Challenges to FOI: The View From Africa

• In Event: Access to Information in the Age of Digitally Networked Information and Communication

Abstract

This paper critically examines some of the assumptions underlying advocacy for freedom of information laws in Africa, their limitations and challenges they pose to policymaking within the context of increased uses of networked information and communication technologies. It argues that the state of FOI laws is emblematic of how fraught policymaking becomes when intergovernmental and foreign interests, civil society assumptions, and government disinterest come together with changing citizen participation. Specific to FOI, mutual distrust between the state and civil society and a complicated relationship with multilateral agreements present a persistent challenge to effective enactment of law in countries like Ghana and Nigeria. This is compounded by uneven regulatory responses to increased availability and use of networked information technologies.

Author

• Seyram Avle, U of Michigan