Interview with Al Bawsala founder Amira Yahyaoui:

Organization: Al Bawsala
Project: Marsad.tn parliamentary monitoring platform
Country: Tunisia
Government Level: National

Overview: Al Bawsala works to strengthen democracy in Tunisia by increasing public integrity and accountability. The activities of the Tunisian parliament are very difficult for outsiders to observe—the parliament does not officially publish votes, transcripts, or agendas. Al Bawsala seeks to remedy this lack of transparency by publishing parliamentary information on the website Marsad.tn.

Background: Until recently, the Tunisian parliament did not play an active role in governing the country. After the revolution, the parliament is taking on an increasingly active role in governing, oversight, and law-making. Still, this activity generally takes place outside of the public eye. Al Bawsala gathers and publicizes parliamentary information - including voting records, legislator attendance, and meeting minutes of various commissions and committees - to ensure a more open, transparent political culture. This information is published online, alongside legislator profiles and general news items regarding the parliament.

Two key factors aid Al Bawsala’s activities: a freedom of information law that allows access to some government information, and an open-door policy to public viewing of parliamentary sessions. Al Bawsala used the FOI law to sue the parliament in 2012 to gain access to information. Al Bawsala representatives regularly attend sessions of the parliament to gather data on its activities.

Implementation: To begin development of Marsad.tn, Al Bawsala partnered with the German PMO Parliament Watch (for a case study on Parliament Watch, click here). The Marsad.tn web developer traveled to Hamburg to work with the Parliament Watch team, which aided both technical implementation (developing and writing code for the web platform) and to make informal ties with other members of the global PMO community. It also gave Marsad.tn a measure of legitimacy, since the end goals were demonstrated elsewhere (albeit in a different context).

Al Bawsala used international networks and norms, like that of the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness to advocate for further access and transparency in Tunisia. The PMO used standards in the Declaration to testify before the internal rules committee during hearings. These recommendations were later voted on by the committee, with most adopted. It has also sent the declaration to the president of the constituent assembly and to other MPs. A summary of this presentation is available here.

Despite low levels of internet penetration in Tunisia, Al Bawsala still believes that the web has a large role to play in strengthening democracy. The Internet democratizes access to information, effectively leveling the playing field between individual citizens and governments. Al Bawsala thinks that if citizens can tweet questions to heads of state, then of course the Internet can be leveraged to improve democracy.

Some other factors in the success of Al Bawsala and Marsad.tn include:

• The founders of Al Bawsala were long-time activists and held a degree of respect by the MP community that followed from former President Ben Ali’s regime.
• The team and organization have no political affiliation         
• The Marsad.tn development team was comprised of paid professionals and experts, not volunteers.

Al Bawsala is a small NGO, but it is growing. In 2012, there were three staff members and four volunteers. As of August 2013, the organization as more than doubled to nine staff members and seven volunteers. It is one of the best known NGOs in Tunisia and won an award for best Tunisian transparency NGO. 

Critical Issues & Achievements: Today, nearly all MPs use the Al Bawsala website to answer questions, post voting records, and more. MPs are increasingly using Marsad.tn to publish their financial records, including the vice president of the Constituent Assembly.

At the outset, Al Bawsala faced challenges in convincing the public that transparency was an important goal. They engaged in public advocacy campaigns through the website and their activities to engage with citizens. Al Bawsala hopes to build on these early efforts to further engage citizens. One challenge is the difficulty in reading new policy documents and laws, which are not made available in easily consumed formats, nor in language that is particularly accessible.

One big challenge for a web-based platform like Marsad.tn is the lack of internet penetration in Tunisia (<50%). However, the use of technology in the recent revolution and subsequent media coverage shows the importance of the Internet. Al Bawsala sees the Internet as a critical factor in emboldening citizens to question and expect more from their governments.

Another challenge is convincing the parliament to publish information on its own. At present, Al Bawsala views some of its activities as fundamentally the responsibility of the legislature (such as publishing voting records and meeting minutes). It is laborious to gather the data by attending sessions of parliament, so revised and updated internal parliamentary data procedures would greatly improve the climate of transparency in Tunisia.  

Implementing Partners:   Parliament Watch (Germany)

Contacts:

Amira Yahyaoui, Founder
[email protected]

This post is part four in a series of case studies on tools PMOs have used that can be replicated or serve as models for organizations in different contexts. To see the see all of the case studies, click here. To contribute a case study on a project that your organization has created, please fill out the template and email Dustin Palmer at [email protected] with any questions.