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

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 Lat...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability 2021-02, Vol.13 (4), p.1837
Main Authors: Guerrero-Gómez, Tamara, Navarro-Galera, Andrés, Ortiz-Rodríguez, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Annual reports
Content analysis
Corruption
COVID-19
Developing countries
Economic growth
Environmental aspects
Environmental information
Government agencies
Government information
International organizations
LDCs
Legislation
Local government
Politics
Population number
Public officials
Public sector
Public services
Socioeconomic factors
Sustainability
Sustainable development
Transparency
Websites
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary: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.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su13041837