Malta Mid-Term Progress Report 2015-2017

The majority of Malta’s fve commitments were not relevant to OGP values. Overall, the action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... lacked specifcity and ambitionAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, OGP commitments should “stretch government practice beyond its current baseline with respect to key areas of open government.” Ambition captures the po... for making government more open. To make the next action plan more ambitious, the government could seek diverse input while developing the action plan and set up a multi-stakeholder forumRegular dialogue between government and civil society is a core element of OGP participation. It builds trust, promotes joint problem-solving, and empowers civil society to influence the design, imple... for consultation.

This report was prepared by Dr. Neil Falzon in an independent capacity.

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, fght corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. Malta began participating in OGP in August 2011. 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 biannual review of the activities of each country that participates in OGP.

The Ministry for Social Dialogue, Consumer Affairs and Civil Liberties (MSDC) is responsible for OGP in Malta, primarily since its responsibilities include dialogue with CSOs. MSDC’s OGP leadership is acknowledged by other public entities, yet there is no national legal authority for this responsibility. Malta lacks a permanent multi-stakeholder forum actively overseeing the development and implementation of the action plan.

OGP PROCESS
Countries participating in the OGP follow a process for consultation during development of their OGP action plan and during implementation.

During the frst action plan cycle, OGP found the country acted contrary to the OGP process as the country had not made progress on any of its commitments. The government had also not published a self-assessment report.

A small group of CSOs was involved in the early stages of drafting the second national action plan in Malta. Selected government entities provided useful feedback on pre-determined priorities. However, consultations were not organised online and, excepting initial consultation with CSOs during the drafting process, the government held no further consultations.

On 12 December 2016, Malta published a draft self-assessment report, inviting feedback from the public. The report was presented to OGP on 24 January 2017.

COMMITMENTOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... IMPLEMENTATION
As part of OGP participation, countries make commitments in a two-year action plan. The Malta action plan contains fve commitments. The following tables summarize each commitment’s level of completionImplementers must follow through on their commitments for them to achieve impact. For each commitment, OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) evaluates the degree to which the activities outlin... More, potential impact, whether it falls within Malta’s planned schedule and the key next steps for the commitment in future OGP action plans. Similar commitments have been grouped and re-ordered for easier comprehension.

Note that IRM updated the star criteria in early 2015 in order to raise the standard for model OGP commitments. Under these criteria, commitments must be highly specific, relevant to OGP values, of transformative potential impact, and substantially completed or complete.

Malta did not receive any starred commitments due to both a lack of 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... to OGP values, and a lack of specifcity in most commitments.