News from the parliamentary monitoring community:
In Guatemala, Congreso Transparente is promoting an online campaign to press the Congress to adopt a Manual on Legislative Transparency, which is based on the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness.
In Chile, Fundación Ciudadano Inteligente, Fundación Pro Acceso, and Chile Transparente released an open letter raising concerns about a bill before Congress that would amend the Chilean FOI law. In light of the current scandal, Sunlight Foundation and other regional PMOs also released a statement calling on the government to reform political finance regulations and the relationship between the public and private sectors.
Also in Chile, Fundacion Ciudadano Inteligente released a study reviewing Chilean president Michelle Bachelet’s first year in office. The results showed that after one year in office she has introduced 41.8% of the laws promised during her campaign.
In Morocco, Sim Sim Participation Citoyenne launched a new tool on its Nouabook.ma website that allows citizens to ask questions and get answers from their MPs using video. In particular, the new feature will help illiterate citizens interact directly with their MPs.
In Uganda, Parliament Watch held a tweet chat with young MPs to discuss youth representation and how to make legislation more relevant to young people. Participants highlighted the importance of social media in bringing discussions about governance to the citizens and improving communication between youth and their representatives.
In Colombia, Transparencia por Colombia released results for the fourth national survey on anti-bribery practices in the private sector as well as an assessment that considers the transparency of sub-national government agencies.
In Ecuador, Observatorio Legislativo presented a report analyzing the performance of Ecuador’s National Assembly over the last two years. The report reviews laws discussed, MPs’ individual performance, government oversight, and institutional transparency.
In the UK, following recent elections, MySociety has updated WriteToThem.com to allow citizens to contact newly elected MPs.
In Georgia, Transparency International Georgia won a freedom of information case against Georgia’s Ministry of Interior. This court decision sets a precedent that would make it more difficult government agencies to refuse information requests based on personal data protection claims. The organization also released its annual report.
In Cambodia, the Committee for Free and Fair Elections released an educational video to raise awareness about electoral reform, specifically looking at reforms that will improve elections in the country.
In Mexico, Borde Politico, in association with Harvard University and New York University, released an infographic that summarizes the results of a study which tracked the use of funds earmarked for infrastructure by municipal governments. The study reviewed audits from Mexico’s Supreme Audit Institution to identify how much money municipal governments had to invest in infrastructure and to find out what proportion of those funds was used to develop infrastructure projects that meet the needs of the poor.
In Spain, Fundacion Civio, in association with el El Confidencial, Tecnilógica, Iron Hack, and CartoDB, hosted a hackathon exploring new ways to use, create, and share electoral information.
Other related news:
The UK government’s digital teams will have to follow a newly updated set of protocols for ensuring high-quality services.
A proposal to increase the number of women MPs in Kenya’s is being discussed by parliament. If the bill is approved it will bring one woman representative from every county for a total of 94 new women MPs.
In the United States, a new freedom of information website was opened by the federal government.
Montreal launched an interactive tool to gather citizen input for the 2016 budget. The tool is also a great way to educate the public and raise citizen awareness.
A new portal to facilitate access to information was launched in Hong Kong. The portal uses Alaveteli software to allow citizens to make information requests to 148 government authorities; visitors can also browse requests made by other citizens and learn more about their right to know.
Resources:
The Open Knowledge Foundation released and updated version of the Open Data Handbook.
Transparency international released “Lobbying in Europe: Hidden Influence, Privileged Access” a report reviewing lobbying practices and regulation in 19 European countries and 3 EU institutions.
An effort to map public innovation labs within governments was released by Nesta.
The Open Government Partnership launched “The OGP Explorer” an interactive tool that allows users to view all information available on commitments, action plan development processes, and other information collected by the Independent Research Mechanism (IRM). The IRM also released the paper “Aligning Supply and Demand for Better Governance: Open Data in the Open Government Partnership”.
Sinar Project has been hosting online workshops on freedom of information and transparency. The series of workshops include sessions on open government, free culture, and free open source software.
Events:
From September 7-10 the ABRELATAM unconference and Condatos 2015 will be held in Santiago, Chile, bringing together parliamentary openness and open government champions from both civil society and government.
AlaveteliCon 2015 was held on May 19-20. The conference was an opportunity for civil society organizations that use Alaveteli – an open source freedom of information portal – to discuss upcoming challenges and solutions.
Personal Democracy Forum 2015 was held on June 4-5 in New York. The forum, which focused on the future of civil tech, featured a fantastic panel on “Designing the Digital Legislature,” which explored the opportunities digital technologies present to strengthen legislatures.
The outcomes of the 2015 OGP Steering Committee meeting held in Mexico in April are now available.
190 young MPs, including 76 women, met on May 27-28 in Tokyo for the Inter-Parliamentary Union Global Conference of Young MPs; participants called for greater engagement and representation of young people across the world.
The U.S. General Services Administration held the DigitalGov Citizen Services Summit 2015 on May 21. 23 federal agencies showcased apps, APIs, and other tools designed to increase transparency and citizen engagement. Some issues highlighted in the discussions held were the use technology to facilitate new forms of volunteering, the internet of things, and the use of data to solve real problems.