|
|
|
|
|
Mexico Announces OGP Global Summit
|
|
|
Mexico recently announced that the OGP Global Summit will be held at Guadalajara, Mexico during October 27-29, 2015. Mexico has chosen ‘Open Government as an enabler of inclusive development’ as the theme for this year’s Summit. This arises from a need to strengthen Open Government, include those people with the greatest needs; and the value that emanates from a space in which civil society and government representatives can exchange ideas regarding the future implementation and impact of open government policies around the world. Watch this space in the future for more updates!
|
|
|
100th OGP National Action Plan Submitted
|
|
Joe Powell, Deputy Director of OGP Support Unit
Finland has today published the 100th Open Government Partnership action plan since the initiative launched in 2011. These plans have contained over 2000 specific open government reform commitments, representing a remarkable effort from the 65 governments participating in OGP and the hundreds of civil society organizations that helped influence the policy agenda in their countries.
The National Action Plan is at the core of any country’s participation in OGP. It is a technocratic term for a political document that commits the government to a series of reforms that should address some of the biggest challenges the country is facing. These reforms should reflect the priorities of reformers in government and civil society, and should have a clear openness dimension. Analysis of OGP to date shows that countries have prioritized public participation, open data, fiscal transparency, public service delivery and access to information. Countries are required to publish a new action plan every two years and are independently assessed on the implementation of their commitments.
The Finnish action plan - their second since joining in 2013 - is a good example of how a government has used the OGP platform to focus on national priorities. The overall theme is improving youth participation and making progress on digital government. Under that heading they have included commitments to make public services more customer friendly, to improve engagement of children and youth in state government, to open up government data to businesses and civil society, and to consider creating a lobbying register. If implemented successfully the Finnish government believe these reforms will help win back citizen trust and increase participation. The plan calls for “enhancing open government [to] be part of all public governance development”.
..continue reading here.
|
|
|
Making sure there's room for the 'P' in OGP
|
|
|
Linda Frey, Executive Director of OGP Support Unit
The P in OGP stands for Partnership. Not just any partnership, but a unique coming together of government and civil society to make progress on critical open government reforms. The model works best if government officials and civil society activists in the country find ways to work together to make government more transparent and responsive to citizens.
This model often requires ‘changing the culture of government’ - the theme of OGP’s new video [link], launched last September at our High-Level Event at the United Nations.
At this same event, President Obama captured well why this culture shift is so important:
“The Open Government Partnership is not simply a partnership between governments; it’s between governments and their citizens. At times, this can be frustrating. At times, it can be contentious… But, as leaders, making our governments more open does mean that as a consequence of [that] criticism, there’s self-reflection. And it means that questions are asked that might not have otherwise been asked.”
In order to effectively participate and ask difficult questions of their government, citizens must be able to consolidate their interests – and influence - by coming together in civil society organizations. This, in turn, requires laws and regulations that protect the following principle, endorsed by all OGP participating countries:
“We commit to protecting the ability of not-for-profit and civil society organizations to operate in ways consistent with our commitment to freedom of expression, association, and opinion.” OGP Open Government Declaration
Respect for these freedoms is critical to the OGP model, which is why every country that joins OGP is asked to sign on to the Declaration. However, establishing an adequate legal framework for civil society to thrive can be challenging in practice. . Organizations like the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) have decades of experience studying and developing guidance on this very issue. Next week they are convening a Global Forum in Stockholm on ‘Shaping Civic Space.’ Continue reading here.
|
|
Vuk Vujnovic
Secretary General
South East Europe Public Sector Communication Association (SEECOM)
Government of Montenegro
|
|
|
How does open government make a difference in people’s lives?
Open government brings democracy back to its roots and gives people a real say in how their communities and nations are governed. It’s about engaging citizens in the planning, design and implementation of public policies. But it is also about pooling together the skills and resources of entire societies and helping governments to create better policies, ones that are more in tune with people’s actual needs, expectations or concerns. I strongly believe that the global open government movement is not a passing craze, but rather an irreversible process of gradually setting new democracy standards for today’s world.
How have you benefited from exchanging ideas with civil society?
In my experience, public administration can benefit greatly by being true to open government principles. For one thing, public authorities alone rarely have all the resources and skills they need for the most effective design and implementation of public policies. The resources and skills of the civil society and the engagement of individual citizens can help the authorities to perform better. Furthermore, whether we like it or not, public authorities are not always the most credible source of information. Partnership with civil society and meaningful citizen engagement can, therefore, bring more credibility and greater public confidence in government efforts. Applying the principles of open government has proven particularly valuable when introducing a policy that requires active citizen involvement, or a major change in people’s behaviour... continue reading here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
