TAI Updates

NOVEMBER 2002

NATIONAL ASSESSMENTS
We are pleased to report that all partners have finalized their national assessments or are very close to doing so. Most of the documents mentioned below are available on the Access Initiative website at www.accessinitiative.org

• Hungary: EMLA, Hungarian Environmental Partnership Foundation, and Miskolc Institute for Sustainable Development have finalized the Hungarian national assessment and produced both an English and Hungarian version.
  
• South Africa: EJNF and ELMC are in the process of finalizing the South African assessment and will publish it along with the recommendations of a recent national workshop in a brochure
  
• Mexico: TAI-Mexico has has published the Mexican national report in the form of a CD-ROM.
  
• Chile: Corporación Participa, CIPMA, and Fundación TERRAM have finalized the Chilean national assessment.
  
• Thailand: TEI, King Prajadhipok's Institute, and NGO-Coordinating Committee on Development have completed the Thai national report and are about to produce an English version of the document as well.
  
• Indonesia ICEL will finalize the Indonesian national report within the next two weeks.
  
• USA: The Environmental Law Institute, Silocon Valley Toxic's Coalition, and Ohio Citizen Action published a preliminary TAI-USA report for the World Summit and will launch the final report in early 2003.
  
• Uganda: Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment, together with Agricultural Cooperative Development International and Uganda Wildlife Societ, have published the Uganda assessment.

OUTREACH AND STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT
Outreach to other civil society organizations and other important target groups has been a main focus for TAI partners.

• In Chile, Participa organized a training workshop with representatives from 21 non-governmental organizations to inform them about TAI's work at the national and international level as well as to review the Guide for citizens who ask for access to environmental information. Following this meeting, participating NGOs expressed the willingness to collaborate on future TAI activities, opening the possibility for further expansion within Chile.
  
• In Hungary, EMLA targeted not only other Hungarian NGOs with outreach events but also Hungarian lawyers.
  
• In Mexico, CEDMA designed and produced a TV spot that sought to foster awareness of the importance of the World Summit on Sustainable Development and Mexico's participation in it. The spot was broadcasted on eight different channels.
  
• In Thailand, Dr. Somrudee Nicro and Prof. Dr. Thonchai Panswad have been actively organizing several post-Summit outreach activities in Thailand, holding press meetings regarding the WSSD outcomes, publishing newspaper articles about the Partnership for Principle 10 and the WSSD, and expanding the TEI web site, specifically by adding information on PP10. In addition, Dr. Somrudee Nicro presented TAI to an EU delegate. The delegate also provided advice on the opportunity to ask for financial support from the EU for TAI outreach activities in Thailand.

Parners continue to strengthen their working relationships with each other. Godber Tumushabe from ACODE has accepted an invitation from EJNF to attend a workshop in Johannesburg in late November to give a presentation on the outcomes of the WSSD as they relate to the access principles and corporate governance.

• In South Africa, EJNF organized a national workshop targeting major NGOs that are not part of the Forum to inform them about TAI's work. Furthermore, EJNF has distributed the findings of the South African national assessment to its members as well as to other NGOs. The organization has also been in discussions with the South African Human Rights Commission about how to take TAI's work further in South Africa. The prospects for further collaboration, which will build on the South African national report and on the results of the national workshop, are excellent. EJNF has also begun to engage the Department of Environmental Affairs in discussions about TAI and will continue these conversations after the results of the national workshop have been released.
  
  
• In Indonesia, ICEL organized a series of worshops and similar events to inform a variety of stakeholders about regulations on access to information and to engage them in relevant activities. In addition, ICEL met with representatives from the Indonesian government to further their work on the Right of Freedom of Information law. ICEL has held several training sessions and workshops for members of the judiciary. Furthermore, ICEL organized several meetings with the media. Particularly noteworthy is the publication of a special report in Komaps, the biggest daily newspaper in Indonesia, on the implications of the WSSD. Finally, in a meeting with the Minster of Environment to discuss a program aimed to support local governments in developing their practices, Mas Achmad Santosa and Wiwiek Awiati presented TAI indicators.
  

REGIONAL ACTIVITIES
Representatives from two TAI partners, Elena Petkova (WRI) and Sándor Fülöp (EMLA), attended the First Meeting of the Parties to the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters in Lucca, Italy. The proceedings of the conference mentioned The Access Initiative favorably. The European EcoForum Conference, held in conjunction with the MoP, provided an ideal venue for a presentation on PP10 and TAI, laying important groundwork for TAI's expansion into Europe.

In Santiago, Corporación Participa and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) co-hosted a seminar attended by government representatives from Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Mexico as well as representatives of CEPAL, PNUD, and the Secretariat of the Aarhus Convention. NGOs from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, and the United States also attended. The event promoted a dialogue about the access principles among governments and organizations in Latin America. The attendees developed proposals about the alignment of regulatory frameworks, integral management of access systems, capacity building and exchange mechanisms to advance action on the national and international levels.


PARTNERSHIP FOR PRINCIPLE 10
TAI Partners have been engaging governments in dialogue about the Partnership for Principle 10. Highlights are as follows:

• Corporación Participa organized a first meeting with the Chilean Government to design an Action Plan to meet the commitments of the Partnership for Principle 10. Attendees discussed studies on available and needed environmental information, the development of training programs, and a pilot project. Subsequent meetings to finalize the action plan are scheduled for the near future.
  
• TEI presented the Partnership for Principle 10 to the Office of Environmental Policy and Planning, an agency that will take the lead in deciding if the Thai government will join the Partnership. Following TEI's invitation to attend the PP10 launch event in Johannesburg, OEPP began to prepare a report on WSSD outcomes that will be critical in defining the implementation of these outcomes in Thailand. Due to a restructuring process of the Thai government, this process is currently on hold, but is expected to resume in the near future.
  
• EMLA has begun to engage the Ministry of Environment, Hungary, by presenting TAI's work to representatives of the ministry.
  
• ACODE has been able to do important groundwork in Uganda. The organization has been invited to be a member of a National Committee formed by the Uganda government whose purpose it is to follow up on the implementation of the WSSD Plan of Implementation. The government has also agreed to convene a National Subcommittee to implement the National Action Plan for Principle 10.
  
• The United Kingdom, Sweden, the European Commission, the Italian government and the World Bank are currently working with us on their specific commitments to the Partnership.

The process of engaging governments, intergovernmental agencies, other NGO's will be especially critical in the next few weeks, as the deadline for joining PP10 is approaching quickly. As a reminder, the deadline for submitting commitments to the Partnership is December 15, 2002.

HOW-TO GUIDE
The TAI team was able to make significant progress on the How-To Guide, which contains TAI's methodology along with instructions for conducting a national assessment. Currently, final revisions to the content are being made and we expect the final draft to go into internal and external review in mid-December. If you are interested in participating in the review, please contact Gloria Bruce at GBruce@wri.org or at 202-729-7709 at your earliest convenience.


FUNDING
We are delighted to report that we have received a grant of over $110,000 from the Nathan Cummings Foundation to support the work of TAI in the United States. The funds will be used for the US national report, community workshops and the US participation in PP10. TAI-USA partners are the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and Ohio Citizen Action and its research sister, Citizens Policy Center.

The Italian government has awarded us a grant of $20,000 for the PP10 Secretariat.