Media Engagement in Open Government Partnership Processes: Entry Points and Recommendations

The successful implementation of ambitious open government reforms, including commitments under 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) framework, require broad coalitions, 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 views from citizens affected by them, and tools for reformers to overcome internal resistance from government actors and resistance from special interests. The engagement of different types of media actors throughout the process of prioritization and implementation of commitments can be a powerful means to support OGP country teams’ goals; however, this engagement has historically been uneven across OGP countries, for different reasons.

There is however enough evidence and information from different experiences (both positive or negative) that could help build a set of recommendations for how to include and engage the media into the process in a meaningful way, while recognizing the enabling factors and constraints media faces when engaging in OGP commitments’ processes. This document lays out a set of evidence- and experience-informed recommendations and proposes that there is a specific role for media to play at each step of the 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... process, well beyond the current role of dissemination of information on the commitment that often prevails. These roles add value consistent with OGP’s 2020-2022 Implementation Plan, keeping in mind and potentially overcoming the incentives and disincentives media actors may have to participate.

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