Honduras participated in the event co-organized by the LAC Public Sector Group, the World Bank Institute and Mexico’s Federal Institute for Access to Information (IFAI). 

The objectives of the workshop were: i) to expose the three delegations to the achievements and challenges that Mexico has experienced in the adoption and implementation of ATI legislation; ii) to facilitate the dialogue between access to information practitioners—within government institutions and civil society organizations— in Argentina, Dominican Republic and Honduras, and develop feasible short-term action plans to advance implementation of ATI legislations; and iii) to establish a regional peer learning network and promote signing of cooperation agreements with IFAI.

Mexico’s experience in ATI implementation is considered international best practice and the three participating countries are at early yet different implementation stages. In addition to Mexico’s experience, previous joint activities between IFAI and WB as well as the outstanding support provided by WB CO in Mexico facilitated the workshop. This event is part of the ongoing support that the World Bank is providing to ATI implementation through different instruments. Argentina is currently implementing a presidential decree on access to information for the federal executive branch and the State Modernization II loan includes a component to support its implementation. In the Dominican Republic legislation was adopted and draft legislation to establish a regulatory body has been submitted to Congress. A JSDF grant has been awarded to this country to support the demand side of transparency by disseminating content of ATI legislation in areas outside the capital and facilitating its use by poor communities. Finally, Honduran Congress recently adopted ATI legislation and appointed Access to Information Commisioners that just reached its first 50 days of operation; an IDF grant will provide support to consolidate this newly created institute.

The activities entailed in this event included several presentations by IFAI’s Information Commissioners and Directors of different departments; a breakfast meeting with members of the Mexican Congress and Access to Information Commissioners of different Mexican States aimed at examining a wide range of experiences; attendance to the event at Congress where the handbook on Good Practices was submitted, attendance to an IFAI’s commissioners weekly public deliberation forum (pleno); a lunch meeting with members of the Supreme Court on transparency of the judicial branch; meetings with Mexican organizations of civil society; visits to ATI units in various government agencies; and a working session at the WB office in Mexico were each delegation developed an action plan to advance ATI in their countries.

Consequently, several outcomes could be highlighted. First, the ATI practitioners from the three delegations gained a clear understanding on how Mexican legislation and the IFAI work and the challenges ahead for the implementation of the law at the Federal and State level. In addition, links between IFAI and the three delegations were strengthened, leading to bi-national cooperation agreements. The three delegations developed feasible action plans to be implemented by the participant institutions and identified good practices from the Mexican case that could be replicated in their respective countries, such as the electronic information request system and the transparency portal for disclosing information without previous request. Finally, all participants agreed on organizing dissemination events, upon return to their countries, to present the outcomes of this workshop and to foster ATI implementation.

Agenda | List of participants