La planification stratégique permet à une organisation de fixer ses priorités et d’assurer que ses agents puissent travailler vers des buts communs. - 09/12/2014

L’AOMF a organisé sa 14^e session de formation à Rabat sur le thème de « la planification stratégique, vectrice de performance pour les institutions d’Ombudsmans et Médiateurs dans l’espace francophone ». Cette formation a réuni plus de trente participants des institutions du Maroc, Québec, Bénin, Guinée, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Tunisie, Sénégal, Haïti, Niger, Belgique, et France ainsi que du Médiateur européen, de l’OCDE et de la Commission de Venise.

Il est ainsi ressorti de cette formation que pour mener à bien l’élaboration d’un plan stratégique, il est essentiel pour une institution de connaître son environnement interne et externe en réalisant des consultations des parties prenantes afin de pouvoir identifier les bons enjeux, faire les bons choix stratégiques, tout en tenant compte de sa capacité organisationnelle. Cela permet de parvenir à l’établissement d’un diagnostic de l’institution et à réfléchir sur ses perspectives d’évolution, avant de déterminer les choix reflétés dans le plan stratégique.

L’étape suivante étant la réalisation d’outils de suivi de gestion et d’indicateurs d’évaluation afin de mettre en œuvre les objectifs fixés dans le plan stratégique.

La dernière étape est la gestion de la performance : la reddition de comptes constitue la base pour assurer la transparence et la légitimité d’une institution. À l’externe elle sert à démontrer, preuves à l’appui, l’importance et l’impact de l’Institution auprès des citoyens et de justifier l’utilisation des fonds publics. À l’interne elle a pour but de démontrer au personnel l’impact de leur travail, maintenir un esprit de corps ainsi que démontrer que l’Institution est dans la bonne voie dans la poursuite de ses objectifs stratégiques.

The following article is reprinted from the Worldwide Web Foundation website where it appeared Dec. 9. For more information, contact Savita Bailur, savita.bailur@webfoundation.org FreedomInfo.org is interested in your reactions to this article. Please send comments to freeinfo@gwu.edu.

“Data are the lifeblood of decision-making and the raw material for accountability,” says a new UN report. We couldn’t agree more. At a recent workshop with the Independent Expert Advisory Group’s lead author, Claire Melamed, participants (including Publish What You Fund, ONE Campaign, Open Data Watch and other partners) reflected on what it would take to bring about a “data revolution” to make the global fight against poverty more effective. One of the main challenges raised was institutional resistance to data disclosure — a barrier highlighted in the Web Foundation’s 17-country study of the uses of data in day-to-day governance. To build a true  “data revolution”, we believe there is need for a paradigm shift to a Right to Data (RTD), drawing valuable lessons from the successful Right to Information movements across the world.

What do we mean by “Right to Data”?

Around 100 countries have now passed Right to Information (RTI) laws, enshrining a universal right of access to information and/or documents (though not always both) in the possession of government departments and agencies, and imposing on such entities additional obligations to publish and make available specific information. We believe that there should be more awareness on the legal right to reactive disclosure through using RTI (i.e., submitting RTI requests). Furthermore, we believe RTI law can be framed to provide for proactive disclosure that explicitly addresses issues of open data (with governments disclosing raw data in machine-readable formats, and with permission for the data to be re-used).

A Right to Data embedded in strong legislation is important for the reason that any violation or refusal to provide data in open format could be challenged in quasi-judicial or judicial bodies. The focus on open data is largely channelled through arguments of transparency/accountability, economic and social benefits; while these arguments are indisputable, it is equally important to fight for data as a right. Countries such as  Kenya and the Philippines have open data policies and portals, and are members of the Open Government Partnership, however neither country has guaranteed the RTI in law — Kenya has no RTI law and the Philippines is currently on the threshold of passing one. Civil society groups in both countries have been advocating for the enactment of strong RTI laws, with the understanding of a citizen’s right to information. Two years after the launch of Kenya’s open data portal, Bitange Ndemo — former Permanent Secretary of the Kenya’s Ministry of Information and Communication and one of the chief architects of the Kenya open data portal — stated at the Connected Kenya forum that the “lack of the Freedom of Information Act means that we cannot take any action on government bodies that refuse to release data or refuse to respond”.

Building bridges between RTI and open data

Right to Data should constitute an inalienable part of a country’s RTI law.  In our ODDC research, we found countries at different stages of the relationship between RTI and open data. In countries with strong RTI laws, like India, research from The Energy and Resource Institute found energy resource data mostly unavailable, unusable where available, and, in general, of extremely poor quality. In the absence of good quality data, open data intermediaries can help strengthen the proactive regime by advocating for and helping release relevant datasets; however, embedding data publication requirements into a country’s RTI law will ensure the availability of better quality, timely, and reusable datasets.

On the other hand, where RTI laws have emerged more recently, open data and RTI movements are becoming closely aligned, and involve many of the same actors, such as in Nepal, where RTI advocates are now working to also secure open data access to budget data.

In Sierra Leone, advocacy from the Society for Democratic Initiatives (SDI) along with other groups, has led to the creation of a separate Information Commissioner for Open Data within the RTI structure, who could potentially look at making proactive disclosures open, structured and reusable.

The Freedom of Information (FOI) bill being discussed in the Philippines has included open data provisions with a clause mandating the government to regularly update datasets on the data portal. This was again a result of the Open Data Task Force lobbying with the MPs to shape this provision. While the Full Disclosure Policy mandates the publication of key datasets in an open format online, compliance with the policy is at the discretion of local government; embedding this requirement in a national RTI law would strengthen compliance and would strengthen open data practice.

Of course, more action will be needed to ensure such legislation “has teeth”.  Greater dialogue and coordinated efforts between the RTI and open data communities would not only reduce duplication of efforts, but would also go a long way toward achieving this goal by strengthening both movements toward the common aims of transparency and accountability.

Our recommendations to the Independent Expert Advisory Group

1. Raise awareness amongst all stakeholders on using RTI laws to gain access to data reactively as a first step. For example, in the case of India, RTI has become mainstream, but not open data — joint efforts between the movements would help to raise awareness of the open data movement.
2. Suggest mapping RTI legislation at the threshold of enactment in various countries and advocate for open data to be explicitly embedded where this is not the case.
3. Specify key datasets, such as budgets and spending, land data, contracts, company records, etc. to be made available in open format as right to data in RTI laws.
4. At the Web Foundation, with a strong rights based focus on data and information, we advocate for bridging this gap between the two communities through projects such as Exploring the emerging impacts of open data in developing countries (ODDC) and current work on Freedom of Information and open data project in Aceh, Indonesia. We would share research findings with IEAG between RTI and open data communities through cross-fertilisation at regional workshops, or a dedicated RTI and open data track at major conferences, such as the upcoming international open data conference in Ottawa or RightsCon in the Philippines.

The revolution has to be real — one of action, and not just words. We strongly recommend the UN Secretary General’s Independent Expert Advisory Group on a Data Revolution for Sustainable Development consider a “right to data” front and centre in the data revolution, and recognise that, in the words of social reformer Frederick Douglass, “power concedes nothing without demand.”

HUMAN RIGHTS 365. This is the theme which this year marks the International Human Rights Day. The fundamental postulates on which the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is based, point to the fact that freedoms and rights are given to everyone, everywhere in the world, in every time and place. The joint values should be shared by everyone without reservations, limitations and obstacles. Only like that we could succeed to be equal to each other and to enjoy the freedoms and rights.

Today when we celebrate the International Human Rights Day its slogan reminds us that each single day we should strive for its practical implementation in accordance to the highest human rights standards.

The unsatisfied citizens who visit the Ombudsman Office on a daily basis, the marginalized and vulnerable groups, the citizens who every day face the question of their own survival, perceive the human rights as something abstract and far from their everyday reality.

This day should be an occasion to think of these citizens whose right to free life is denied, to children and their right to warm home, to women, old persons, persons who need assistance and support and to those who do not have food and access to clean water. The news about the wars, about the refugees and those who leave their homes only to save their bare lives and to wander around the world, only confirm that not everywhere and not everyone enjoy the human rights.

This equally worry us, the human rights defenders, who on this particular day should be among the loudest in support to the slogan HUMAN RIGHTS 365. 

This year 10th of December is also a jubilee, 30 years from the adoption of the Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This is another occasion to send a message to all state bodies and other stakeholders in the society to fully implement and respect the provisions from this Convention for the simple reason that everyone, even those who are deprived of liberty, deserve a human treatment and respect of their dignity. Only the humanity is a human virtue. We should all show it and unselfishly strive for equal rights and access to all citizens without discrimination.