OVERVIEW FOREWORD This report includes Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The last Transparency Assessment was published in 2020, and since then, there has been a flurry of countries enacting ATI legislation in the region. Access to Information (ATI) enables citizens to hold elected officials accountable for the decisions they make and the ways in which they spend public money. ATI also helps citizens make informed decisions about their lives, their health, and how they are governed. In 2020, Malawi operationalised ATI legislation, while Namibia and Zimbabwe have since enacted similar legislation. Zambia is moving towards adopting and passing similar legislation. This shows the centrality and importance of ATI legislation in democratic governance. Importantly, the right to access information enables a culture of transparency and accountability from public officials and is at the core of democratic participation by citizens. In Zimbabwe, in particular, previous Transparency Assessment Reports have been a helpful advocacy tool for lobbying towards crafting legislation that responds to challenges that citizens experience in accessing information. However, there are some holdouts, such as Botswana, where there is little movement in enacting such legislation. The revised Declaration of Principles of Freedom of Expression and Access to Information by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) reaffirms the right to access to information as it states that freedom of expression (FOE) and ATI are crosscutting rights that are important for the realisation of all other human rights, including socio-economic rights, and of the potential of both rights to contribute to the socio-economic transformation of the continent. Despite the increasing number of African countries with ATI laws, this report shows a need for more advocacy on creating an enabling environment for implementing ATI legislation. The importance of ATI is further emphasised by being an indicator measured in the African Media Barometer (AMB), an in-depth and comprehensive description system for national media environments on the African continent. In some cases, neither government officials nor citizens were aware of the dictates of ATI laws, which ultimately means that the public cannot fully enjoy their rights. One of the objectives of this report is to raise citizens’ awareness of their right to access information held by public bodies. Over the past two decades, several press freedom and ATI campaigners have used the AMB to advocate and lobby for reforms and enactment of laws that promote enabling environments, a robust and free press, FOE, and ATI. Thus, as with the AMB and complementary to the AMB, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) seeks to use this Transparency Assessment to continue lobbying for reforms and enactment of laws that promote ATI and the right to know. It is essential to note that this report is not meant to shame public bodies that perform poorly in the assessment but rather to identify gaps in ATI legislation and ultimately find ways to overcome them. By doing so, this report identifies opportunities for citizens, civil society organisations, academics and governments to work together on improving the legislative environment on ATI. To underscore the importance of access to information, the Joint Declaration on Freedom of Expression and Elections in the Digital Age by the United Nations (UN), the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Organisation of American States (OAS) Special Rapporteurs on Freedom of Expression declared that “[i]implicit in freedom of expression is the public’s right to open access to information and to know what governments are doing on their behalf, without which truth would languish and people’s participation in government would remain fragmented”. Looking at different countries in the region also helps to implement peer-to-peer learning from researchers, civil society and governments. The Transparency Assessment is a crucial publication for Fesmedia Africa and MISA, as it fits within the strategic work that the organisations are already carrying out. One of MISA’s areas of operation is ATI legislation, while Fesmedia Africa has been a leader in supporting advocacy on the right to information. With that in mind, Fesmedia Africa and MISA regularly carry out a Transparency Assessment, which measures Southern African countries’ commitments to local laws and regional and continental standards on ATI. We sincerely hope this report will add to the existing body of knowledge on ATI and open new ways of engagement among stakeholders to improve democratic governance in Southern Africa. 2