New guide to the Promotion of Access to Information Act launched

Since April 2008 SAHA’s Freedom of Information Programme (FOIP) has developed its Freedom of Information Project, Capacity Building in the Community-based sector (PAIA) to become one of the lead organisations in South Africa offering multi-level training and capacity building to organisations and individuals who can most benefit from using PAIA. Through the project, SAHA aims to empower individuals and organisations from targeted sectors to understand and utilise the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (PAIA) as a strategic advocacy tool. Through this project FOIP has developed two new educational products to facilitate our training and the training of other organisations working with PAIA.

PAIA Workshop Guide

The PAIA Workshop Guide was developed through the community training. During this training SAHA realised that there was no comprehensive training manual that covered all the relevant areas of requesting information in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (PAIA). Instead of using a series of loose documents and PowerPoint presentations, training can now be coordinated alongside this manual. The Workshop Guide can also stand alone as a table-top reference guide for anyone trying to practically engage with PAIA in their everyday environment.

This PAIA Workshop Guide was made possible through the generous funding of the Ford Foundation.

PAIA DVD

The PAIA: Case Studies from Civil Society DVD is an interactive training tool which outlines the key issues around PAIA. It is hoped that this DVD will be used by organisations and individuals to learn about PAIA and facilitate the training of others in the use of PAIA. By showing how normal citizens have interacted with PAIA, it is hoped that this DVD will bring to life the possibilities PAIA presents as a strategic advocacy tool.

It is hoped that the FOIP PAIA DVD that is currently being developed will be a useful associated learning instrument and will work alongside the PAIA Workshop Guide and the PAIA Resource Kit to create a comprehensive package of educational tools on PAIA implementation.

The PAIA DVD was made possible through the generous funding of the Claude Leon Foundation and the Open Society Foundation for South Africa.

Source: South African History Archive website

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