This May, the Brazilian government took an important step towards openness and transparency as its Access to Information (ATI) Law came into effect.*

Two months into the implementation process, Brazilian public bodies had received over 17,000 information requests and the Office of the Comptroller-General (CGU) – the regulator responsible for its implementation – reported that over 83% of requests had been processed and answered. These numbers are extremely positive (comparatively, Argentinian executive received only 2,543 requests in three years), and highlight the Law’s potential to create new space for dialogue between the Brazilian government and its citizenry.

However, the law faces many challenges.  We know very little about the quality of the answers, and public agencies have been accused of using legal loopholes to avoid providing information.

Perhaps the biggest challenge, though, is tackling the deeply-engrained culture of secrecy and state control within Brazil’s government.  For such laws to work, public servants need to be committed to its ideals, journalists need to understand how to use its provisions and, with civil society, need to be raising public awareness about their rights.

To help with this process, Global Partners has been commissioned by UNESCO in Brazil to develop and test an M&E framework with a set of tools to assist the Brazilian government and the CGU in tracking the progress of implementation of the Law. Over the next 2 years, we will be following and evaluating the government’s efforts to implement the Law and its impact on the Brazilian society.

* Access to information laws, sometimes referred to as “sunshine laws”, regulate right of, and procedures for, the public to request and receive government-held information. At the moment, over 90 countries have in place some form of ATI legislation.