Although access to information laws offer at least some protection for people’s right to information in about half of African countries, the pandemic has highlighted how weak these protections still are in practice.
In addition to limiting access to information, governments have harassed and arrested activists and journalists for releasing statistics or other information on covid-19 in Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria and elsewhere on the continent.
Many African countries — including leading democracies such as Botswana and Namibia — still lack laws protecting access to information. And where laws do exist, they vary widely in quality, implementation and enforcement.
Do citizens believe in their right to information? And are they able to actually obtain information from government?
Findings from Afrobarometer’s Round 7 (2016-2018) surveys in 34 countries reveal that Africans support access to information — but they’re not confident they can get it. And lack of access to information is strongly associated with higher perceptions of corruption among elected leaders and government officials.
The information is there — in principle
Africa has played a prominent role in the global blossoming of declarations and initiatives over the past decade, aimed at promoting freedom of and access to information as a basic right and a prerequisite for democratic governance.
Among ordinary Africans, a majority agree that their governments should be required to share information with the public: 56 percent — including majorities in 26 of 33 countries — reject the proposition that “information held by public authorities is only for use by government officials” (Figure 1). Only in Guinea does a majority (51 percent) believe their government should be able to restrict access to information.
Figure 1: Support for public access to information | 33 countries | 2016/2018
But do citizens have access to information in practice?
Even for fairly non-threatening types of information — like how to register a business — only a narrow majority (54 percent) rate their chances of obtaining it as “somewhat” or “very” likely (Figure 2).
When it comes to budgets or land records that the public might use to hold government officials accountable, access to information is more limited. Only about one in three citizens think they could get information about their local government’s development plans and budgets (34 percent) or a school budget (38 percent). And only slightly more citizens (41 percent) believe they would be able to access information on land ownership.
Figure 2: Access to information | 34 countries | 2016/2018
Countries vary significantly in their openness. For example, majorities in just three countries expect success in obtaining local government development plans and budgets: Tanzania (59 percent), Lesotho (51 percent) and Cabo Verde (50 percent). In contrast, only about 1 in 5 people hold this view in Sierra Leone (22 percent) and Namibia (20 percent) (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Access to information: Local development plan and budget | 34 countries | 2016/2018
![Afrobarometer surveys asked: “How likely is it that you could get the following information from government or other public institutions, or haven’t you heard enough to say: If you went to the [local government office] to find out about the [district] development plan and budgets?”](https://www.almendron.com/tribuna/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/africans-find-it-hard-to-learn-what-their-governments-are-up-to-3.jpg)
Is access to information linked to level of democracy?
Surprisingly, we find no clear links between a country’s level of democracy and its citizens’ perceptions of access to information.
Take the example of two countries that U.S.-based pro-democracy think tank and watchdog Freedom House ranks as “free.” Cabo Verdeans rate their country relatively high across all four categories of access to information, yet Namibians rate their country very low.
Meanwhile, citizens in “partly free” Burkina Faso, Lesotho and Tanzania report levels of access similar to those in Cabo Verde. Even eSwatini, one of the continent’s least democratic countries, is not far behind. It’s not that these less-democratic countries are especially open; rather, even the best-performing democracies are still remarkably limited in terms of access to information.
How does openness affect how people see their government?
Does more openness on the part of governments translate into greater trust or higher citizen ratings, as some open-government advocates argue? We find only limited evidence of a link between transparency (with regard to school budgets) and popular trust (in parliament and local government councils).
Much stronger evidence points to a link between transparency and citizens’ perceptions of government corruption. Better access to school budgets and local government development plans and budgets is strongly associated with lower levels of perceived corruption among officials in the presidency, as well as parliamentarians, local government councilors and government officials.
These surveys suggest African governments and civil society groups such as the International Budget Partnership, the Africa Freedom of Information Center and the Open Government Partnership have their work cut out for them.
There is a growing recognition, both within governments and in civil society, of the central importance of open access to information for accountable, transparent and democratic governance. But many countries have yet to pass laws granting essential access to information, and it’s clear from these findings that where laws exist, implementation is a challenge. Even in the best-performing countries, only narrow majorities are confident they can access the types of information that hold governments accountable.
Joseph Asunka (@joeasunka) is CEO of Afrobarometer. Carolyn Logan (@carolynjlogan) is director of analysis for Afrobarometer and associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Michigan State University.