Promoting Online Transparency to Help Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals: An Empirical Study of Local Governments in Latin America

Abstract

Although transparency on the sustainability of public services is an issue of urgent interest to both governments and academics, previous research in this area has mainly focused on developed European countries, and has paid insufficient attention to areas that are still developing, such as many Latin American countries. The aim of this study is to identify factors that promote transparency on sustainability by local governments in Latin America, in the view that greater transparency will help them meet the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Therefore, using content analysis and following the GRI guidelines, we analyze the economic, social and environmental information published on the websites of 200 large local governments in 18 Latin American countries. In addition, using linear regression and calculating the corresponding Spearman coefficients, we analyze the influence of idiosyncratic and systemic variables on the volume of information disclosed. Our findings show that certain factors—population size, education level, unemployment, the quality of legislation and political corruption—affect transparency on sustainability. The conclusions drawn from this analysis enable us to identify useful measures for enhancing transparency on sustainability, including the reform of transparency laws and the analysis and disclosure of citizens’ information demands.

Content Analysis of Sustainable Development Goals Information on Malaysian City Councils' Websites

“…a score of '1' if the information was disclosed on the websites, '0' if otherwise. This was in consistency with Guerrero-Gómez et al (2021) and Joseph et al (2019). The SDGDi is a comprehensive checklist that consists of 150 items developed based on the SDGs recommendation made by Adams, Druckman, and Picot (2020), SDGs 2030, Malaysian SDG Roadmap, and Star Rating System for Malaysian Local Authorities.…”

“…Several recent studies examined the disclosure and achievement of SDGs by local governments. For instance, Guerrero-Gómez, Navarro-Galera, and Ortiz-Rodríguez (2021) analysed the factors determining the online transparency on the sustainability of local governments in Latin America, which are helpful to achieving the SDGs. On average, the local governments in Latin America published only 60% of the SDGs information on their websites.…”

Hacia la divulgación de información de sostenibilidad en el sector público

“…En el ámbito de las entidades locales la situación es bastante heterogénea, con grandes diferencias entre países y también dentro del mismo país. Guerrero-Gómez et al (2021) analizan una muestra de gobiernos locales en América Latina, evidenciando que algunos factores, como el tamaño de la población, el nivel educativo, el desempleo, la calidad de la legislación y la corrupción política, influyen en la transparencia relacionada con el cumplimiento de los ods. Lauwo et al (2022) examinan cómo se han implementado los ods en Tanzania, considerando en particular los mecanismos de gobernanza y rendición de cuentas, y revelan que las estructuras verticales formales han creado un entorno difícil para las colaboraciones de múltiples partes interesadas y han sido un obstáculo para la localización de la rendición de cuentas.…”

“…Los recientes desarrollos que están teniendo lugar a nivel internacional plasman la relevancia de la información de sostenibilidad en el ámbito de las administraciones, y la necesidad de llevar a cabo un proceso de normalización, similar al que está teniendo lugar en el sector empresarial (Manes Rossi et al, 2020;Stefanescu, 2021). Asimismo, el compromiso de las administraciones públicas con la Agenda 2030, aprobada por la Organización de Naciones Unidas (onu) en 2015, y los 17 Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ods) contenidos en ella (onu, 2015), requiere que las administraciones den cuenta de su contribución al cumplimiento de los mismos, haciendo todavía más relevante la información sostenible (Kaur y Lodhia, 2019;Guerrero-Gómez et al, 2021;Lauwo et al, 2022).…”

Measuring governments' online accountability

“…In fact, recent papers have identified the usefulness of government financial statements to report on the sustainability of public policies. Specifically, Guerrero- Gómez et al (2021) show an analysis of the disclosure of online information on sustainability with respect to the countries of Latin America.…”