BRIEF 
Civil Society’s Regional Network for Advancing Freedom of Expression and Access to Information
The Regional Alliance for the Freedom of Expression and Information (the Alliance), an innovative civil society network, has had a major role in promoting freedom of expression and the right to information regionally. The Alliance coordinates the efforts of 23 civil society organisations (CSOs) from 19 American countries and carries out extensive advocacy work at the regional level. This network’s experience, achievements and lessons learned could be useful to CSOs in Sub-Saharan and South Asian countries aiming to advance freedom of expression and access to information in their own regions.
ELLA Reviews: As part of ongoing efforts to ensure quality in our research and communications, the ELLA team asks recognised experts to conduct reviews of the knowledge materials in a given theme and produce a short written response.
Read this ELLA Review of the ELLA knowledge materials on Transparency and Access to Information, written by Toby Mendel, Executive Director of the Centre for Law and Democracy.
http://tinyurl.com/6tsb4ou
Key Lessons:
- Forming a regional network can be a useful mechanism for coordinating the efforts of individual civil society organisations of various countries.
- Advocacy actions at the regional and country level can be more effective if they are undertaken by a regional network representing a large number of individual organisations, one that is seen as a credible and trustworthy actor.
ELLA knowledge material produced by:
Other ELLA knowledge materials relating to Transparency and Access to Information:
GUIDES AND BRIEFS
SPOTLIGHT SUMMARIES
MULTIMEDIA
REVIEWS
LEARNING ALLIANCE HIGHLIGHTS
NON-ELLA PUBLICATIONS