Germany Design Report 2019-2021

Germany’s second 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... continues to focus on 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... and civic participation in decision-making processes. Notable commitments include improving the openness of German foreign policy, expanding public participationGiving citizens opportunities to provide input into government decision-making leads to more effective governance, improved public service delivery, and more equitable outcomes. Technical specificatio... in rule-making, and strengthening data sovereignty in North Rhine-Westphalia. Germany’s next action plan could address climate change, lobbyingLobbying transparency allows the public to ensure that there is diversity of participation and contribution to public decision-making. Technical specifications: Policies and actions affecting lobbying... 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 expanding innovative open data practices at the state level.

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 design of Germany’s second action plan.

General overview of action plan

Germany continues to perform strongly in most major areas of open government, and Germans continue to report high levels of trust in the federal government and in the opportunities to participate in political life. Germany’s second action plan builds on the foundations established under the first plan, particularly around open data and civic participation in certain policy areas. The second action plan also includes five commitments from German laender (states).

The development of Germany’s second action plan followed a two-track consultation process similar to that used in developing the first plan. However, the second action plan saw a deeper level of engagement with stakeholders, as well as detailed feedback on stakeholder proposals and the inclusionOGP participating governments are working to create governments that truly serve all people. Commitments in this area may address persons with disabilities, women and girls, lesbian, gay, bisexual, tr... More of state-level initiatives. Despite the deeper level of engagement, several major civil society priorities did not make it into the final action plan. To help reduce this gap in the next plan, Germany could consider an additional opportunity for participants to provide feedback on the final commitments selected. It could also consider bringing 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... in the country in line with OGP’s Participation and Co-creation StandardsCollaboration between government, civil society and other stakeholders is at the heart of the OGP process. The Participation and Co-Creation Standards are intended to support this collaboration throug....

Noteworthy commitments in Germany’s second action plan include improving the transparency of German foreign policy, including the digitization of historical documents of the Federal Foreign Office (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... 2). Commitment 5 builds on the improvements in transparency of development data and dialogue in development cooperation achieved during the first action plan, while Commitment 8 aims to improve public understanding and participation in the law-making process. Additionally, Commitment 12 aims to strengthen data sovereignty in North Rhine-Westphalia and could improve public access to categories of privatized data that have considerable public value.

Table 2. Noteworthy commitments

Recommendations

IRM recommendations aim to inform the development of the next action plan and guide implementation of the current action plan. Please refer to Section V: General Recommendations for more details on each of the below recommendations.

Table 3. Five KEY IRM Recommendations