To promote and encourage Active Citizens’ engagement toward national development, an effective and seamless implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Law is required. This is according to Executive Director of STAR-Ghana Foundation, Ibrahim-Tanko Amidu. He told a gathering of the Civil Society representatives, public interest individuals and a cross-section of state institutions during a forum to reflect on the implementation of the RTI Law that, “Active Citizenship cannot take place without access to information, and so it is on the basis of this that STAR Ghana Foundation and its partners – Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA) and Ghana Friends(GV) decided to convene the forum for stakeholders to reflect on journey to the passage of the RTI Law, its implementation, including challenges and prospects in order to collectively work to realize the objectives of the RTI law.”
Mr Amidu noted, “passing the law and setting up the Commission is the easiest part of the journey. But the most difficult part especially looking at the experiences of other countries has been in translating the spirit and the letter of the law into action.” The Executive Director maintains, “RTI as we know it is critical to democracy and democratic governance, it is fundamental to the realization of citizens’ rights and their ability to make informed demands and hold duty bearers accountable.”
The forum which was organised under the Rebuilding Civic Space Project of the STAR Ghana Foundation (SGF) and its partners featured the presentation of a discussion paper on “Assessing Access to Information in the Context of the RTI Law Implementation” which was commissioned as part of the project inception. This was followed by an expert panel discussion on strengthening civil society awareness of the implementation of the RTI Law, reflection on the challenges associated with the law and support their mobilization to influence the effective implementation of the to promote access to public information for public use in holding public officials to account.
Programme Coordinator for Ghana Friends (GV) Lise Grauenkær remarked “civil society needs to keep up the pressure to make sure that Ghanaians have access and are provided with requested information. There are still obstacles to having access to information, this is a concern for Ghana Friends.”
For his part, the Executive Secretary of the Right to Information Commission, Yaw Sarpong Boateng (Esq) revealed that the Commission has now secured a fiat, empowering his outfit to independently prosecute offenders of the RTI Law. Yaw Sarpong Boateng (Esq) said staff of the RTI Commission are expected to be trained by the Director of Public Prosecutions on prosecutions under the RTI Act, 2019 (Act 989) by the close of September this year.
As a next step, the forum will be replicated in Tamale in the coming weeks to provide an opportunity for individuals and groups in Northern Ghana to also engage on the implementation of the Law within their own context and experiences. This will be led by the Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA) with support from Ghana Friends (GV) and STAR Ghana Foundation (SGF). Following this, a coordinated advocacy campaign involving different actors will work together to take forward the recommendations from the forums and actions to promote the effective implementation of the law.