A year ago, a new global initiative was launched. You may not have heard of it, but it has already positively affected the lives of nearly 2 billion people, or 30% of the world's population.
The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is made up of countries and civil society organisations who share a belief that tapping into the expertise of their citizens and businesses will enable them to make better decisions.
It was launched in September 2011 by its first two co-chairs, presidents Barack Obama and Dilma Rousseff of the US and Brazil. At its launch, they declared a collective commitment by the OGP's participating countries to work together to make their administrations more transparent and accountable. This concept of partnership runs throughout the OGP as the initiative champions the idea that civil society organisations and governments should work together to push forward the open government agenda. This is also reflected in the structure of the rotating co-chairmanship, which now passes to the UK and Indonesia.
In the first year the initiative has grown rapidly. Today the partnership is made up of 57 governments from all around the world. Action plans have already been published by 46 countries, containing concrete commitments on how they will make their governments more open, while another 11 are currently developing their plans. With more countries having recently expressed their intention to take part, open government is now truly a global initiative.
At the first annual meeting, held in Brasilia in April, representatives from across the world gathered to share their national visions and plans for throwing open the doors of government for their citizens. Between them they have made over 300 diverse commitments, yet one common feature is that they are designed to help build trust and revitalise the relationship between governments and citizens.
Over the past year, the progress of participating governments has been significant. In Tanzania for instance, the government has created a web-based water point mapping system for local governments to help them to provide better services to their citizens. The Bulgarian government is publishing daily budget spending reports with the recipient of each payment and what it is designed to achieve. To support citizen engagement, the Philippines' budget department has just released its first annual People's Budget, a layperson's summary version of the national budget and its process.
The Croatian government requires companies of special state interest to publish their annual business activity reports. In Georgia, village development centres have been established to bring a large number of local and national government services to the rural population. Innovative public accountability mechanisms have been developed including a new 'openness barometer' in the Slovak Republic, a 'governance observatory' in Peru and a 'public scorecard' in the Dominican Republic.
Yet as the OGP celebrates its first anniversary, participating governments are aware that the hard work has only just begun. Now is the time to focus on action and ensure that the commitments which have been made are met. Central to this is the role of the many civil society organisations that have been at the heart of the creation and development of OGP. Over the past 12 months they have helped, and when necessary have nudged, governments into action when they felt they have fallen short on delivering.
In Ukraine, civil society came together when the government produced a draft national plan which they felt did not truly reflect the needs of Ukrainian society. A civic coalition of experts developed an alternative national plan, which fully corresponds with OGP requirements, and began working to promote it. After a four-month advocacy campaign, the prime minister of Ukraine signed the document, with 80% of it coming directly from the civic coalition's plan.
Alongside this external pressure, the OGP is establishing new internal structures aligned with the commitment to action. In addition to self-assessment reports which governments are obliged to publish, an outstanding new panel of experts will externally verify claims.
The role of the policy experts and senior advisors that staff the independent reporting mechanism (IRM) will be to ensure a diversity of voices is heard on the quality and pace of countries' efforts to deliver on their commitments.
In its first year OGP has demonstrated that across the world, the will exists to make governments more open. The initiative transcends political boundaries and has the power to become this generation's defining theme. It is bringing citizens, civil society and governments closer together and creating meaningful change. By September 2013, we are determined to continue working to share the OGP's messages of open government with millions of people around the world.