Does access to information contribute to sustainable development?
Human life in society seems inconceivable without adequate information. This is based on the fact that humans are social beings endowed with the special ability to communicate. As a member of any given society, first of all you need to know your rights and responsibilities in other to realize your own goals as an individual and also contribute to the attainment of the goals of the community. Besides, you need information to know how to orientate yourself in your environment. In addition, you need information to know what to do when there is an outbreak of disease or war. Furthermore, you need information to take important decisions in life. Access to information –either in written or oral form - provides the human person with some kind of knowledge about his / her environment and what the society expects of him/her.
Considering the necessity of this basic human right, the United Nations Organization affirms in Article 19 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948): “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Enshrined in this article are the rights of citizens to be informed and to share their ideas with others (freedom of speech) without hindrance. These two rights are the preconditions for the attainment of other rights. For example, if citizens of a given country are denied access to information and if they cannot express their views freely, how would they know about their other rights such as the right to good medical care, food, shelter, education?
As a result the UN includes the right to information as one of the targets of the newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To rid the contemporary society of its numerous divisive conflicts and wars, and foster peace in the society, which is necessary for sustainable development, SDG 16.10 attaches great importance to “public access to information and protection of fundamental freedoms.” These two elements facilitate development in any society.
However, in most developing countries under authoritarian regimes citizens hardly know what the government does, nor how it spends its budget. Similarly, the government seems not to know exactly what its citizens need, especially the poor and marginalized, who are excluded from mainstream governance processes. In such countries there exists information gap. Corruption thrives in such an atmosphere.
Two experts, who work as information intermediaries in two developing countries in Asia and Africa, give their views regarding how access to information contributes to sustainable development. Oludotun Babayemi is co-founder of Connected Development (CODE), an NGO that was founded in 2012 in Nigeria. While Chan Penhleak, is the Regional Network and Partnership Support Manager of Open Development Initiative (ODI), in Cambodia. Both agree that giving citizens access to information enables them to participate in the development and life of their society. More so, it makes the government to be transparent and accountable.