New Index to rank TT Govt performance in Americas
Trinidad and Tobago is to be ranked on a scale of 1-24 on its performance in relation to fulfilling commitments for strengthening democracy in the region. A project of the Active Democracy Network - a hemispheric civil society group set up to monitor and report the fulfillments of obligations undertaken by member Governments of the Organisation of American States at Heads of Government Summits - it is being coordinated nationally by the Network of NGOs of Trinidad and Tobago for the Advancement of Women.
The Evaluation Index of Government Compliance (EIGC), in which the countries will be ranked from best to worst, is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2008. It is being sponsored by the Participa Corporation of Chile, the Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL), and the Venezuelan Institute for Social and Political Studies (INVESP), whose representatives comprise the Hemispheric Coordinating Team which is overseering the project in 24 countries.
“The Index is expected to factor prominently in discussions at the next OAS Summit to take place in Trinidad and Tobago in 2009,” said lead researcher, Dr Kris Rampersad, the Network’s Director of ICT, Lobby, Advocacy, Research and Public Relations. “Ministers attend Summit meetings regularly and sign numerous treaties and agreements, that if implemented could substantially improve access by citizens to the resources of the State and enhance Government’s delivery of services to people to improve the quality and standard of living so as to reduce poverty in inequalities.
However, an OAS assessment showed that many of these commitments continue to exist in paper only, with little effort or action to implement them by Governments.Read More
Where is the civil society in Nicaragua headed?
From the time when President Daniel Ortega took office in 2007, the government has shown signs of change regarding the development of Civil Society’s participation in Nicaragua, and the ways of encouraging dialogue and governability. It should be remembered that the participative culture in Nicaragua has been formed as part of a process of democratization initiated in 1979, and continued in 1990 when the National Opposition Union (Union Nacional Opositora - UNO) won the elections, putting an end to the nation’s violent conflict and giving way to a change of scenery in the country and a new form of government.
Among the advancements achieved regarding public participation is the establishment of a consensual juridical framework as the product of several years of work, and established from below2. As the places where active citizenry takes place are principally local spaces, a result of these local labors was the Law of Public Participation (Law No. 475), approved in October of 2003, and the Law of Access to Public Information proposed in 2006 and approved in 2007. Read More.
Progress Report: Implementation of EIGC Methodology in Caribbean, USA and Canada
In the Caribbean, USA and Canada, the project teams that form part of Active Democracy have already started working hard. At UWI’s Women and Development Unit in Barbados, the National Research Team has been formed and consists of a team of five highly skilled and dedicated professionals and research assistants, lead by Dr. Judith Soares.
Dr. Soares is the National Coordinator for the implementation of the evaluation and monitoring of Summit commitments exercise. Her dedicated counterpart in Grenada at the Grenada Community Development Organization (GRENCODA) is Judy Williams, who leads the Grenada team that includes six people from various backgrounds (including a lawyer and an economist), two of which had participated in the phase 1 application of the methodology in that country (2001-2005).
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Ecuador: The interview process and document making go on
ACTIVE DEMOCRACY: A NECESSARY EVALUATION IN TIMES OF A CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY Around twenty experts participate in the construction of the Evaluation of Government Compliance Index (IECG). In the first set of results, the need to strengthen the conquests reached on topics of decentralization and local governments is revealed, as well as for the participation of the civil society; this is when the Andean country is in the process of constructing its new legal and constitutional framework.
The Latin American Corporation for Development (Corporacion Latinoamericana para el Desarrollo - CLD) carries the process forward. All eyes are on the Constituent Assembly that takes session in Montecristi, a city located in the province of Manabi, 250 kilometers southeast of the capital, Quito. There the new territorial organization and kind of public administration will be decided, and the human and citizen rights of all Ecuadorians will be enshrined. Read More.
Chile, METHODOLOGICAL STEPS N° 6 AND N° 7: “Validation of the information collected regarding observable activities”, “Presentation of the list to people in the Government in charge of monitoring the Summit process”.
On January 10, 2008, the Executive Director of Corporacion PARTICIPA, Andrea Sanhueza, and the Project Coordinator in Chile, Mirtha Casas, met with two people from the Chilean Chancellory: Eduardo Galvez, Director of the Office of Multilateral Policies and Rolando Montecinos, First Secretary of the Office of Multilateral Policies.
The Executive Director let them know about the project’s current process on an inter-american level and the state of advancement of the network of non-governmental organizations. Mirtha Casas commented on the common methodology of the 24 countries and the process and results of the search for information from a diverse array of Chilean ministries and public services. She expressed that the Panel of Evaluation in our country includes the participation of forty experts and civil society organization representatives.Read More.
