UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

05/16/2023 | News release | Distributed by Public on 05/16/2023 23:52

Advancing Access to Information Laws for digital transformation in the Pacific Island States

The joint UNESCO and Center for Law and Democracy online course covers a wide range of conceptual and practical issues relating to access to information. The course was introduced to the representatives of civil service and civil society to promote and facilitate the localization of the course to the needs of the Pacific Islands.

During the webinar, Ms Elizabeth Tydd, an Information Commissioner from New South Wales, Australia, presented the advantages of some of the ICT solutions available on the Information and Privacy Commission's website as a way to better monitor information requests, enhance coordination among various entities, and optimize time of requests, tracking, and procedures.

Mr Toby Mendel, Executive Director of the Centre for Law and Democracy, and author of the self-paced online training course, presented the course and encouraged civil servants and civil society representatives to enroll and familiarize themselves with international standards and best practices. The course seeks to support information providers and citizens to use and upgrade their right to access information. It also targets information requestors to learn about best practices for requesting information or appeal mechanisms. To date, more than 2,300 professionals from various sectors have enrolled and completed the course.

The issue of access to information, the right to information and the freedom of expression is becoming increasingly topical in the Pacific States. The democratic process now needs to be upscaled, and people are gradually expecting certain accountabilities. Those are good signs of democratic development as this shows that people are willing to uphold their government accountable and are seeking greater participation of a variety of institutions in democratic mediation or consensus building.
Ms NishaDirector and UNESCO Representative to the Pacific States

The UNESCO and other UN Partners such as ITU, FAO, ILO, UNOPS, and UNODC, while implementing the project titled "Accelerating SDG achievement through digital transformation to strengthen community resilience in Micronesia", aim to strengthen community resilience in the regions, and accelerate SDG achievement through digital transformation. In accordance with specific sectoral issues analysis, such as cybersecurity, data protection, or issues related to social development and food security, a two-year project is being implemented to accelerate the adoption of digital transformation and pilot smart islands approach in remote islands and villages in the Micronesian countries.

The involvement of UNESCO in the project will result in establishing an improved policy, legislative and strategy framework that benefits communities and vulnerable groups, supporting digital transformation and capacity building at the community level with better access to services and information.