African Alliance helps shape UNESCO statement on access to data

Thanks to the African Alliance for Access to Data, the world now has an influential statement to advance this area of transparency and empowerment.

This is the Accra Statement, agreed at UNESCO’s conference in early October 2024 to mark the International Day for Universal Access to Information.

This new reference point is titled “Harnessing the Power of Data for Positive Change: A Commitment to Strengthening Access to Information in the Digital Age”. The rich document reflects extensive earlier consultations under the auspices of the Alliance, and further inputs gathered during the conference itself.

Speaking at the close of the conference, UNESCO’s Assistant Director General Tawfik Jelassi hailed the Accra Statement as expressing “our common commitment to implementing the ideas and solutions discussed during the two days.”

Eleven groups and networks contributed messages of support to the statement.

The meeting was attended by Ministers from Ghana, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Gabon, and Zambia, as well as Geereesha Topsy Sono, the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression and Access to Information who is a member of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR).

The Rapporteur met with Alliance members to explore a possible instrument for presentation at the ACHPR.  Discussions are ongoing.

Conversations also took place with the African Network of Information Commissioners, an active member of the Alliance. ANIC member, Sierra Leone’s Information Commission, is host in 2025 of the International Conference of Information Commissioners, which is a further opportunity to address the agenda.

A week after the UNESCO conference, the Africa Facts Network also met in Accra, and adopted the Accra Declaration on Information Integrity and Resilience.  The text recognises “the urgent need to build Africa’s capacity to produce, analyse, publish, and use accurate data and information to underpin evidence-based policy development and monitor progress, thereby promoting accountability, transparency, and informed honest public debate”.

After hearing a presentation on data access and fact-checking, the Network agreed to observe Alliance meetings with a view to possibly joining the coalition.