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The purpose of this indicator is to enable a wide population with public access to information.

The focus of this indicator is thus on the status of adoption and implementation of constitutional, statutory and/or policy guarantees for public access to information. The definition relates directly to “public access to information”, which is wider than, but is also very much based upon, the established fundamental freedoms of expression and association. Conversely, these freedoms also both impact on the environment for public access to information.

UNDP

UNDP

Annual

Number of countries

For this indicator, the operative words are “adoption” and “implementation”. As such, it establishes: (a) whether a country (or at the global level, the number of countries) has constitutional, statutory and/or policy guarantees for public access to information; (b) the extent to which such national guarantees reflect ‘international agreements’ (e.g. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, etc.); and (c) the implementation mechanisms in place for such guarantees, including the following variables:

• Government efforts to publicly promote the right to information.
• Citizens’ awareness of their legal right to information and their ability to utilize it effectively.
• The capacity of public bodies to provide information upon request by the public.

This indicator collates data from multiple sources, including National Human Rights Institutions, national and international non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, and national media regulatory authorities, among others. Such information will be gathered, processed and checked by international organizations - UNESCO and World Bank.

Public access to information refers to “the presence of a robust system through which information is made available to citizens and others.” Such a system represents a combination of intellectual, physical, and social elements that affect the availability of information to individuals.

Freedom of Information laws (FOI laws) are aimed at allowing access by the general public to data held by national governments and, increasingly, by private companies whose work intersect with government operations. The emergence of freedom of information legislation was a response to increasing dissatisfaction with the secrecy surrounding government policy development and decision making. They establish a "right-to-know" legal process by which requests may be made for government-held information, to be received freely or at minimal cost, barring standard exceptions. Such a formulation has a basis in international agreements.

The indicator can be disaggregated in terms of the extent to which the residence of citizens affects their ability to access information (e.g. how do rural, peri-rural, urban and peri-urban dwellers access information from public bodies). It can also be disaggregated in terms of whether gender influences ability to access information. Furthermore, aspects of how disability affects public access to information can also be assessed.

The method of computation is both quantitative and qualitative, with data generated from a global review of existing surveys (e.g. UNESCO's World Trends in Freedom of Expression & Media Development reports, etc.), administrative records, expert assessments (e.g. World Justice Open Government Index), etc. More specifically, the following key variables will be assessed:

1. Does a country have constitutional, statutory and/or policy guarantees for public access to information?
2. Do those constitutional, statutory and/or policy guarantees reflect known international agreements (e.g. the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, etc.)?
3. What implementation mechanisms are in place to ensure that such guarantees work optimally?

To address these questions, the following will serve as performance sub-indicators:

• National law or constitutional guarantee on the right to information
• Country has signed and ratified relevant treaty obligations, with no significant exemptions, and these are reflected, to the extent possible, in domestic FOI legislation
• Public is aware of and exercises right to access official information
• Public bodies release information both pro-actively and on demand
• Effective and efficient appeals mechanism via independent administrative body e.g. information commissioner or ombudsman
• Any restriction on grounds of protection of personal privacy is narrowly defined so as to exclude information in which there is no justifiable public interest.

The means of verification will include:

• Any law or policy on right to information that accords with international standards
• Reports from credible agencies/experts about right to information guarantees and the extent to which they reflect international standards/agreements
• Policies of public bodies concerning release of information (which ensure readily, freely available public access to information, including online)
• Evidence of state commitment to open government e.g. publication and dissemination of laws, court decisions, parliamentary proceedings, spending programmes (vis-à-vis SDG undertakings)
• Statistical information about public requests for official information and their fulfilment or rejection
• Statistical information about appeals or complaints over information requests that have been refused

This indicator is used to help implement legislation and policy on public access.

This indicator does not assess the totality of “public access to information” component of the full Target of 16.10.

All the metadata shown was gathered from United Nation Statistics Division. The metadata was extracted from https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/.