Promoting Transparency through Increased Access to Information

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Panelist at the seminar on Promoting Transparency through Increased Access to Information at Sunway Hotel.
Date: 3 July, 2014
Photo by Open Institute

The seminar on “Promoting Transparency through Increased Access to Information” was held on 3rd July 2014 at Sunway Hotel, Phnom Penh. The purpose of this seminar was to promote the critical use of ICT to achieve information transparency and to encourage citizen's to be active participants in the use of and dissemination of information. Those in attendance included representatives of the Youth, Commune Councilors, Non-Government Organizations, and International Organizations. The seminar was co-organized by the Demand for Good Governance Project (Ministry of Interior), People Health for Development Association, Khmer Youth and Social Development, Cambodian Center for Independent Media, and Open Institute. More than 100 people attended the seminar that afternoon. The seminar was funded by SPIDER (The Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions).
Ms. Auv Rany, Director of Information Department of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, delivered the opening speech on the importance of ICT users to get involved with the government in order to increase access to information for a civil society. She stated, “You, the young generation are the drive for change in Cambodia. In order to promote women empowerment, access to information is part of helping women, information can be divided for business, for life, for good governance, but its impact is just not critical for men but for women as well.” She explained that the objective of the seminar to share information in order to push for transparency and to use social media to achieve gender equality.
Dr. Raymond, a member of the Board of Directors for Open Institute, stated in his welcome remarks, “internet penetration is still low in Cambodia compared to other developing countries but there has been an increased use of internet and the explosive increase use of Facebook in Phnom Penh,” suggesting the need to get more people connected especially those in rural areas. Mr. Bouth Chik, Manager of Demand for Good Governance project at the Ministry of Interior, continued the seminar by stating that information is a key component to good governance. He added, “Information is our power! Information is our food! Information is the asset in the business conception!” Concluding the open remarks, H.E.M.Kem Gunawadh, General Director at General Department of National Television of Kampuchea (TVK), expressed that the issue is just not access to information but many are illiterate and lack knowledge on how to share information properly and positively. He further stated that Facebook can be a useful tool to share information with everyone. He suggested, “All youth should get involved in sharing information. We are very proud that political leaders have Facebook, and this kind of communication between youth and leaders is effective to voice what we want, what we demand, and how can we convince them to get the change we want.”
Four invited guest speakers presented individual presentations on the seminar's topic. Mr. Nop Vy, Program Manager of Media Development at Cambodia Center for Independent Media (CCIM), presented CCIM's goals and mission on using independent media, VOD Radio and bulk SMS, to inform and empower the people of Cambodia. Whereas, Mr. Phop Phan Barmey, Program Manager of Access to Information at Advocacy and Policy Institute, declared that it is the right of the people of Cambodia to have access to information and we should move toward an open government. He goes on to say, “Over 60 countries have an open government and Cambodia has not reached that point yet. When the government has accountability and transparency then the people will have trust in the government.”

Participants attended the seminar on Promoting Transparency through Increased Access to Information.
Date: 3 July, 2014
Photo by Open InstituteMr. Pick Pisey, Program Manager at Transparency International Cambodia, advocated for increase youth participation, “youth are the future, the agent for social change.” He presented a smart phone app called “Bribespot.com” that can be downloaded and used by citizens to report forms of bribery by location, type of exchange, parties involved, date, and cash amount. Ms. Sok Sokunthea, Program Manager at Open Institute, discussed the importance of youths' participation on social media such as posting on the Dialogue on Development Facebook page as a means to increase youths' voice on advocating for equality and human rights. Across all four presenters, one clear message resonated from the seminar; now is the time to invest in providing youth with various forms of ICT training, activities, knowledge, and tools in order to attain information transparency and accountability. Adopting this ideology and initiative, Cambodia can strive to operate under good governance and provide equality to the people of Cambodia.
A Question and Answer session was conducted to allow attendees the opportunity to engage in an open dialogue. One particular question posed by Ms. Chim Manavy, Executive Director of the Open Institute, focused on the current status of drafting Law of Access to Information, that whether is it available for public discussion. H.E. Kem Gunawadh, TVK General Director, responded that the policy of Access to Information is in the current process of being drafted and that there are series of critical steps that must be met whether some parts of the policy can be integrated into the Access to Information Law before it can be shared to the public and stakeholders.

All winners D&D facebook and Sarika Radio FM 106.5 Award in Seminar on “Promoting Transparency through Increased Access to Information”.
Date: 03 July 2014
Photo by Open InstituteDuring the seminar, participants broke into small group discussions to answer a set of questions such as “Discuss the challenges youth face regarding increasing transparency and access to information”. This session was very engaging and insightful for attendees in terms of processing and applying the information they recently received from the workshop presentations. The discussion found out the most challenge for Youth is that the free flow of information some time provides inaccurate information that has negative impact on Youth. Youth need to learn to identify the source of information that is reliable.
The positive impact of using ICT to promote transparency was evident in the 10 Facebook awards presented at the seminar. Winners shared how relevant and important the Dialogue on Development Facebook page was for them as a citizen of Cambodia to share information and to voice their concerns within the society. When the winners were asked why they found the Facebook page interesting, Ms. Yim Chanvinit, a winner replied “I am a woman. It is my responsibility as a woman to share information about our livelihood. We should share this kind of information to other people to help other people understand and to better our society.” Another student, Mr. Kosal, another winner stated “I like to share information and to develop our country. It is important to share the knowledge together. The award is not my final goal, but is about my responsibility as Youth to share new information and knowledge to my friends.”
The seminar's closing remarks focused on the concept that progress has been made over the past decade, but much more work needs to be done. We must continue our efforts and commitment to enhance the social and economic development of Cambodia and one way is to increase the use of ICT to promote transparency and accountability. Ms. Chim Manavy said. Mr. Chan Nath, President and Secretary General, of Cambodia Information Technology Association-CITA, noted, “All sectors, transparency plays a key role. In the past, we did not receive information but now we have social media. He continued nearly 2 million people using social media, and when you share information to people it can reach to millions of people. We hope they can see that use of this kind of technology can promote the importance of transparency.” Mr. Bouth Chik, Manager of Demand for Good Governance project, concluded the session by iterating the need for Cambodia to see technology as a good factor and to expand dissemination of information.

H.E.M Kem Gunawadh, TVK General Director, answered the question on drafting law of access to formation at the seminar on Promoting Transparency through Increased Access to Information. Date: 03 July 2014 Photo by Open Institute	Mr. Bouth Chik, Manager of Demand for Good Governance project, delivered remake at the seminar on Promoting Transparency through Increased Access to Information. Date: 03 July 2014 Photo by Open Institute
Dr. Raymond, a member on the Board of Directors delivered his opening remarks at the seminar on Promoting Transparency through Increased Access to Information. Date: 03 July 2014 Photo by Open Institute	Ms. Chim Manavy, Executive Director delivered her closing remarks at the seminar on Promoting Transparency through Increased Access to Information. Date: 03 July 2014 Photo by Open Institute