Open Government for the Sustainable Development Goals - September Updates

OGP and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)'s Bangkok hub have organized a blog series around open government initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region that are tackling the Sustainable Development Goals. Read about China's environmental governance initiative and the Philippines' Check My School program on the blog.  

As someone who’s worked in development for over a decade, what do you think is the main benefit of open governance in developing countries?

Open governance is about empowering people to be part of governance processes, be it in smaller communities or bigger ones. Co-creating local strategies, being part of the decision-making processes, knowing that one’s voice is being heard, makes people become more confident, better informed and prepared to scrutinize their elected officials. Only through having a strong ‘demand’ for better governance, for a more open and transparent government, there is a chance for change and improvement of the quality of life in these countries. So, the biggest change that open government brings relates to changing the mindset of the people, and takes them to a completely different dimension in terms of their relationship with governance, the governance processes, and their elected officials.  

Read more here.

Country: Moldova Commitment: Raising awareness of "open data by default" among civil servants National Action Plan: 2014-2015

How is a humble OGP commitment affecting the 2016 presidential race in Moldova?

Since it joined in 2012, Moldova has used its OGP action plans to address the Soviet legacy of government corruption. As part of its plan to rebuild trust and make officials more accountable, the Moldovan government is making government data more open. The Moldovan government, in partnership with civil society organizations is undertaking a suite of activities to improve governance using open data. The first action plan (2013) trained civil society professionals to use the data. In an interesting twist, for the second action plan (2014), Moldova now had civil society organizations train public servants. Specifically, they committed to train 50 public servants on the principle of “open data by default” and develop a plan to make publication a day-to-day practice. “Open data by default’ means that, when agencies develop new data (or release old data), it should be in a format which is public and reusable.

So how did Moldova do on the commitment? The organizations exceeded the target of training 50 public servants. They hosted workshops, seminars, and trainings for over 140 public servants on issues of open data and governance. The IRM report gave a mixed assessment, however. It noted that the commitment led to increased cooperation between civil society and government overall. On the other hand, the IRM found the commitment incomplete as the promised plan for mainstreaming open data was missing at the time of assessment.

What are the results? Between 2014 and 2015, following its first two action plans, Moldova moved up in the Open Knowledge Foundation’s Global Open Data Index, from 43rd to 22nd. Practically speaking, this has meant that elections data and the national company registry are now available for public use. This type of high-value data can contribute to the original goal of reducing corruption in elections and reducing money laundering and bribe-paying.

In fact, Moldova’s activities on open data have even worked their way into the 2016 national election. Data journalists used the open data company register to identify shell companies used by politicians and political parties as well as hidden accounts linked to organized crime and an ongoing banking scandal. With the election scheduled for 30 October, we will soon see how seemingly mundane administrative reforms might change the course of an election.

OGP in the News - September 2016

By Jacqueline McGraw, Communications Intern, Open Government Partnership 

OGP’s high-level event at UNGA in September drew attention from all corners of the globe - in some of the world’s most-read newspapers and websites. High-profile mentions by heads of state in their UNGA remarks kept OGP in the news throughout UNGA week. Elsewhere, the OGP Global Summit made headlines, and OGP showed up for the first time in a G-20 document. Read about this and more here.