This brief presents the domestic landscape of transparency in Brazil.
Brazil provides to the domestic public a vast amount of data and information through federal and local government online and offline resources. The country also has formal mechanisms to file requests of access to information to public bodies. The existing regulatory environment for transparency and access to information is considered good by national stakeholders and the country has an open data national plan. But full implementation of these legal provisions remains a challenge.
This briefing presents an overview of the Brazilian domestic civil society work to improve transparency, access to information and use of open data, with attention on public resources-focused initiatives. Most organisations’ main objective is to promote broader participation in public policy decision-making and increase accountability. Transparency, access to information and open data are often a means to these ends. These objectives also inform engagement with the Open Government Partnership (OGP).
Civil society organisations with these different backgrounds collaborate quite frequently to foster the transparency, access to information and open data agenda. But collaboration does not necessarily lead to continuous engagement and a common agenda. The key priorities that underpin the majority of initiatives are:
- fully implementing transparency and access to information regulation
- improving public spending
- fighting corruption
- disseminating open data.
