1.3

MODULE 1.3

THE IMPORTANCE OF “ACCESS” AND THE “RIGHT TO INFORMATION”
IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

1.3.1. What Is a Developing Country?

The Third World Atlas defines development in the following terms:

The developing countries, or "Third World," are home to the majority of the Earth's
population, some three billion people. The term Third World is used to describe a range
of countries as diverse as Nigeria and Nepal, Peru and Papua New Guinea. The
relationship between the First and Third Worlds (or "North" and "South") affects both
communities1.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report
1997 is the primary source for this theme of the chapter. The UNDP under the heading,
"Countries in the major world aggregates," listed 129 countries as "All developing
countries." Of these, 48 countries are listed under a separate heading of "Least developed
countries." The European countries in transition, that is the European emerging
democracies, are listed as "Industrial countries"2 and are, therefore, not dealt with in any
detail in this chapter.

In 1990, the UNDP introduced its Human Development Index. Initially met with
controversy, the HDI has found increasing acceptance as a means of assessing a country's
standing in basic human development. It does not displace economic measures but can
serve as a simple composite complementary to other indices like the GDP.

1 Thomas, op cit p.4.
2 UNDP, op cit p.241.

The concept of human development is much deeper and richer than what can be captured
in any composite index or even by a detailed set of statistical indicators. Yet it is useful to
simplify a complex reality - and that is what the HDI sets out to do. It is a composite
index of achievements in basic human capabilities in three fundamental dimensions - a
long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living. Three variables have
been chosen to represent those three dimensions - life expectancy, educational
attainment, and income3.

The statistics provided in the UNDP Report are stark and disturbing:
Of the 175 countries for which the HDI was calculated, 64 are in the high human
development category, 66 in the medium category and 45 in the low category. Thus, of
the world's 5.6 billion people, 1.3 billion (23%) are in the high human development
category, 2.6 billion (45%) in the medium category and 1.8 billion (32%) in the low
category.

One important finding of this year's HDI exercise is that the HDI values of about 30
countries are lower for 1994 than 19934.

This decline has given rise to two important observations:
“First, the decline mostly reflects a fall in life expectancy, school enrolment, or real GDP
per capita. Second, most affected countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa or in Eastern
Europe and the CIS or countries in conflict. In many Sub-Saharan countries such as
Botswana and Burundi, the shorter life expectancy reflects the toll of HIV/AIDS. The
shortened life expectancy, particularly among men, in Eastern Europe and the CIS
countries (for example, Armenia and Russia) reflects the changing social reality in those
countries. These trends signal worrying setbacks and reversals in the long-term gains in
human development.”5

3 Ibid. p. 45ff.
4 Ibid. p. 47.
5 Ibid. p.33.

1.3.2. Development is linked to poverty

In developing countries, the proportion of people in income poverty by the $1-a-day
measure declined from 34% to 32% in 1987-93, but the number of income-poor people
increased from 1.2 billion to 1.3 billion. The share of poor people declined rather slowly
in East and South Asia, and in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean
it even increased. In 1993 South Asia was home to two-fifths of the world's poor people
[515 million], and East Asia and South-East Asia and the Pacific to a third [446 million]6.

1.3.3. Poverty is linked to human development

Housing is fundamental to the formation of individual capabilities and to family and
community ties. But more than a billion people in developing countries live without
adequate shelter or in unacceptable housing. At least 600 million people live in dwellings
that threaten their health and lives.

The most extreme housing deprivation is to have no home, and worldwide an estimated
100 million are homeless. Children are worse affected -- in Brazil more than 200,000
children spend their lives on the streets7.

Simply put, a quarter of the world's population lives in poverty: In a global economy of
$25 trillion, this is a scandal -- reflecting shameful inequalities and inexcusable failures
of national and international policy8.

So, references to "developing" countries must always be based on an understanding that
the term includes the most impoverished and deprived people in the world.

6 Ibid. p.33
7 Ibid. p.29.
8 Ibid. p.2.

1.3.4. Poverty and Access to Information

The UNDP Report focuses not just on poverty but on how poverty limits human choices
and opportunities:
Critical dimensions of human poverty are lack of political freedom, inability to
participate in the decision-making, lack of personal security, inability to participate in the
life of a community, and threats to sustainability and intergenerational equity9. Poverty
also means a short life, lack of basic education, and limited or no access to public and
private resources10.

One conclusion of the UNDP is that the face of poverty is rapidly changing and the
poverty trap may be inescapable. It states:
“Today a poor person is more likely to be African, to be a child, a woman or an elderly
person in an urban area, to be landless, to live in an environmentally fragile area, and to
be a refugee or a displaced person.”

Progress in reducing human and income poverty is marked by discontinuity and
unevenness. The resulting disparity and the remaining backlog create and re-create
human poverty, a continuing and perpetuating process that the poor constantly struggle to
overcome11.

Throughout the report, the UNDP stressed the importance of participation not only in
combating poverty but also in recording poverty.
“In constructing any index of poverty (such as the human poverty index presented in this
Report), the selections and the weights have to be explicitly stated and clarified so that
public scrutiny can occur. It is very important that the standards to be used are not

9 Ibid. p.17.
10 Ibid. p.5.
11 Ibid. p.48.

determined on a top-down basis, but are open to--if possible, emerge from--a
participatory, democratic process.”12

1.3.5. The importance of “Access to Information” in Growth and Development

The UNDP emphasised the need to empower the ordinary person and ensure participation
in the processes that affect daily life:
“A strategy for poverty eradication must focus not only on what needs to be done, but
also on how to ensure that action is taken. This requires such fundamental reforms as
promoting political participation by all, ensuring accountability and transparency in
government, preventing the criminalisation of politics, promoting free flow of information
and freedom of the press, and ensuring a strong role for community groups and NGOs
[non-governmental organisations] in policy-making and legislative decision-making.”13

Empowerment and participation will help to ensure the involvement of ordinary people in
decisions that affect their lives and enable them to build their strengths and assets.

Uninformed people are clearly unable to participate fully in the political process. People
who have access to information, and who understand how to use that information in both
political and legal processes, become empowered.

Such was the case for 30,000 citizens of Ecuador who took a class action suit in New
York against Texaco, a major multinational oil corporation. After two decades of
pumping nearly all the oil produced in this small Andean country, Texaco pulled out in
1990, leaving behind hundreds of toxic waste pits. It was alleged by ecologists that the
company maximised profits by using cheap and environmentally unsound methods.14 The
court ordered the company to pay millions of dollars as compensation and clean-up costs.

12 Ibid. p.16.
13 Ibid. p.110.
14 The Guardian "Texaco billed by Ecuadoreans." David Sharrock. 6 February 1998.

Information is crucial in enabling people to make sound decisions about their lives.
Empowering people requires political commitments to policies that allow poor people to
become less vulnerable. Access to information is a key.

The UNDP Report noted that the economic resources to address poverty are not lacking -
it is the political will to tackle poverty head-on that is missing. Poor people must be
visible on the political map if their interests are to be advanced. Enabling policies for
poverty eradication include such fundamental reforms as promoting broader political
participation, ensuring accountability and transparency of government, preventing the
criminalisation of politics, promoting free flows of information, and ensuring a strong
role for community groups and NGOs in policy-making and legislative decision-
making15.

With access to information poor people can begin to organise themselves for collective
action to influence the decisions affecting their lives.

1.3.6. The Status of the Recipients
Viewing economic resources at a global level, the UNDP has noted that commercial
globalisation may offer opportunities for reducing poverty but only with careful
management of these resources and a more equitable distribution of benefits. Currently,
the least developed countries have 10% of the world's people but only 0.3% of world
trade. This is half their share of two decades ago.

The enormous disparity between the world's "haves" and "have-nots" is clear from the
following figures:
The share of the poorest 20% of the world's people in global income now stands at a
miserable 1.1%, down from 1.4% in 1991 and 2.35% in 1960. It continues to shrink. And
the ratio of the income of the top 20% to that of the poorest 20% rose from 30 to 1 in
1960, to 61 to 1 in 1991 -- and to a startling new high of 78 to 1 in 199416.

15 UNDP, op cit, extracts from p.6 onwards.
16 Ibid. p.9.

The UNDP found that two factors contributing to this inequitable situation are:
(i) Average tariffs on industrial country imports from the least developed countries are
30% higher than the global average.
(ii) Developing countries lose about $60 billion a year from agricultural subsidies and
barriers to textile exports in industrial nations17.

The report strongly recommended international support so that the debt of the poorest
countries can be reduced faster, their share of aid increased, and agricultural markets
opened for their exports:

The least developed countries, most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa, face the biggest
challenges in eradicating poverty in the next two or three decades. These are the countries
in greatest economic difficulty and most often in conflict. And these are the countries in
which human poverty is growing fastest18.

According to the report, international aid has been declining. It should be increased and
better directed by donors. Three major initiatives were suggested:

● More aid for the Sub-Saharan and other least developed countries,
● A shift in the use of aid away from expatriate technical assistance personnel and

towards long-term support for national capacity,
● A greater concentration of aid on countries demonstrating serious commitment to

poverty reduction and human development19.

It was also noted that over one hundred countries have prepared plans for combating
poverty by, for example, expanding education, improving food security, and ensuring
reproductive health.

17 Ibid. p.10.
18 Ibid. p.10.
19 Ibid. p.11.

With regard to reproductive health, failure to provide basic information and medical
resources has had devastating effects. An estimated 500,000 women die each year from
avoidable pregnancy-related causes; unsafe abortions cause the deaths of between 60,000
and 200,000 women annually and result in long-term ill-health for at least one million
others; AIDS has killed an estimated 2.5 million people and the rate of HIV infection is
thought to have doubled between 1990 and 199320.

On the positive side, an information project of the Chinese government and the United
Nations Population Fund is regarded as a breakthrough in removing coercion from family
planning in China. The policy of limiting couples to one child was imposed in China 20
years ago to stem a rapid growth in population, which now stands at 1.2 billion. Its
implementation has been widely criticised in the West where it has become synonymous
with forced sterilisations, abortions and cases of infanticide of female babies... In the 32
selected counties with a total population of between 17 and 20 million, all quotas and
targets for child births are being lifted in favour of education programmes in voluntary
family planning21.

If this approach succeeds, as it has in Sri Lanka, it could be extended throughout China.

The financial resources to give effect to plans such as these, based on access to
information, are in the gift of the industrialised nations. But decisions on lending,
spending, and borrowing are taken behind the closed doors of the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund.

1.3.7. Donor Governments and Organisations

Many questions related to international development aid and the need for greater
transparency and openness are being raised on an almost daily basis in the donor

20 ed. Colliver, Sandra The Right to Know : Human rights and access to reproductive health information,
Article 19 UK 1995, Preface.
21 The Irish Times "Beijing abandons one-child policy in certain pilot areas." Conor O'Cleary 16 March
1998.

countries. This is due to the Asian financial crisis and its potentially catastrophic effects
on financial and other markets. Especially interesting are the numerous references to a
lack of transparency and openness not only in recipient countries but also in donor
organisations. In the following extracts from the Financial Times, specific references to
information or transparency have been highlighted.

On 29 January 1998, the President of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn, wrote:
“...the crisis has revealed [that] political, financial, and corporate structures were not well
suited to cope with the demands of an increasingly globalised economy. What we now
see clearly is that weak financial sectors, corporate sectors, inadequate disclosure of
information and weaknesses in external liability management led to a misallocation of
resources and a build-up of short-term private sector debt. This was unsustainable, and
left economies vulnerable to sudden collapse of confidence.”

He then referred to the challenge of creating corrective measures to ensure sustainable
growth:
“The World Bank is participating in this challenge, supporting east Asian governments in
designing and carrying out three principal objectives:
(i) Adopting wide-ranging reforms in the corporate and financial sector;
(ii) Improving the quality and transparency of key government institutions, including
addressing issues of corruption and accountability;
(iii) Strengthening social protections for the poor.
Citizens are rightly troubled about how governments will deal with the most pressing
questions. Asian leaders must recognise the link between good economic performance
and open government. Irrespective of political systems, public decisions must be brought
right into the sunshine of public scrutiny. Not simply to please the markets, but to build
the broad social consensus without which even the best conceived economic strategies
will ultimately fail.”22

22 Financial Times "Asia: the long view." James Wolfensohn, 29 January 1998.

On 9 February 1998, in a report from Caracas, Michel Camdessus, head of the IMF, was
reported to have urged greater say for the poorer members of the organisation. Speaking
at a conference of the so-called Group of 24 developing countries, he said that the IMF
"has to permanently adapt to better reflect its membership, and if that leads to an
increased representation of the developing world, so be it." He was responding to
criticism not only from representatives of poorer countries but also from leading
commentators and academics that the IMF had handled the Asian crisis badly23.

In an interview published in the same edition, Mr Camdessus referred to the lack of
reliable information:
“Another problem was that available economic data was hugely unreliable. Mr.
Camdessus was too polite to say so, but it is now clear that the South Koreans had
actively misled western bankers about the liquidity of their reserves and the leverage of
their banking system. An improvement in the quality and quantity of such information is
central to the IMF's plans for fending off future crises”24.

On the following day, 10 February 1998, an editorial recommended that the US Congress
(in reviewing the Clinton administration's request to increase US funding for the IMF)
raise questions "about the Fund's stewardship and overall accountability":

“When it gets reasonable answers, [Congress] should vote the money. For no one has

come up with a credible alternative to letting the IMF take the lead in managing financial

crises ... Predictably, however, some on the left complain that the IMF forces countries to

cut social and environmental spending, while others on the new-isolationist right air their

visceral dislike of an institution like the IMF. Other criticisms can be leveled against the

IMF: it failed to spot the extent of Asia's problems in time; its programmes are still

insufficiently transparent.

If Congress was to tie a review of these issues to its approval of new IMF money, it could

23 Financial Times "IMF chief sees bigger role for poorer nations." Raymond Colitt 9 February 1998.
24 Financial Times "Defending the Fund." Richard Lambert, 9 February 1998.

do everyone a service. Because the US is the IMF's biggest shareholder, it has the power
to encourage openness where other parliaments cannot. It should use this power, but
responsibly25.”

On 16 February 1998, a full column leader in the Financial Times dealt with reforms. It
referred to the six recommendations advanced by Mr. Camdessus:

● the need for more effective surveillance of countries and greater transparency;
● heightened regional surveillance;
● financial sector reform, including improved prudential regulation and supervision;
● more effective structure for orderly workouts, including bankruptcy laws at the

national level;
● orderly, properly sequenced and cautious capital account liberalisation; and,
● strengthening of international financial institutions including his own.

The leader concluded that "More effective surveillance and greater transparency are
indeed needed, even though too much must not be expected from either. Governments
will always conceal what they are doing when in serious difficulty."26

This is a discouraging conclusion for the future of access to information. The onus in
achieving transparency is on the developing countries rather than on the donor
organisations or the donor governments. For development aid to be effective, the
recipients must possess the information necessary to make full use of that aid.

1.3.8. Access to Information and Development Programmes

The need for access to information and the ability of a local community to engage
effectively in development projects were discussed in a research project published in
South Africa in June 1995. Part of the brief of Coming Clean: Creating Transparency in
Development Funding in South Africa was an investigation of the issue of transparency.

25 Financial Times Leader article: "IMF funding." 10 February 1998.
26 Financial Times Leader article: "East Asian Shipwreck." 16 February 1998.

Simply put, the researchers wanted to determine the extent to which community members
had access to information about development processes taking place where they live. The
issue was transparency in relation to development funding. We hypothesised that control
of funding and access to information about funding was one of the crucial areas where
people concerned exert influence over development projects27.
The conclusion was clear. From the standpoint of communities, a major consideration is
the lack of transparency associated with allocating funding for development. This
shortfall is closely involved with the lack of access by communities to the process, which
puts in place physical and social development initiatives intended to help them28.
The provision of development aid may be conditional on adopting and implementing
human rights standards. For this reason, and because the question is intrinsically
interesting, it is important to look at the international and regional instruments to which
both donor and recipient countries subscribe and to consider whether or not the principles
on which they are based are of universal application.

27 Cross, Catherine et al Coming Clean: Creating Transparency in Development Funding in South Africa
Durban June 1995 p.3.
28 Ibid. p.1