Consultation
OGP participants commit to developing their country action plans through a multi-stakeholder process, with the active engagement of citizens and civil society. Taking account of relevant national laws and policies, OGP participants agree to develop their country commitments according to the following principles:
- Countries will make the details of their public consultation process and timeline available (online at minimum) prior to the consultation
- Countries will consult widely with the national community, including civil society and the private sector; seek out a diverse range of views and; make a summary of the public consultation and all individual written comment submissions available online
- Countries will undertake OGP awareness raising activities to enhance public participation in the consultation
- Countries will consult the population with sufficient forewarning and through a variety of mechanisms—including online and through in-person meetings—to ensure the accessibility of opportunities for citizens to engage
- Countries will identify a forum to enable regular multi-stakeholder consultation on OGP implementation—this can be an existing entity or a new one
New countries should begin their OGP commitment development process by initiating consultations with domestic stakeholders, consistent with the five principles outlined above. The consultation process should begin soon after the government has expressed its intent to join OGP, so that the government has sufficient time to develop an action plan with broad public input.
All countries will report on their consultation efforts as part of the self-assessment, and the independent reporting mechanism will also examine the application of these principles in practice.
Steering Commitee Experiences With Country Consultation
To assist new OGP countries as they begin undertaking their own OGP consultation processes, OGP has compiled the experiences of a number of OGP Steering Committee Governments, to share how they approached their public consultation processes, what their plans are for consultation going forward, and what lessons they have learned to date.
These descriptions can be found in the document below entitled "Summary of SC Action Plan Consultations."
