If anyone has their own news to share, please send it along, but here are a few stories that may be of interest:
I would highly recommend taking a look at this blog post from Oxfam. It takes a look at eight case studies of campaigns on access to information, budget transparency, and government accountability from different countries around the world, and draws conclusions about what types of strategies work best for advocacy. The case studies are from the International Budget Partnership, and explore stories in Mexico, India (2), South Africa (2) Argentina, Pakistan, and Tanzania.
In South Africa, an article appeared in the Mail and Guardian detailing the importance of an open parliament to democracy and improved quality of life, highlighting the issues of public participation, consultation and accountability of MPs. The article appears in the context of the People’s Power, People’s Parliament conference, which begins today in Cape Town and lasts until August 15, hosted by, among others, PMO Network member Parliamentary Monitoring Group. We look forward to hearing about the results of the event. Speaking of PMG, an academic paper was released recently that details and analyzes civil society participation in the South African Parliament, using a significant amount of data and information from PMG. Furthering the topic of last month’s conference in Paris, this is yet another example of PMO work informing and enhancing academic research—and vice versa.