The Centre for Environmental Policy and Advocacy is participating in a
global civil society coalition to promote access to information, encourage
public participation and effective access to justice in national
decision-making affecting the environment. The Access Initiative (TAI)
focuses on accelerated and enhanced implementation of Principle 10 of the
Rio Declaration at national level. It seeks to close the gap between
international commitments on the one hand and national policies,
legislation and practices on the other hand.
TAI helps civil society organisations generate national level assessments
and monitor government performance through the use of an indicator tool kit
developed by TAI partners. This therefore enables civil society
organisations to encourage governments establish specific commitments to
increase public access to information, participation and justice and to put
their commitments into practice through independent monitoring of performance.
In addition an active civil society can build capacity of the public to
understand their access rights and participate meaningfully in decisions
affecting their lives.
TAI Research team
In order to implement the TAI, CEPA had invited selected civil society
organisations to participate in the research component of the initiative.
Case studies were selected from various environment and natural resources
sectors and using the TAI indicators measure and monitor government
performance in order to identify gaps and recommend priority actions for
enhanced performance.
The core team was selected based on expertise in areas of law and policy,
environment and natural resources management, capacity building and public
outreach. The team was responsible for case study selection, research
design, execution of research and report writing. The period of research,
report writing and presentation and outreach is one year commencing July
2005.
The research team comprises researchers from the Wildlife and Environmental
and Environmental Society of Malawi (WESM), the Coordination Unit for the
Rehabilitation of the Environment (CURE) and the Training Support Partners
(TSP).
TAI Review Panel
In addition to the research team there is a Review Panel whose function is
to review the country report. They however follow the whole course of the
research process and will be convened to make final observations and
recommendations on the findings. Invitations have been extended to
representatives from key government institutions such as Environmental
Affairs Department, Ministry of Justice, National Assembly and University
of Malawi Centre for Social Research; NGOs such Council for Non
Governmental Organizations (CONGOMA), Women and Law in Southern Africa
(WILSA), Landnet Malawi and donor agencies such as the Canadian
International Development Agency (CIDA).
