REGIONAL OVERVIEW REGIONAL OVERVIEW This study carried out between May and June 2013, seeks to establish levels of transparency in public institution in Southern Africa. The study in currently in its fourth year, and findings highlight the difficulties faced by Southern African when trying to seek, access and receive information from public bodies. The research, conducted by seven different MISA chapters in the region, again revealed the lack of openness, transparency and accessibility on the part of public institutions, as well as their reluctance to disclose information proactively or respond to specific requests for public information, although there has been a significant improvement with respect to the use of information communication technologies (ICTs) across the region. In particular, when it comes to requests of information in oral or written form, the study shows that the majority of public institutions remain reluctant or unwilling to respond to inquiries. In Malawi only three institutions responded, the presence of Information or Communications officers was observed as a mere strategy to create a positive image of the organisations and not to be proactive tools of engagement with anyone seeking information. Following requests for information, half of the institutions surveyed responded in Swaziland and Zambia, whilst three out of eight provided relevant information in Tanzania, Malawi and Namibia. Follow-up calls and visits by the requesters were unhelpful, often resulting in empty promises to provide the information later. In addition, requests for information often resulted in referrals to another person, who was either unavailable or unhelpful, or to the public body’s website, on which not all the information requested was available. According to the survey, Botswana appears to be the country with the most secretive public institutions with only one public institution providing the information as requested, and generally appear reluctant to provide information without questioning the identity and motivation of the information seeker. It is important to emphasise, however, that some institutions made a tremendous effort to respond quickly and answer all the questions posed by the requester. In Zambia, for instance, the researcher was called by the representatives of three institutions (Zambia Public Procurement Authority, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Services ) to provide her with the requested information, shortly after information requests had been submitted. In Namibia, two institutions (the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund, and the Ministry of Agriculture Water and Forestry) invited the researcher for an interview to discuss and elaborate on the questions posed by the requester. Despite a general reluctance to respond to written and oral requests for information, It is important to note that there has been an increase in the use of ICTs in the provision of information, potentially providing citizens with faster access to documents, publications and other relevant publications. In Tanzania, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia and Zambia, all the in Introduction institutions surveyed have a website, however, the relevance of the information provided differs greatly between institutions. For example, in Namibia websites are of average standard, although most sites are user-friendly, some still lack relevant up-to date information, and in Tanzania only one Ministry had all of the relevant information sought for the purposes of this study. However, one encouraging development with respect to Tanzania is that most bodies try to provide information in both English and Swahili, which means that information can be understood by the majority of the country’s population. Similarly in Swaziland, only one institution provided adequate information, leaving the potential of ICTs insufficiently utilised. Overall improvements compared to previous years, could be observed in Botswana, where the accessibility of some relevant information is enabled through the websites of the majority of institutions surveyed. It deserves mentioning, however, that all the websites are dependent on a government portal, and hence do not have any individual online representation. Malawi is lagging behind, with only two institutions surveyed having active websites. Since the initiation of this study in 2010, overall improvements have been seen in both the accessibility of information held by public institutions, as well as the use of ICTs to facilitate easier access. In Tanzania, the study resulted in the winner of last year’s Golden Key Award acknowledging weaknesses uncovered in the 2012 report, who in turn promised the continuous improvement of the Ministry of Finance with regard to its openness and accessibility. Research Methodology The research will adopt qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection, and seek to assess the level of public access to information held by government and pubic institutions. In order to achieve this each chapter will conduct research by evaluating the websites of government and public Institutions, along with submitting oral and written reports requesting information. This method will seek to establish the transparency and efficiency of government and public institutions in providing information to the public. Data Analysis Category 1: Evaluation of government and public institution websites to determine the accessibility of public information. Category 2: Submission of oral and written reports in order to determine the ease of which public information is obtained form government and public institutions. 5