Action plan – Hamburg, Germany, 2026 – 2029

At-a-Glance

Duration

Feb 2030

Date Submitted

20th May 2026

Foreword(s)

Since the Transparency Act of 2012, Hamburg has been committed to the principles of Open Government. Joining OGP Local in 2022 marked the start of a stronger international network for Hamburg’s transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More and participation initiatives. This Action Plan builds on these developments and carries the strategy forward: our goal is to anchor Open Government more broadly within the city’s society and in Hamburg’s public administration.

At the heart of this plan lies the development of a city-wide sustainability strategy as a binding, cross-departmental framework. This umbrella strategy is designed to systematically bundle Hamburg’s contribution to the UN Sustainable Development GoalsOGP countries are experimenting with open government innovations to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 16+ which includes peaceful, just and inclusive societies... (SDGs) and bring together existing specialised strategies and programmes. Organised civil society and the scientific community are being integrated into the strategy’s development to identify potential for further advancement and to derive key impulse themes.

This plan has emerged from an expanded partnership: The Office for IT and Digitalisation (ITD) of the Senate Chancellery and the Ministry for Environment, Climate, Energy, and Agriculture (BUKEA) are working closely with the Hamburg Sustainability Forum and the University of Hamburg. This demonstrates how data-driven governance and an engaged civil society can specifically and effectively address the city’s central questions for the future.

Open Government Challenges, Opportunities and Strategic Vision

This subsection details the Open Government Strategic Vision in your local area that should guide the commitments for the action plan period.

What is the long-term vision for open government in your context and jurisdiction?

Hamburg’s vision is to use Open Government as the foundation for sustainable development. As an umbrella strategy, the city-wide sustainability strategy aims to create a framework that aligns ecological, social, and economic goals across all departments, guided by the 17 SDGs and their 169 targets. It considers the city’s impact on society and administrative processes.

Participation is established as an element of decision-making for sustainability issues. By involving civil society, academia, and other stakeholders early in the process, decisions are informed by diverse expertise, knowledge, and competing perspectives, leading to robust and broadly supported policy outcomes.

At the same time, improved SDG data collection and public reporting strengthen transparency and accountability by making progress, gaps, and policy impacts measurable and accessible. This enables evidence-based adjustments, strengthens institutional learning, and supports effective implementation of the SDGs over time.

What are the achievements in open government to date (for example, recent open government reforms)?

Hamburg has been committed to Open Government for many years. This Action Plan builds on several key milestones:

• Transparency Act (2012): The mandatory publication of administrative data established the Transparency Portal as a central information base for both the administration and the public.
• DIPAS: By combining online participation with digital planning tables, a toolkit for high-quality citizen engagement in urban development was established.
• Urban Data Platform: The networking of specialist data forms the basis for evidence-based planning processes, including the “Cockpit for Urban Infrastructures” (CoSI).
• VLR (2023): With the first “Voluntary Local Review”, BUKEA presented an inventory of SDG implementation. This indicator-based monitoring creates the data foundation for alignment with the 2030 Agenda.
• SDG Dashboard: This publicly accessible dashboard visualises sustainability indicators, making progress towards the SDGs transparent and traceable for the city’s society.
• AI-supported status analysis: Within a pilot project (InnoTecHH Fund), an LLM-based AI model was developed to identify SDG references in documents on the Transparency Portal. These results are integrated into strategy development as “SDG profiles”.
• OGP Local (2022): Joining this initiative laid the foundation for institutionalised collaboration, the structures of which are now being utilised for exchange with the scientific community and civil society.

What are the current challenges/areas for improvement in open government that the jurisdiction wishes to tackle?

Despite established technical foundations, challenges remain, which this plan addresses:

• Representativeness and accessibility: Existing participation formats have frequently reached predominantly academic circles. In particular, younger people and broader segments of the population are often only reached to a limited extent through e.g. traditional committee work. The goal is therefore to dismantle barriers to access and develop formats that engage people at a local level within the districts.
• Data availability and usability: Hamburg possesses extensive holdings of open dataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici.... However, deriving specific insights, for instance regarding the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), continues to be a complex task for both civil society and the administration. Consequently, the focus is shifting from mere availability towards subject-matter usability. The AI-supported status analysis addresses this gap by processing the flood of information regarding the SDGs within the administration.

What are the medium-term open government goals that the government wants to achieve?

In alignment with the Digital Strategy and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the following priorities have been set:

• Data-driven sustainability: The focus lies on the transition from mere data transparency to action-oriented management knowledge. With the help of new technologies, administrative data is to be processed in such a way that progress towards the SDGs is presented in a traceable and measurable manner.
• Intergenerational participation: The involvement of young people in political processes is to be strengthened. The aim is to employ co-creation formats within the districts to promote acceptance.
• Networking research and practice: The objective is to institutionalise permanent cooperation between the administration, the university, and civil society. This is intended to place decision-making processes on a broader, evidence-based foundation.
• Inclusive administration: The reduction of digital and analog barriers to access will be further advanced.

How does this action plan contribute to achieve the Open Government Strategic Vision?

This Action Plan translates the vision of cooperative governance into specific measures:

• Technology for the common good: The plan addresses the interface between data availability and strategic use. In doing so, progress towards the SDGs is to be presented transparently and measurably.
• Participation within the city: The plan serves as a framework for initiating engagement processes. By involving stakeholders in shaping local priorities, participation strengthens trust in public institutions and increases the relevanceAccording to the OGP Articles of Governance, OGP commitments should include a clear open government lens. Specifically, they should advance at least one of the OGP values: transparency, citizen partic... and acceptance of policy measures.
• Partnerships: Collaboration with the scientific community and the Sustainability Forum is to be further consolidated. The aim is to establish Open Government as a structural principle for evidence-based and public-interest-oriented action that goes beyond individual projects and contributes to measurable governance results, including greater policy transparency and effective implementation of sustainability goals.

How does the open government strategic vision contribute to the accomplishment of the current administration’s overall policy goals?

The strategic orientation supports the Senate’s overarching objectives:

• Digital strategy and sustainability: The vision of the ‘Digital City’ is being expanded by a subject-matter dimension, purposefully aligning technological solutions with sustainability goals (‘Twin Transition’). The focus remains on the common good, ensuring that digitalisation is designed to be user-oriented.
• Administrative modernisation: The integration of external expertise from civil society and the scientific community serves to make decision-making processes more evidence-based and practical. This contributes to quality assurance and promotes the acceptance of planning projects.
• Social cohesion: Dialogue-based formats provide spaces for the exchange of diverse perspectives. The involvement of various groups, such as young people within the districts, is understood as a contribution to strengthening democratic resilience.

Engagement and Coordination in the Open Government Strategic Vision and OGP Action Plan

Please list the lead institutions responsible for the implementation of this OGP action plan.

• The Office for IT and Digitalisation (ITD) of the Senate Chancellery
• Sustainability Department, Ministry for Environment, Climate, Energy, and Agriculture (BUKEA)

What kind of institutional arrangements are in place to coordinate between government agencies and departments to implement the OGP action plan?

The sustainability department ensures cross-departmental coordination through regular workshops and cross-institutional meetings. Furthermore, internal and external communication channels (e.g., website) are being implemented to ensure transparency throughout the entire delivery process of the action plan.

What kind of spaces have you used or created to enable the collaboration between government and civil society in the co-creation and implementation of this action plan? Mention both offline and online spaces.

The steering group (ITD, BUKEA,) is responsible for the development process of the action plan, the measures for implementation and the implementation of the monitoring of the results. Decisions are made collectively based on the proposition of the BUKEA. Other tasks include:

• Discussing matters related to the participation and involvement of further stakeholders.
• Designing stakeholder screening processes and preparing decision-making processes

The MSF is an advisory body that includes several different stakeholders. The Sustainability Forum is a civil society organization that accompanies the process as a constructively critical sparring partner. As well as the academic stakeholders, e.g., represented through the University of Hamburg. The MSF participates in the elaboration of commitments as well as in their implementation and monitoring.

What measures did you take to ensure diversity of representation (including vulnerable or marginalized populations) in these spaces?

The Sustainability Forum Hamburg represents a broad cross-section of the city’s civil society and brings this overarching perspective to the SDG process. With 34 member organizations, the Forum reflects a wide range of sustainability perspectives and develops impulses for policymakers, public administration, and non-governmental actors to support the achievement of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals in Hamburg by 2030

Who participated in these spaces?

The Sustainability Forum Hamburg (NFH) is a civil society alliance for sustainability in Hamburg. It was established by the Hamburg Senate in 2018 to support and accompany the implementation of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the city. The NFH accompanies the process of developing a sustainability strategy for Hamburg as a constructively critical sparring partner.

How many groups participated in these spaces?

34

How many public-facing meetings were held in the co-creation processCollaboration between government, civil society and other stakeholders (e.g., citizens, academics, private sector) is at the heart of the OGP process. Participating governments must ensure that a dive...?

4

How will government and non-governmental stakeholders continue to collaborate through the implementation of the action plan?

Governmental and non-governmental stakeholders will continue to collaborate closely throughout the implementation of the action plan. At the beginning of the process, a kick-off event was held where impulse topics were elected by civil society, represented by the Sustainability Forum Hamburg (NFH), and the academic stakeholders (represented by different universities from Hamburg). These proposals are then presented to the steering committeeThe Steering Committee is OGP’s executive decision-making body. Its role is to develop, promote and safeguard OGP’s values, principles and interests; establish OGP’s core ideas, policies, and ru..., composed of State Secretaries, who select three key topics for further development. These selected topics are subsequently elaborated in workshops (“Fokustische”), in which both the academic stakeholders and the NFH will continue to actively participate, ensuring ongoing collaboration between government and non-governmental actors.

Please describe the independent Monitoring Body you have identified for this plan.

The City Science Lab has been identified as the independent monitoring body for this action plan. In collaboration with local and global partners from civil society, government, business, and academia, the team develops and applies digital tools in both virtual and urban environments. These tools are designed to capture the complexity of urban systems and make them understandable and accessible to a wide range of stakeholders, without oversimplifying reality.

Provide the contact details for the independent monitoring body.

• City Science Lab, Michael Ziehl, Research Associate, [email protected]

What types of activities will you have in place to discuss progress on commitments with stakeholders?

Monthly working-level meetings with the NFH and organization of the focus group workshops.

How will you regularly check in on progress with implementing agencies?

E-Mails, regular meetings, and workshops.

How will you share the results of your monitoring efforts with the public?

The results of the implementation will be made available to the public:

• Communication through traditional media/news press, as well as posting of materials and status updates on social media.
• Aktuelles aus der Stabsstelle Nachhaltigkeit – hamburg.de

Endorsement from Non-Governmental Stakeholders

• Sibylle Duncker, CEO, Nachhaltigkeitsforum Hamburg

Hamburg Letter of Support.pdf

Commitments:

The BUKEA Sustainability Department leads Hamburg’s SDG-aligned sustainability strategy and implementation.