Nigeria: Media Rights Agenda (MRA) will host
a two-day Africa Regional Conference on Freedom of Information
Implementation on March 18 and 19, 2014 in Abuja, the Federal Capital
Territory, to design strategies for enhancing the effectiveness of access to
information laws on the continent.
The Conference
will bring together over 100 Freedom of Information stakeholders, including
civil society organizations, media stakeholders, public institutions and FOI
oversight bodies, from across Africa for the two-day meeting. It will provide a
platform where experience from different countries on the implementation of
Freedom of Information laws can be shared; assess the level of implementation
of existing Freedom of Information laws in the different countries that already
have access to information legislation; identify and discuss the challenges of implementation
in the different countries and discuss ways in which the challenges have been
addressed: this will give the Nigerian participants an opportunity to learn
from these experiences.
The Conference,
whose theme is “Advancing Freedom of Information Implementation on the African
Continent”, is expected to be declared open by the Attorney-General of the
Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), while
Major-General Chris Olukolade, Nigeria’s Director of Defence Information, will
deliver the keynote address.
The Conference
is supported by the Democratic Governance for Development (DGD II) Project, a
joint donor-funded project managed by the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) in support of deepening democracy in Nigeria. It is funded with
contributions from the European Union (EU), the UK Department for International
Development (DFID), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the
Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and UNDP.
The broad objective of the Conference is to bring together key
stakeholders from the West African sub-region and other parts of Africa to
share experiences in implementing their FOI laws; collectively identify the
challenges confronting the effective implementation of Freedom of Information
laws in their countries and find ways of addressing or mitigating
them.
Other
objectives of the Conference are:
¨ To bring
together oversight bodies and authorities with responsibility for Freedom of
Information laws and provide them with a platform for sharing experiences,
building linkages for longer-term networking through which they can provide
support and assistance to each other in the performance of their oversight
functions;
¨
To bring
together representatives of public institutions covering all branches of
government to share experiences of critical policy and institutional reforms
that are necessary to ensure compliance by public institutions with the
provisions of the FOI laws and their overall effective implementation; and
¨ To bring
together civil society actors, including media stakeholders, on Freedom of
Information issues from across West Africa and other parts of the continent to
share experiences of their challenges in the implementation of the freedom of
information laws, discuss their roles in ensuring the effective implementation
of the laws and discuss various strategies that can be deployed in this regard.
The Conference
will end with a broad strategy document incorporating the roles and approaches
of various stakeholders in the implementation of FOI Laws.
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