This Working Paper is part of the Access to Information in Africa Project and is based on preliminary research supported by the International Development Research Centre, Canada (IDRC) which will take place over the next two years in Ghana, South Africa and Uganda. Working papers contain preliminary research, analysis, findings, and recommendations. They are circulated to stimulate timely discussion and critical feedback and to influence ongoing debate on emerging issues. Most working papers are eventually published in another form and their content may be revised.While more than 80 countries have passed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), only six are African countries: South Africa (2000), Angola (2002), Zimbabwe (2002), Uganda (2005), Ethiopia (2008), and Liberia (2010). This paper uses an analysis of the constitutions and FOIAs in Uganda and South Africa and the FOI Bill in Ghana to look at the ways in which the design of FOIAs allows government to actively and/or passively resist openness and transparency, and to exploit power imbalances between government and citizens. FOIAs need to be drafted squarely within the scope of constitutional language
