Germany Implementation Report 2017-2019
- Action Plan: Germany National Action Plan 2017-2019
- Dates Under Review: 2017-2019
- Report Publication Year: 2020
- Researcher: Dieter Zinnbauer
Germany’s first OGP 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... resulted in significantly greater disclosure of information in areas such as the extractive industriesApplying open government values of transparency, participation, and accountability to extractive industries can decrease corruption, safeguard community interests and needs, and support environmental ..., foreign 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 mobility. The action plan saw high levels 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 overall, partly due to the commitments being part of pre-existing government plans.
| Table 1. At a glance
Participating since: 2016 Action plan development Action plan design Action plan implementation *DIOG: Did it Open Government? |
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 global partnership that brings together government reformers and civil society leaders to create action plans that make governments more inclusive, responsive, and accountable. 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 ... monitors all action plans to ensure governments follow through on commitments. Germany joined OGP in 2016. Since, Germany has implemented one action plan. This report evaluates the implementation of Germany’s first action plan.
General overview of action plan
Germany fully or substantially completed all 15 commitments in its first action plan, although many commitments were derived from existing work plans. The government regularly updated the public on the progress of the implementation of the commitments in the action plan.
The strongest results of the action plan involved 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 initiatives, particularly the disclosure of information on extractive industries, foreign aid, and mobility. In particular, under 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... 5, Germany became the first EU member state to be officially assessed as in compliance with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Standard. The action plan also saw major improvements to aid transparency (Commitment 6) and disclosure of mobility data (Commitment 7).
A starred commitment must meet several criteria:
- The commitment’s design was Verifiable, Relevant to OGP values, and had a Transformative potential impact. As assessed in the Design Report.
- The commitment’s implementation was assessed by IRM Implementation Report as Substantial or Complete.
Based on these criteria, Germany’s action plan had one starred commitment:
- Commitment 7: 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... for Intelligent Mobility
Table 2. Noteworthy commitments
| Commitment description | Status at the end of implementation cycle. |
| 3. Promoting the open data environment
Establish a reliable open data ecosystem by communicating with stakeholders to promote the use and quality of open data. |
The Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community carried out intra-governmental dialogue on open data and actively communicated with external audiences at various public events. This commitment – together with the open data guidelines and handbooks published as part of a separate commitment in this action plan – has helped to lay the groundwork for improving open data ecosystems in the future. |
| 5. Financial transparency—implementing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) standard
Increase transparency and accountability in extractive industries and strengthen dialogue with extractive industries stakeholders. |
Germany became the first EU member state to fully comply with the EITI Standard. Notably, Germany’s second EITI report goes beyond EITI reporting requirements on environmental disclosures, raising the bar for other countries. In addition, the new legal framework, technical infrastructure, and multi-stakeholder approach have led to the disclosure of information on the extractives sector that was previously fragmented, of low quality, or simply unavailable. |
| 6. Transparency in Development Policy
Improve quality and quantity of information on aid programming, as well as carry out consultations with experts and civil society. |
As a result of this commitment, Germany’s International Aid Transparency Initiative reporting now includes more granular information, and the frequency of federal reporting has increased from quarterly to monthly. This commitment also boosted senior-level visibility of this issue and produced constructive dialogue with civil society through a series of workshops on aid transparency. |
| ✪7. Open data for intelligent mobility
Create and promote a culture of transparency and responsiveness, as well as creative solutions, for issues of transport policy. |
Beyond disclosing more mobility datasets and improving the functionality of the transportation data portal, the government actively engaged citizens on mobility issues. Notably, the government conducted an extensive online consultation to develop a noise action plan and collaborated with civil society organizations at various transport-related data events. |
Five Key IRM Recommendations
The IRM key recommendations are prepared in the IRM Design Report. They aim to inform the development of the next action plan and guide implementation of the current action plan. In Germany’s 2017-2019 Design Report, the IRM recommended the following:
| 1. Improve co-creation in a holistic way |
| 2. Invest increased resources to support civil society participation in the OGP process |
| 3. Leverage OGP for developing new commitments beyond pre-existing initiatives |
| 4. Use windows of opportunity for ambitious thematic commitments in the next action plan |
| 5. Identify and work with high-level political champions or elder statespersons to raise the profile and visibility of open government inside the government |
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