Methodology to assess RTI implementation launched

PESHAWAR: The methodology to assess Right to Information (RTI) law’s implementation in Pakistan was launched here on Thursday.

The methodology is a sophisticated tool for assessing the quality of implementation of RTI laws, a press release said.

The Centre for Law and Democracy Canada (CLD) has been working over a period of about one and a half years, 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.

Chief Commissioner for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Commission Azmat Hanif Orakzai while speaking at the methodology launching event said: “This is the first comprehensive tool that has ever been developed for assessing how well RTI laws are being implemented.”

Toby Mendel, executive director, CLD, stated that “We are really pleased to have been able to work on this with the Information Commission and other stakeholders in Pakistan and we now plan to roll this out globally.”

The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Indicator 16.10.2 looks at whether states have adopted and implemented RTI legislation. The RTI rating indicates which countries have adopted laws and how strong those laws are.

However, assessing how well countries are doing in terms of implementing their laws, the second part of indicator 16.10.2, is far more complicated and this methodology addresses that issue, filling thereby a gap in the assessment framework. There are current plans to run a pilot assessment using the methodology in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.The methodology has been developed in the context of Pakistan, but it is easily adaptable to other countries. The CLD plans to develop a global version of the methodology soon and then to apply it in other countries. The methodology has been developed with the technical support of the German Development Cooperation and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.