About the Steering Committee

The Steering Committee (SC) 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 rules, and oversee the functioning of the Partnership.

The SC is comprised of 22 members (11 from national governments and 11 from civil society), with parity maintained between the two constituencies. The SC has three standing subcommittees to support its work, the Governance and Leadership Subcommittee (GL), the Criteria and Standards Subcommittee (C&S) and the Thematic Leadership Subcommittee (TLS). Each subcommittee is comprised of an equal number of government and civil society representatives drawn from the SC.

Some of the key responsibilities of the SC include:

• Set OGP’s agenda and direction with principled commitment to the founding nature and goals of the initiative;
• Lead by example through upholding OGP values, adhering to OGP processes to co-create and implement ambitious open government reforms, and fulfilling financial support of OGP;
• Advance OGP priorities through their participation in the Global OGP Summit, OGP regional and thematic events, and other international opportunities to promote open government; and
• Actively participate in Steering Committee and Subcommittee meetings (in-person and virtually), with Ministerial representation when necessary (at least once per year).

SC members serve for a term of three years, which begins on October 1 of the year they are elected, and are eligible to serve for a maximum of two consecutive terms.  SC members seeking a second term must be reelected to stay on the SC.

SC leadership is comprised of a revolving four-member co-chairmanship team (two from government and two from civil society) elected by members of the SC. The four co-chairs make up the Governance and Leadership Subcommittee (GL). SC co-chairs serve for a two-year term with the first year as ‘incoming’ and the second as ‘lead’ chairs.

The composition of the Steering Committee and subcommittees can be found on the Steering Committee composition page.

Learn about the Steering Committee’s collaboration with OGP’s Board of Directors here.