The Access Initiative is a global civil society network promoting public access to information, participation, and justice in decision-making that affects the environment. The TAI Assessment Toolkit helpscivil society coalitions pinpoint strengthsand weaknesses in environmental governancein their countries and identify opportunitiesto make positive changes. Based on experience gained from conducting32 assessments around the world, the Toolkit uses a framework of case studies and indicators that evaluate both laws on the books and government practices on the ground. An earlier version of the Toolkit was used by civil society organizations to evaluate national compliance with the Aarhus Convention. With web-based software (http://research.accessinitiative.org/) developed to help TAI coalitions easily conduct assessments, analyze their findings,and store their data.
