Improve Implementation of Right to Access to Information (SL0026)

What is the public problem that the commitment will address?
A number of data initiatives have been conducted to assess
the data ecosystem in Sierra Leone. These include:
 Data assessment conducted as part of the Open Data
Readiness Assessment Report for Sierra Leone
 Post-2015 Data Test (under the auspices of Southern
Voice)
 Data Revolution and Roadmap report on the
Sustainable Development Goals
In addition, best practices suggest that there are often major
projects being conducted through government that have
inherent data dependencies, either in its development or need.
The Proactive Disclosure component of the Right to Access
Information Act 2013 governs all public authorities.
Specifically, in Part 2 Section 8 (1), the Act delineates a
minimum of 22 classes of information that will form the core
proactive publication for every public authority in the country.
This law aims to advance transparency and accountability
among all government ministries, departments and agencies
by implementing the law, as enacted. In 2018/2019, ten
Ministries, Departments and Agencies were targeted
through a World Bank funded Public Financial Management
Integrated Consolidated Project (PFMICP) to produce
publication schemes. Notably amongst them was Statistics
Sierra Leone which sits on 43% of official statistics and
amongst the first to produce a publication scheme.
This commitment aims to upscale work done to include more
Ministries, Departments and Agencies and non-state actors
with a gendered lens and the notion of leaving no one
behind. This commitment will also consider previous studies
and available data sources and conduct a rapid data
inventory exercise across core institutions and stakeholders
to better understand the data topics currently available and
quality. Twenty (20) key Ministries, Department and
Agencies and ten (10) non state actors will participate and
will be required to produce a proactive publication scheme
on data availability and publication schedules on the open
data portal. A number of tools will be applied in the publication scheme
to assess overall coverage including the Carter Foundation
Implementation Assessment Tool, Open Data Barometer,
Open Data Index, Open Data Inventory, the Carter Center
Gender the Minimum Essential Data Package available as a
module through the Global Partnership for Sustainable
Development Toolbox and the IAEG SDG Data Indicators
list. The intent is to be able to capture high-value data (in
terms of its potential use), understand who produces and
uses data, capture data quality issues, and collect data to
pilot how data coordination and sharing can take place
across institutions and stakeholders. This activity will further
refine assumptions in previous studies, align to the SDGs
and further populate the open data portal illustrating
potential use cases and value of open data. Proactive
publication of information/data is the mainstay of timely
availability of data. However, publication schemes have to
be tailored to the specific operations of each Ministries,
Department and Agency.
Demand-side stakeholders will also be trained on data
literacy, for them to effectively use and interpret the data
available. Due to the major shifts in society driven by
technological advances in the collection, analysis and use of
large data sets that has become commonplace, civil society
organizations (non-state actors) need training and support
to keep pace with global developments in the private and
public sectors, so that they can continue to mediate between
increasingly complex social groups and sectors in a
digitalized future. The representation of the interests of civil
society actors and their beneficiaries in a data-driven polity,
and the development of innovative, robust and scalable
solutions to social problems will all increasingly require data
literacy from civil society organizations’ that is currently not
there.
In Sierra Leone, women are often excluded from the flow of
information, both essential and strategic information as
evidenced in the ‘Multi Sector Impact Assessment of Gender
Dimensions of the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone’. Limited
access to information inhibits women’s physical, economic,
political autonomy, the reduction or elimination of structural
obstacles, negative attitudes and perceptions of women,
and gender based violence.
This commitment will therefore address more effective
management of public resources and will also increase
gender inclusion and accountability in Sierra Leone. This
commitment will support the advancement of a robust and effective access to information regime and improve access
to information for women and girls in Sierra Leone.

What is the commitment?
Increase the right to access information for all Sierra Leoneans
Access to Information, as defined by OGP’s Access to
Information Working Group Plan 2015, is established on
the foundation that public information is a crucial
component to open government, and “therefore a focus
must be placed on enhancing the capacities of both
institutions and society to identify, publish and disseminate
useful information.” The plan also communicated access to
information as a staple of OGP’s principles that when
utilized, “is crucial to addressing the most pressing social
needs, solving public problems, and improving the
effectiveness of government institutions.”
This commitment therefore will improve:
 Proactive Disclosure of information held by public
authorities.
 Improved access to information for women and girls.
 Timely and accurate reporting on the sustainable
development goals indicators and the national
agenda through open data.
 Effectiveness of public institutions by strengthening
the whole of government and multiple stakeholders.

How will the commitment contribute to solving the public problem?
The Right to Access Information Commission established
the National Open Data Council (ODC) of Sierra Leone to
push the frontiers of Open data and ensure that greater
awareness and compliance is achieved, by all Public
Authorities, in proactively strengthening availability and
access to quality data and information, by the general public.
This can only happen if all the key mechanisms are
strengthened and strategic and concerted efforts are made
by all stakeholders to achieve a society that subsist on
quality, accessible and trustable open data and information
required for quality decision making. The requirement for
achieving a free, fair and just society points to the rightful
access by society members to relevant quality data that is
open.
The proactive disclosure of information and leaving no one
behind approach empowers citizenry who requires a
sustainable development of their circumstances by all
actors. Proactive disclosure and other means of making
information accessible to women will allow women to make
meaningful and informed decisions, engage authorities, and
improve their socio-economic conditions. Additional data on
women’s access to information allows stakeholders working
in various sectors to refine their interventions aimed at
empowering and improving development outcomes for
women.

Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values?
Access to quality, timely and user-friendly datasets and
institutional information required by government, at all levels,
for policy and evidence-based decision-making, is a major
challenge for most government, non-governmental and
public institutions. Data and information that speaks to
indicators in the country’s National Development Plan that
are aligned with the SDGs and expected to be reported on
by MDAs, are difficult to access and use. Moreover,
information on specific operational dimensions of the MDAs
are also difficult to access which leads to less transparency,
ineffective governance and poor accountability which
impacts negatively on sustainable development. Additional
challenges include data quality, effective sustainable access
and inappropriate leveraging of technology to provide better
access and management of the high priority datasets and
information.
This commitment therefore recommends
Access to information: With the notion of leaving no one
behind, every Sierra Leonean will have access to
information held by Public Authorities.
Public accountability: Public Authorities will account for
information held by them in a user friendly manner.

5. Access to Information

Main Objective

Increase the right to access information for all Sierra Leoneans: Access to Information, as defined by OGP’s Access to Information Working Group Plan 2015, is established on the foundation that public information is a crucial component to open government, and “therefore a focus must be placed on enhancing the capacities of both institutions and society to identify, publish and disseminate useful information.” The plan also communicated access to information as a staple of OGP’s principles that when utilized, “is crucial to addressing the most pressing social needs, solving public problems, and improving the effectiveness of government institutions.”

This commitment therefore will improve:

• Proactive Disclosure of information held by public authorities
• Improved access to information for women and girls
• Timely and accurate reporting on the sustainable development goals indicators and the national agenda through open data
• Effectiveness of public institutions by strengthening the whole of government and multiple stakeholders

Milestones

• The Right to Access Information Commission to prepare annual and special reports on women’s right of access to information to the Government of Sierra Leone, UN and Regional Special Rapporteurs, Working Groups, and Independent Experts
• 20 Public Authorities develop, identify and proactively disclose information and data sets meaningful for women
• 20 Public Authorities should place information in spaces accessible to all women through modes and means (language, formats, presentation, simplified language) that allow women to access and use the information, particularly marginalized women
• 60 Ministries, Department and Agencies to identify and produce a designation of public employees to serve as Public Information Officers
• 60 Ministries, Department and Agencies to adopt internal rules on freedom of information, and include access to information budget lines in their annual national budgets
• Improve access to data held by the Finance, Education, Health, Agriculture and Climate sectors through the Open Data Portal
• 60 Ministries, Departments and Agencies and 10 Civil Society produce a proactive Disclosure scheme
• Develop and ratify an Open Data Policy for Sierra Leone

Editorial Note: For the complete text of this commitment, please see Sierra Leone’s action plan at (https://bit.ly/3bPiqwh).

Commitment Analysis

This commitment aims to upscale proactive disclosure of information held by public authorities, specifically focusing on improved access to information for women and girls and timely and accurate reporting on the Sustainable Development Goals. ^[53] Despite a colonial legal legacy that restricted or censured the disclosure of information, Sierra Leone has endorsed access to information as a key element of open government, and has recognized the significance of a well-functioning data ecosystem. ^[54] However, despite a mandatory legal provision, proactive disclosure of government-held information is limited and only a handful of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) have developed proactive publication schemes. ^[55]

Further, in Sierra Leone women are often excluded from the flow of information. For example, during the 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak, the lack of sex-disaggregated data and access to acceptable healthcare information compounded existing gender inequalities in a context where women were more susceptible to infection as a result of their traditional caregiving roles. ^[56] Specific issues that are exacerbated by women and girls’ limited access to information include unemployment and underemployment, ^[57] gender-based violence, access to education, ^[58] access to justice, ^[59] maternal and child health, and the participation of women in political and economic institutions. Many stakeholders in Sierra Leone are working on gender-based issues, but information is often fragmented and not easy to reuse. ^[60] Finally, Sierra Leone’s participation in the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data initiative underscored that notwithstanding a number of activities and national strategies, a lot of work still lay ahead to realize the “data revolution” necessary to track achievement of the SDGs. ^[61]

The commitment tackles limited proactive disclosure and the lack of a gendered access to information lens through a three-pronged strategy. It focuses firstly on measures to strengthen internal systems and processes in MDAs (and even a small number of civil society organizations), such as assistance in developing proactive publication schemes, appointing public information officers, adopting internal rules, and including access to information budget lines. Secondly, it requires a limited number of public authorities (20) to focus on producing and proactively disclosing datasets meaningful to women, and making information more accessible to women. It also mandates the Right of Access Information Commission (RAIC) to prepare annual and special reports on women’s right of access to information from the government and a variety of international oversight institutions. Thirdly, it seeks to advance the open data agenda by adding datasets on finance, education, health, agriculture, and climate to the existing Open Data Portal, and developing and ratifying an open data policy.

This commitment is relevant to the OGP value of access to information, as it will strengthen the institutional mechanisms for proactive disclosure of information on the part of government and civil society, and add to the datasets already available on the Open Data Portal. It also calls upon some public authorities to expand the modes, means, and spaces for making information accessible to women.

At the time the commitment was designed, colonial-era laws (in particular, the Official Secrets Act, 2011 and the Public Order Act, 1965) remained in force. However, the Right to Access Information Act, 2013 made the proactive disclosure of 22 classes of information mandatory, ^[62] and obligated all public authorities to adopt a publication scheme for approval by the RAIC. ^[63] By 2018/2019, ten MDAs had developed publication schemes with funding assistance from the World Bank. ^[64] In 2016, Sierra Leone established an Open Data Council, ^[65] completed an Open Data Readiness Assessment, and acceded to the International Open Data Charter. ^[66]

If fully implemented as written, the potential impact of this commitment will be minor. The commitment will be an incremental but positive step to improve the extent of proactive disclosure, as it will expand the number of MDA proactive publication schemes six-fold and strengthen internal systems. It will also serve as an incremental and positive step to address women’s lack of access to information by mandating 20 MDAs to produce datasets meaningful to women and improving the modalities by which women access information. However, the commitment does not engage citizens, particularly women, in implementing access to information efforts. It therefore misses out on a critical opportunity to leverage civic participation for impactful and comprehensive access to information reform.

The commitment is verifiable but lacks specificity. A strong implementation plan should specify (i) which MDAs will be targeted for proactive publication support measures (ii) which MDAs will be responsible for improving women’s access to information (iii) who is responsible for developing the Open Data Policy (iv) and clarify what are the ‘spaces’ in which women will have improved access information. Additionally, the plan should (v) outline expectations around data quality and the level of data disaggregation as well as (vi) how MDAs will collaborate and generate interoperable data.

Successful implementation should also include ongoing public participation, and ensure that reports ultimately inform good policymaking. The government should work with citizens to identify data needs, possible synergy between citizen-generated and government data, and the need for training on data use, capacity, and literacy. Particular attention should be given to empowering women to actively participate in identifying their data needs and forms of access. Reports on women’s access to information that result from the commitment should be used to inform gender-aware data policy.

Commitment 5. Access to Information

Substantial.

Aim of the commitment

This commitment sought to increase “proactive disclosure of information held by public authorities, [improve] access to information for women and girls, [timely report] on the sustainable development goals indicators and the national agenda through open data, [and enhance] effectiveness of public institutions by strengthening the whole of government and multiple stakeholders.” ^[1]

Specifically, this commitment aimed to enhance the capacity of public institutions and the society to identify, publish, and disseminate useful information. While an access to information law exists, it is not expansive and responsive enough to meet the needs of Sierra Leoneans. If achieved, the commitment would support the advancement of a robust and effective access to information regime.

The commitment also aimed to address the most pressing social needs and improve the effectiveness of government institutions, such as mismanagement or waste of public resources, lack of accountability, and gender inclusivity—as well as empowerment of women. Adequate, relevant, and useful information available to the government promises to contribute to solving these challenges.

Since 2013, Sierra Leone has had a Right to Access Information Act that governs all public authorities and includes provisions on proactive disclosure. The country had its Right to Access Information Commission (RAIC) established in 2014. In 2018 and 2019, 10 ministries, departments, and agencies were targeted to produce publication schemes, including “Statistics Sierra Leone.” Despite legal provisions and discrete targeted actions, proactive disclosure of government-held information was still limited at the time of creating this commitment. ^[2] Furthermore, women were often excluded from the flow of information due to a lack of sex-disaggregated data, among other factors. ^[3]

This commitment was evaluated to be a positive but minor step towards greater access to information, given that many of the envisioned milestones were already in place at the time the commitment was adopted. Sierra Leone had already established an Open Data Council, completed an Open Data Readiness Assessment, and acceded to the International Open Data Charter. The remaining milestones sought to expand the number of ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) proactively disclosing information. Moreover, the commitment missed an opportunity to incorporate citizen engagement—particularly with women and girls—in implementation. ^[4]

Did it open government?

Marginal

Sierra Leone substantially completed the implementation of milestones associated with this commitment. However, implementation led to only marginal changes in access to information.

To complete Milestone 1, the Right to Access Information Commission (RAIC) committed to preparing annual and special reports on women’s right of access to information. The RAIC launched its 2019-2020 annual report, which “encapsulates the work of RAIC spanning from the commencement of operation of this current Commission in December 2018 onto December 2019.” ^[5] However, the report does not include information specific to gender or women’s access to information. After conducting online desk research and stakeholder interviews, the IRM did not find evidence on the publication of a gender-specific report. ^[6]

The RAIC conducted relevant work on proactive disclosure of information (Milestone 2), such as holding countrywide events, ^[7] supporting five MDAs in presenting new datasets in an ad hoc conference as part of a pilot plan ^[8] and carrying out an assessment on proactive publication of information. ^[9] Although RAIC published articles stating that MDAs presented inventories of datasets, the IRM found no evidence to suggest that these datasets were made public, after reviewing the relevant open data portal and RAIC’s website. There was no information on other MDAs following initial pilot actions to reach the 20 MDAs’ goal included in the commitment.

RAIC held trainings and engagements on quality data production and on the Right to Information Act, ^[10] and it identified public information officers in different ministries (Milestone 4). ^[11] According to a 2021 RAIC report, the Commission organized a three-day training for public information officers in November 2019. The training built public information officers’ capacity in disciplines involving information-request handling, records management, proactive disclosure, information-access limitations, and national and international instruments for access to information. At the training, the public information officers asked questions regarding their roles, responsibilities, and limitations. ^[12] Some public authorities appointed public information officers, while others continue to use public relations officers to carry out the combined responsibilities following the trainings. ^[13] RIAC determined that out of 20 MDAs, 15 have public information officers, while 5 reported that they do not. ^[14]

In terms of open data efforts, the government continues to maintain an open data portal, although very few datasets have been updated during the timeframe of the action plan. ^[15] Furthermore, there is still no gender or women’s/girls’ category among datasets, although a few sets are relevant for women’s and girl’s rights (e.g., those on reproductive health). Regarding data accessibility, it is worth noting the creation of a portal that integrates geo-referenced data sets from different areas of government, ^[16] an app to visualize data launched in 2020, ^[17] and the government’s active use of data in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. ^[18]

Activities carried out under this commitment represented positive but incremental improvements that led to marginal changes from the existing baseline at the time the commitment was designed. Very little information was made accessible to the public as a result of implementation. New information consisted centrally of RAIC’s annual report, which is a relevant first step on the road to accountability but about which dissemination efforts are not clear. Moreover, the quality of existing data seems to have remained unaltered in terms of the update of datasets and the capacity to disaggregate data by gender.

No barriers appear to have been removed for women’s access to information, and the engagement of women and women’s rights organizations specifically around the commitment appears low. RAIC did engage different stakeholders, including non-state actors, in many of its actions. This is a relevant example of an approach by which to seek citizen feedback that could be enhanced and systematized in the future. Importantly, some of the engagement activities were carried out in all regions of the country, providing a good model for inclusive participation.

The wide range of milestones included under the commitment can help explain the discrete impact it had. Furthermore, the lack of targeted measures for women’s access to information can explain the meager results on that end. In the future, closer cooperation among implementing agencies for different commitments—such as those responsible for Commitment 6 on gender—could prove fruitful.