The below intervention was delivered at the Expert Meeting on Sustainable Development Goal 16, held in Rome, Italy, from 27-29 May 2019. 

So I’m here representing a sector which is founded on the idea that information is essential.

Vulnerable people need to be able to find out about their rights in order to enforce them.

We need open government information – freedom of information – for citizens to hold governments accountable.

Parliamentarians need alternative sources of information and research than those that governments give them in order to do their jobs.

And within government, evidence-based policy-making requires access to evidence.

But if supply of information is important, it’s also vital to work on the demand side. How can we ensure that information is not only available, but also accessible and used, to achieve SDG16?

Almost half of the world is still not online, and of those who are, many think Facebook IS the internet. This is not necessarily a good thing.

There also need to be the skills to understand and use the information that is there, adaptation to local needs, and safe environments to access information that can be sensitive.

The solution I’d therefore like to suggest is not one, but rather hundreds of thousands of solutions – the libraries that exist in so many of the world’s villages, towns and cities.

In my organisation, we’ve been encouraging libraries to see themselves as agents for, as partners in the delivery of the SDGs – and in particular SDG16 – through access to information. Tens of thousands have already engaged.

They have been reframing their work, building partnerships and sharing evaluated examples.

For example, public libraries in New South Wales, Australia, have, for 25 years, been a key means for vulnerable people to get hold of legal information, using in-person support and easy-ready materials. Through this, they have ensured that many of the people most at risk of being victims of injustice can take that first step towards enforcing their rights.

Or giving access to public environmental data in Medellin through pollution sensors in libraries, helping to deliver on the Escazú agreement. This has led to new engagement among citizens in discussions about transport and environment policies locally.

Or the libraries in Boston and Chattanooga who’ve partnered with local government to develop open data portals that really work for citizens, and which have seen growing numbers of visits and downloads of data.

So the recommendation is simply to realise this possibility – to reach out, and engage this pre-existing network of libraries – in order to deliver SDG16.