Sweden End-of-Term Report 2014-2016

Sweden has made progress in improving access to information and public accountabilityAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, public accountability occurs when ”rules, regulations, and mechanisms in place call upon government actors to justify their actions, act upon criticisms ... More primarily in aidMore and better information about aid helps partner countries and donor institutions plan and manage aid resources more effectively, parliaments and civil society to hold governments accountable for t... and development. Yet the government could do more to expand the scope of future commitments by adopting a more holistic approach to open government. This could be achieved by including more government and civil society stakeholders in the development and implementation of commitments and by setting clear objectives.

The Open Government PartnershipThe Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on improving government transparency, ensuring opportunities for citizen participation in public matters, and strengthen... More (OGP) is a voluntary international initiative that aims to secure commitments from governments to their citizenry to promote 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, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. The Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM)The Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) is OGP’s accountability arm and the main means of tracking progress in participating countries. The IRM provides independent, evidence-based, and objective ... carries out a review of the activities of each OGP participating country. This report summarises the results of the period 1 July 2014 through 30 June 2016 and includes some relevant developments up to August 2016.

The Department for Aid Management (UDSTYR) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) is the leading office responsible for Sweden’s OGP commitments. The mandate of UDSTYR is limited to foreign aid, and it does not have the power to enforce policy changes on other departments within government. Since open government touches all spheres of government and requires a more holistic approach, the OGP action plan would be better placed in the hands of a government entity with an overarching remit.

The government did not hold a regular multi- stakeholder forum for consultation with civil society organisations (CSOs) during the implementation period for this action plan. The MFA stated, however, that several consultations concerning OGP commitments took place in other forums.

All of the commitments are in line with OGP values. The IRM researcher found that only one of the commitments (increased access to Swedish aid information) had any noteworthy potential impact, albeit marginal. Commitments 3 and 4 (improved opportunities for dialogue and transparency in aid management and implementation) were also the only commitments to open government, although marginally. Three of the commitments have seen substantial progress, while two have a limited completion level.

At the time of writing, Sweden has not presented a new action plan for their third cycle.