Hi Ken,

1. The worksheets are where you will find the guidance for how to assess “reasonableness”. Keep in mind that these are perception-based indicators. Short of conducting a major house to house survey, it would be impossible to obtain “objective” data to answer governance questions. Indeed, the UNDP Oslo Governance Centre is developing such indicators. But, believe me, those would have to be administered through government agencies - not NGOs. The worksheet for the indicator you refer to can be accessed at: http://research.accessinitiative.org/?module=research.resear.... In the worksheet, research guidelines help define what to look for. For example “reasonableness” is defined in the indicator 69 worksheet as follows- “Reasonable” is considered 2-4 weeks for a public comment period. The reasonableness will also depend on the length and level of technicality of the information to be reviewed by the public. If the length of the public comment period in your case was at least 4 weeks, then select value “Length of public comment period adequate.”

2. Published country reports can be found at: http://research.accessinitiative.org/?module=findings&set_v=.... However, the country reports for Tanzania are not up yet as it is undergoing final reviews. You can view TAI partners in various countries at: http://www.accessinitiative.org/partners

Hope this helps.

Lalanath

Hi Ken, Welcome to the discussion, and it is really good that you enrich with your “fresh eye” and comments our internal debates. As Lalanath mentioned, the indicators are sometimes perception-based, but this is no way a decrease of their value. The matter is sometimes WHOSE perception it is. And since TAI builds on the exprience of many access practitioners, their evaluation has much more to it than a simple yes/no or a number ranging from 1 to 5. Another acknowledged example is Transparency International whose survey is frenquently referred to as the Corruption Index of countries. Many forget that it is CPI, Corruption Perception Index and the key is who are asked about their perceptions re corruption in a country. They are the key stakeholders, so is the case with TAI and environmental governance. Best, CS

Does anybody know when exactly the annual Capacity Building meeting of the Aarhus Convention Secretariat will be this year (in Geneva)?

Dear All, I want to post this comment to the Plaza Latina also (if I ever get a permission to access) but it may be of relevance for a broader community (I have to apologize for the extremely long delay in posting this message).

Having met Maria Ortiz from UNITAR (I think, they are physically based in Geneva at the UNEP offices), I learned that UNITAR is active in assessing access rights implementation in certain countries.

There are 3 countries in Central America where UNITAR prepares national profiles on the implementation of access rights. Around the end of last year they held a meeting with appr. 200 participants in this topic. The funding comes from the Spanish government. +4 countries will start the preparation of the profiles soon. All profiles focus on P10 implementation. Also at the African Environmental Ministers Conference where 20 countries participated, 3 countries start a similar project. In 2010, UNITAR plans a conference on this issue. They also want to develop a methodology on participation, and offer an e-learning course and a toolkit on this.

Also at the UNECE Geneva meeting the diverse methodologies of assessing access rights implementation were kind-of prioritized, as follows:

Aarhus Convention National Implementation Report: government self-evaluation TAI: independent CSO evaluation UNITAR National Profiles: multi-stakeholder evaluation

Some voices were raised that the direction of development is towards the last… Any views on this?

dr. Csaba Kiss Director EMLA

ps: The representative of the EC, Daniele Franzone said that there is no interest in the Latin American governments towards access issues, whenever the EC approaches the region with such initiatives. I will ask the Latinos/Latinas to confirm or reject this view at Plaza Latina, too.