Resources

The year 2019 was marked for completing ten years of enactment of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Need for stocktaking of the implementation status of the act was strongly felt. It is out of this felt need that a national survey was commissioned by the World Bank a follow-up that was implemented by a consortium comprised of Manusher Jonno Foundation, MRDI and a leading survey company. The objective of the survey was to take an unbiased account of the current status of implementation of the RTI Act that would eventually enable policymakers and RTI activists to undertake future RTI interventions. The survey involved providers and seekers of information, media, CSOs, RTI activists and experts in the process.

RTI national survey 2019

MRDI conducted a survey to assess the knowledge of RTI Act among the youth, and their perception about its use to access information required to solve their individual problems and those of their country. This survey looks at the concerns of the youth that they think affect their potential as a person, as a social being and as a citizen of a nation. It also explores the role of information in addressing the concerns of the youth and offers some solutions from the recommendations of the youth and experts who work in this field.

Information to empower youth (survey report 2020)

The National Portal of Bangladesh connects 25,000 websites and 42,000 government offices and helps citizens access information. The district portals face more challenges than the national portals because they not only serve the local citizens in different locations, but also deal with the local governments and public administration. Following three consecutive assessments conducted for the ministries with support of World Bank on proactive disclosure, MRDI carried out a study aiming to identify the level of information disclosure by the district portals and add some recommendations to improve their performance. This report is a compilation of the findings and recommendations of the study.

Proactive disclosure assessment report: district portal 2018

As owners of all powers of the state, people have the right of access to all information. To ensure this right of the citizens, Right to Information Act was passed by the parliament in 2009 which makes it mandatory for the authorities to disclose information sought by citizens. While Article 4 of the Act imposes compulsion of disclosure, Article 7 makes some exemption to it. The Article mentions some areas and criteria, information on which are not mandatory to be disclosed. But it has been observed that knowingly or unknowingly, this Article has been misused or wrongly used, thus RTI applicants getting deprived of information.
To make a deeper analysis of the Article, MRDI conducted a perception survey that tried to find its scope, relevance, overlap or conflicting issues and need for expanding or reducing areas of exemption. Methodologies including key informant interview, focus group discussion, divisional workshop and national seminar were applied in conducting the survey. Participants of these interactions shared their perception and made their comments. The survey chalked out a set of recommendations on the basis of the responses, keeping the spirit of the Act in mind. This publication is a compilation of the findings, comments, and recommendations of the survey.

Report perception survey on section 7 of RTIA

Citizens’ access to information in South Asia- diagnostic analysis- Bangladesh chapter

Most of the South Asian countries enacted Right to Information laws during first decade of the century. This Regional Synthesis Report brings together information collected through Country Diagnostic Studies (CDS) conducted by The Asia Foundation and civil society organisations in several South Asian countries including MRDI in Bangladesh. The CDS analyses the state of people’s access to information, and the implementation of RTI legislation in these countries.

Citizens’ access to information in South Asia: Regional synthesis report

Baseline survey report: Promoting citizens’ access to information project

This is a publication on perception of the grassroots people and concepts of stakeholders on Right to Information Act. Perception of different stakeholders generated from roundtables organized at divisional towns. These discussions covered general awareness on the act, perception about the Information Commission, strengths and weaknesses of the RTI Act, challenges at the demand and supply sides in implementing the act, actions and standard criteria for the implementation of this right, incidents and duties of application of this law have also been discussed. Moreover, strength and limitations of this law, challenges to implement it have also been focused here.

তথ্য অধিকার আইন: তৃণমূলের কন্ঠস্বর ( RTI voice of the grassroots- summary of keynote paper in national seminar ‘RTI: How to move forward’ bangla)