The Access Initiative (TAI) in Zimbabwe

The Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) is leading the national coalition and coordinating activities for The Access Initiative (TAI) in Zimbabwe. TAI is a global coalition of non governmental organizations (NGOs) that work together with governments and quasi-government institutions, private sector, civic society and communities to assess the progress made by states in implementing Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development of 1992.

Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration states that “Environmental issues are best handled with the participation of all concerned citizens, at the relevant level. At the national level, each individual shall have appropriate access to information concerning the environment that is held by public authorities, including information on hazardous materials and activities in their communities and the opportunity to participate in decision making processes. States shall facilitate and encourage public awareness and participation by making information widely available. Effective access to judicial and administrative proceedings, including redress and remedy shall be provided.” The initiative therefore seeks to ensure that state parties guarantee public access to environmental information which is vital if members of the public are to effectively participate in environmental governance as well as seek judicial redress if their environmental rights are infringed upon.

In Zimbabwe, the coalition consists of the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association as the lead organization and two other NGOs i.e. Environment Africa and the Zimbabwe Institute of Rural and Urban Planners. There is also a national review panel that consists of 9 prominent persons from the NGO sector, government, research institutions, quasi government organizations, the media as well as universities. The National Review panel is responsible for reviewing the research findings as well as giving advice to the researchers. It is envisaged that the involvement of the national review panel will assist the researchers in coming up with a comprehensive and objective report on the level of implementation of Principle 10 by Zimbabwe.

The research team has so far managed to carry out research throughout that country assessing the level of implementation of the principle by different government and quasi government institutions, the private sector as well as the NGO sector. Preliminary findings indicate that government and the NGO Sector are very forthcoming with environmental information and that government has taken commendable steps in implementing the principles of the Rio Declaration. The private sector on the other hand, tends to cringe whenever they are asked about information concerning their operations, even though the information relates only to environmental issues. The judiciary in the country is also ready to deal with environmental complaints although members of the public are not aware of their environmental rights and therefore rarely take environmental issues to courts for redress.

The Access Initiative (TAI) held its first Global Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand from the 25-27^th of April 2006. The main objective of the meeting was to bring together all the countries that are involved in TAI so that they can share experiences and ideas on how best to carry out the TAI assessments in the different countries. There were 75 delegates from 40 different countries and Zimbabwe was represented by ZELA.

More information on TAI can be accessed at: www.accessinitiative.org; www.pp10.org ;