Access to information and RAP disclosure in Uganda: from publication to usable knowledge

1. Two disclosure duties

The Access to Information Act concerns access to records within the public-law system, giving effect to the constitutional right of access to information held by the State. [1][2] PS-5 and ESS-10 concern project disclosure and engagement before and during decisions that affect people. [3][4] They overlap in purpose but are not interchangeable: a person should not need to make a formal information request to learn the practical terms of a proposed acquisition.

The RAP should therefore publish and explain the information people need at the time decisions are made, while preserving a route for requesting records that are held by public bodies.

2. Usability is part of disclosure

A document in English, delivered after valuation, or stored in an office far from the affected settlement may satisfy a filing instruction while failing the communication purpose. A usable disclosure record identifies language, format, audience, date, facilitator, questions raised and changes made in response. [4] ESS-10 frames engagement as a continuing process to be assessed on whether information reached people in an accessible form and in good time, not on whether a document was issued. [4] IFC's handbook sets out the same expectation in operational terms. [5]

That record is also protection for the project. It shows what was explained and prevents a later claim that a decision was announced without a meaningful opportunity to understand it — the proposition on which a disclosure challenge usually turns, and one a project can only prove with a contemporaneous record. [3]

3. Research gap

A useful Ugandan study would compare disclosed RAPs with what affected people recall, can access and can use in a grievance. The gap is not more documents; it is evidence about whether disclosure changed knowledge and power at the point of acquisition.