Latin American legislatures have significant work to do to meet international standards on openness and transparency.  This is evident from the latest findings of the Latin American Index for Legislative Transparency, unveiled between 15-25 September during Global Legislative Openness Week (GLOW) in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. The average country score was below 40 percent. While Peru (55%) and Chile (53%) lead the index, Argentina (36%) ranks in seventh place, followed by Bolivia (24%) and Venezuela (21%).

What does the Index measure?

The Index comprises four dimensions: (i) Legal regulations; (ii) Parliamentary work; (iii) Budget and Administrative Management; and (iv) Mechanisms for Participation, Public Engagement and Accountability.

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Over the past few years in Latin America, access to public information and transparency have stopped being exclusive concerns of the executive branch and have expanded to the legislature and other arenas. More and more organizations focused on monitoring and bringing transparency to the work of congresses and parliaments have appeared in a short period of time. And certainly, Latin America is not the exception. It has now been three years since the creation of the Latin American Network for Legislative Transparency (LANLT or LALT Network) as a mechanism of cooperation, association and collaboration on advocacy and research projects, as well as the promotion of access to congressional activity, accountability and the strengthening of networking between representatives and their constituencies. Today, the LANLT includes 16 organizations in 8 countries in the region: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.   

During the last annual meeting of the LANLT, which took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, between June 17 and 18, important actions were taken towards consolidation and enlargement, along with measures to strengthen the network’s efforts and capabilities. Among these actions, we can emphasize the launch of the network’s new web site, www.transparencialegislativa.org, which consists of publications, goals, actions and basic documents on the different political contexts of the region. Another fundamental achievement of the meeting was the review of the Legislative Transparency Index, which was first released in 2011 and will once again be carried out in 2013 with the inclusion of best practices of legislative behavior and the principles enunciated in the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness.

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News from the parliamentary monitoring community:

In Spain, Fundación Ideas and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) hosted a number of organizations in a discussion on the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness, which included participation by Miguel Angel Gonzalo, webmaster of the Spanish Chamber of Deputies, and Michal Skop of KohoVolit.eu . Participants discussed various aspects of the Declaration, in particular how the Spanish parliament meets or fails to meet its provisions, including on issues of access to information and using search engines and alert services. Qué Hacen Los Diputados posted an informative article about the Declaration in the Spanish context (for current affairs, see this blog post) and also an article on the Spanish legislative process more generally. Qué Hacen Los Diputados is currently fundraising to expand their website and services. Finally, La Fundación Ciudadana Civio called for political parties and the Spanish Congress to make their finances public.

In Latin America, the Latin American Network for Legislative Transparency (LALT Network), alongside International IDEA Peru and others participated in a seminar on information technologies and citizen engagement with parliaments. Participants discussed turning technologies into civic education, the concept of “digital citizenship”, and efforts toward parliamentary transparency and integrity. The presentation by Manuel Arís on the mission of the LALT Network is available here. For more information on transparency efforts in the region by LALT and OpeningParliament.org, see this recent article by Ernesto Diaz Diego-Iturbe. The Nieman Journalism Lab recently covered open data and transparency efforts in the region.

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Muchas gracias a Melissa Ortiz Massó para traducir este artículo.

This article is also available in English here.

Ha pasado poco más de un año desde la Conferencia de Líderes PMO misma que convocó a una comunidad, cada vez mayor, de activistas que trabajan para abrir sus parlamentos nacionales y locales. Ha pasado un año desde que numerosas personas y grupos participaron en la redacción de la Declaración sobre la transparencia parlamentaria. Ha pasado un año lleno de promesas y de éxito para la comunidad PMO, pero eso no quiere decir que no podamos hacer más para trabajar juntos.

En mayo, la Fundación Sunlight, el Instituto Democrático Nacional, y la Red de Transparencia legislativa latinoamericana armaron una encuesta que abordó la situación actual de la comunidad PMO, los mayores desafíos que enfrentan las PMO’s, y las oportunidades para la colaboración y fortalecimiento de la comunidad. La encuesta, que se puede ver aquí, llamó la atención de gran parte de la comunidad de PMO, recibiendo cerca de 50 respuestas totales de más de 40 organizaciones que trabajan en 35 países de todo el mundo.

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Its been just over a year since the PMO Leaders Conference convened an ever-growing community of activists working to open up their national and local parliaments. Its been a year since numerous individuals and groups participated in drafting the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness. Its been a year full of promise and success for the PMO community, but that’s not to say that we couldn’t do more to work together.

In May, the Sunlight Foundation, the National Democratic Institute, and the Latin American Legislative Transparency Network put together a survey that addressed the current condition of the PMO community, the biggest challenges facing PMOs, and opportunities for further collaboration and community strengthening. The survey, which can be viewed here, garnered the attention of much of the PMO community, receiving nearly 50 total responses from over 40 PMOs working in 35 countries around the world.

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A number of PMOs will be arriving in Poland tomorrow for the Personal Democracy Forum conference. I’ve been working with a number of PMO colleagues to do some pre-unconference coordination (is that an oxymoron?) in the hope of maximizing our use of time. As I mentioned last week, one potential idea for discussion is sharing lessons learned from PMO efforts to engage citizens in parliamentary processes online. This brief presentation forwarded by one participant, Iveta Kazoka of Providus (Latvia), has me really excited for the discussion. Alina Ostling, author of this working paper on the impacts of PMO tech projects, has also agreed to join in.

The other topic that has generated some interest is designing a process and methodology for the PMO community to monitor parliamentary compliance with the Declaration on Parliamentary Openness. Matej Kurian of TI Slovakia and Karolis Granickas of TI Lithuania, who have been doing some thinking around this issue, have offered to facilitate the discussion and lend their perspectives. Agustina De Luca of Directorio Legislativo, representing the Latin American Network for Legislative Transparency (LALT Network), will be Skyping in to share their experience. 

In the hope of stimulating this conversation in the broader PMO community, I’m offering the following outline of a proposal. All ideas and feedback are welcome. A summary of points made at the conference and on email will be made available in the wake of the conference.

To provide comments and edits on Etherpad, click here.

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Coming out of the regional meeting of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) held in Santiago, Chile, from January 10-11, it’s clear that the movement to open the world’s parliaments has a number of allies outside of civil society and parliamentary monitoring organizations (PMOs). Bringing these actors together may offer a huge opportunity to bring about democratic reform and more open, responsive and accountable parliaments – and governments as a whole.

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