OGP Strategic Plan

OGP Strategic Plan 2012-2014 :: Draft for Public Comment

Executive Summary

Introduction

The Open Government Partnership is a global effort to make governments better. We all want more transparent, effective and accountable governments -- with institutions that empower citizens and are responsive to their aspirations. Openness is the most powerful lever for achieving this.

OGP aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.

To achieve these objectives, OGP brings together governments and civil society organisations as true partners; uniquely, OGP is overseen by a Steering Committee composed, in equal numbers, of governments and civil society organisations; its co-chairs are drawn from both sectors.

OGP is already demonstrating the power of this approach – in its first year it has grown to include 57 participating countries, each of which embraces the OGP Declaration of Principles, and commits to developing, implementing and assessing country action plans, all jointly developed with civil society.

This strategy sets out how OGP intends to build on this momentum, and the strengths of its unique model, to realise our goals of more transparent, effective and accountable governments; and to establish OGP as the leading international forum on open government.

There are two elements at the heart of the strategy: Strengthening the Core and Maintaining Vibrancy.

1.     Strengthening the Core

This is about ensuring that the tools the OGP uses for advancing change – the country action plans, peer learning and assessment tools including the Networking Mechanism, and the Support Unit – are strong enough to support the Partnership’s rapid growth and most challenging ambitions. This includes:

a.  Deepening engagement with participating governments - to refine the quality of their actions plans, support effective implementation of their commitments, and advance the assessment process; and with civil society actors – to encourage active, constructive engagement with countries as they develop and implement their plans;

b.  Maximising the benefits of peer learning, and, through a mix of in-person thematic meetings, webinars and an online learning platform driven by the Networking Mechanism; credibly measuring impact to help build a compelling evidence base for the benefits of Open Government;

c.  Promoting accountabilitythrough Government Self-Assessment Reports, and the Independent Reporting Mechanism, so that a diversity voices can be heard on the quality and pace of countries’ efforts to implement their action plans;

d.  Elevating the OGP’s brand and narrative within local and international contexts;

e.  Ensuring the Support Unit has the capabilities and resources it requires to facilitate OGP’s work as the partnership rapidly matures and grows, and to support the activities outlined above.

2.     Maintaining Vibrancy

To help ensure that open government is central to 21^st century society, as it should be, OGP must build further on the extraordinary momentum and interest it has generated in its first year.  This means leveraging its unique position in bridging both diverse fields (of governance, transparency and accountability), and communities (government, civil society and the private sector) to maximum advantage. To achieve this, OGP will focus on:

a.     International engagement, by exploiting strategic linkages with international and regional organisations, such as the World Bank, IMF, OECD and United Nations, while maintaining OGP’s independence so it can continue to innovate and bridge the north-south divide effectively, as it has done so far.

b.     Policy innovation, by drawing on the ideas and innovation of OGP’s diverse and collaborative community of reformers.

c.     Developing a clear process for iterative and future action country plans, so that these living documents continue to raise the bar of open government.

Conclusion

OGP is trailblazing a new way for governments and civil society to work together as partners towards a clear, shared objective: better government through openness.

By strengthening its core elements while also developing mechanisms that sustain the vibrancy of the partnership, OGP stands to become the foremost multi-lateral forum for making open government the most important public policy contribution of our generation. 

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To read the full draft plan, please download the file to the right.