Transparency International Vanuatu Congratulates the Vanuatu Daily Post On 5,000th Issue…
Past Year Has Been Good For Politics
TRANSPARENCY VANUATU SAYS the past year has been a relatively settled one for the country’s politics, which could be a good omen.
It’s one year since the country went to the polls to vote in a snap election called after half the previous government was jailed for corruption.
The country has been plagued by regular motions of no confidence and changes of government since independence in 1980.
A board member for Transparency Vanuatu, Evelyne Toa, said many people went to those elections with a sense of optimism that there could be change.
She said the new government had been pushing for large scale reforms to bring stability, some of which have proved controversial and would be challenging to implement.
However, Ms Toa said things do appear to be more settled, but the hard work for the government was yet to come.
“One year on, but that doesn’t mean that we are strong and stable,” she said.
“After one year we’re still, you know, trying our best to have this government going on for the next three years. So that’s their aim, they always talk [about] their commitment to political stability but that will depend on our elected members.”
Overspending Needs To be Tightened
Some overspending facts that shows why we need to tighten government expenditures.
MOU Signing Paves Way For Proper Management Of Records And Information
“Implementation of the RTI law will not succeed without good record keeping”, he said…
What We Are Doing This 16 Days Of Activism
What we are doing during this 16 Days of Activism?
The Government’s Right To Information Unit, the Media Asosiesen Blong Vanuatu (MAV) and Transparency International Vanuatu (TIV) are visiting communities in Port Vila to inform the them about the Right To Information Bill that was recently passed by Parliament and how the implementation phase will roll out.
Why?
The Right To Information Law is the Peoples Law, therefore the people must be informed of how, and why, they need to use it.
Advising people that a powerful law like the Right To Information Law would just be another piece of paper unless it is used.
Lastly, now that the Right To Information Bill has passed, the people deserve the right to know what will happen next in its implementation phase.
Social Media Workshop Up-skills Media In Vanuatu
IN HIS 1997 ADDRESS at the United Nations former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said “knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.”
As Vanuatu races towards achieving its objective to technologically connect 98% of the country by 2018 the citizens, and especially those that work in mass communication, need to be updated on how to use trending communication tools and applications that everybody else around the world is using.
From the 22nd to the 24th of November 2016, the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS) hosted a 3 day Digital and Social Media Workshop for media specialists and journalists around Port Vila at the Vanuatu Institute of Technology.
The workshop was facilitated by David Bathur the co-founder of a consultancy firm is called Simpatico based in Australia. Simpatico is a training and consulting firm dedicated to helping organizations to ‘digitally transform’ themselves.
Focusing on how to deliver accurate information to readers, the workshop revealed to the participant’s internet tools that can be used to identify the background or find out whether a news article or a trending photo is genuine or fake.
The workshop assisted participants to create accounts in the different social media platforms as well how to reach as many people as possible with information.
In an interview with the former head of the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer in 2014, Mr. Fred Samuel told Transparency International Vanuatu that “information is like power, and with this power comes responsibility, we have to use information for the right purposes.”
Therefore, having the right training’s and professional advice is a key to ensuring that information is shared responsibly.
As more media platforms are introduced to share information with the masses it is the responsibility of those that facilitate that process to be insightful of these media platforms and to be up-skilled to be able to contribute to national development.
Successfull RTI Campaign
IT HAD BEEN a successful year-long campaign for Transparency International Vanuatu (TIV) since November 2015 in our nation-wide activity of consulting and informing the people of Vanuatu about the Bill for the Right To Information (RTI) Act which is currently listed to be tabled in Parliament this week.
More than a year ago in 2015 the first consultation sessions kick started in the town of Luganville where over five hundred people were informed about the RTI Bill on the first day of the two week consultation program on the island of Santo.
Gradually, over the next several months thousands of people got informed as more islands were covered in this first ever nation-wide community consultation program to be conducted by TIV in partnership with the Vanuatu Government’s Right To Information Unit and funded by the Pacific Leadership Program (PLP) that is based in Fiji.
The TIV teams that worked in the field had one daily objective; Everywhere. Anywhere. We Must Consult – Every citizen has the right to be informed of the laws of Vanuatu.
With this objective the TIV teams made it their mission to cover at least five or more villages in one day, and they made it a habit of informing anyone they meet about the RTI Bill whether it be on a ship, plane, in a vehicle, or on a boat like they did while traveling around the island of Erromango.
Fortunately, despite the limited time and resources allocated for each community consultation session on each island hundreds of people participated in the consultation sessions.
Throughout the islands people reacted in different ways when they were informed of the Right To Information Bill. Some people got angry for having waited too long for such a Bill, while some pointed out that the Divine Hands of God was shaping the country’s future away from the negative influences that corrupt the country’s system.
And to some, to simply be informed of the Right To Information Bill is in itself a satisfying feeling, like the old man on the island of Ambae who declared, with tears running down his face, that “Vanuatu will be free at last” because people will have the legal right to access information.
In every village and in every island that took part in the RTI Bill consultations not a single citizen opposed the Bill. Every citizen that was informed declared their support for the RTI Bill and said that their Members of Parliament should do the same because that is what they, the people, have decided.
51% Of Erromango People Support RTI Bill
The team spoke to over 990 people and informed them on the contents of the Bill as well as how the Bill will impact their lives when it becomes law
Erromango’s Young Settlers – Living The National Anthem
Roki left home voluntarily, taking with him nothing more but just four clothes, “I will return when all of this four clothes are worn out” he told his family…
TIV Presents Experiences At Samoan Integrity Workshop
TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL VANUATU (TIV) had the opportunity to participate in a two day Integrity Validation Workshop for Senior Samoan Government Official organized by the Samoa Government, UNODC and UNDP from the 9-10 November 2016.
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