The workshop organized for civil society groups within the New Juaben Municipality of the Eastern Region sought to educate the public on the Bill and also mobilize support for the passage of the Bill before the end of 2018.

Advocacy for the passage of Ghana’s Right to Information (RTI) Bill drafted in 2002 has been ongoing for about 17 years. Effort to get successive government to pass the Bill have not yielded the need result even though a lot of progress has been made in terms of reviewing the content of the draft Bill. In 2016, the 6th Parliament through its Select Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, reviewed the problematic clauses of the Bill following proposals made by the coalition on the Right to Information but the parliament by then could not pass the Bill into law before it left office in January 2017.

In line with the obvious benefits, the GII Consortium and the RTI coalition in February 2018, launched a joint Campaign (RTI Action Campaign) with funding support from the Accountable Democratic Institutions and Systems Strengthening (ADISS), to put the RTI Bill on the front burner of policy in 2018 and secure its passage before the end of this year. Since the launch of the campaign, series of multi-stakeholder interactions and coordinated advocacy initiatives have been implemented with key civil society institutions and actors, which culminated in the Executive laying of the RTI Bill 2018, in Parliament on March 2018.

The Bill has therefore been referred to the Joint Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and Communications of Parliament, for consideration.

In a presentation by Dr. Kojo Asante of CDD-Ghana, he outlined several positive provisions contained in the Bill. This include the clearly laid down access procedures, three stages review process if a public institution rejects a request for information, focus on disclosure of certain categories of information and the creation of multi-member RTI Commission to guide and monitor the implementation process. The draft legislation also prescribes sanctions for contravention of certain provisions of the proposed law. It is crucial to have an informed citizenry who can effectively engage and make inputs to the socio-economic development of the country.

According to him the overall campaign on the RTI Bill to education citizens on the law making process to create opportunities and an enabling environment for citizens and other key stakeholders to raise questions and debate on relevant issues pertaining to the interest of the public.

He maintained that the reason behind the RTI Action Campaign is to ensure that citizens are informed on the general provisions of the Bill and are aware of the Parliamentary procedures enough to engage in public debate.

Dr. Asante hinted that the right to information is a fundamental human right guaranteed by the Constitution. Therefore the RTI paragraph (f) of clause (1) of article 21 of the Constitution provides that all persons shall have the right to “information, subject to such qualifications and laws as are necessary in a democratic society”.

“Democratic governance entails an active participation by all in the governance of the country. In this participatory democracy, the right to information is relevant and access to information requires that there is in existence that requisite data or information”. He said

He explained that clause three (3) of the Bill laid before parliament for consideration states “a public institution shall, within twelve months from the date of the coming into force of this Act, and every twelve months after that date, compile and publish an up-to date official information in the form of a manual”. This he advised that the manual should be updated yearly to ensure accountability and transparency to improve the country.

Dr. Asante appealed to all stakeholders to join hands with GII in the campaign dubbed “pass the RTI Bill now”.