Germany 2021-2023 Results Report

Germany’s third 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... led to positive but moderate early resultsEarly results refer to concrete changes in government practice related to transparency, citizen participation, and/or public accountability as a result of a commitment’s implementation. OGP’s Inde... More in 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 public procurementTransparency in the procurement process can help combat corruption and waste that plagues a significant portion of public procurement budgets globally. Technical specifications: Commitments that aim t... More. Germany continued to show high levels of implementation of its OGP commitments. Going forward, the IRM recommends continuing commitments and policy areas across action plans, improving co-creation and implementation practices, and adopting an overarching open government strategy.

Early Results

Nine commitments led to early results, though no commitment achieved significant early results. The level of ambition of this action plan was low but comparable to past action plans.^[1] The Federal Chancellery explained that this could have been because the action plan was adopted shortly before an election and change in government.^[2] The most successful commitments were part of the German government’s digitalization efforts. This included Commitment 6.6 on open data knowledge sharing, Commitment 7.1 on an open-source platform for the public administration, and Commitment 7.2 on the digitalization of public procurement. The fourth action plan (2023-2025) featured more commitments with a higher level of potential for results.[3] This is due to the continuation and expansion of past commitments, such as the digitalization of public procurement, 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 political promises from the government’s coalition agreement, like the Federal 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 Act.

Completion

Key topics of this action plan were access to legal information, open data, digitalization of the administration, and citizen participation.[4] Six were fully completed and substantial progress was made on four others. This is comparable to the second action plan.^[5] Most commitments involved technical measures without political intervention (such as the passage of laws), which contributed positively to completion.^[6] Several commitments were delayed due to lack of funding or staffing. Of the four commitments with limited progress, two were not planned to be completed within the action plan cycle (Commitments 6.2 and 6.3). 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... 6.1 was delayed because the implementing agency underestimated the complexity of the required changes in data management of legislative information. For Commitment 6.7, consultation with stakeholder groups did not lead to new commitments for a national action plan on educationAccountability within the public education system is key to improving outcomes and attainment, and accountability is nearly impossible without transparent policies and opportunities for participation ... for sustainable development.

Participation and Co-Creation

The OGP process is overseen by the Federal Chancellery. A number of civil society organizations coordinate their participation in the OGP process via the informal Open Government Network (OGN). The co-creation process featured two rounds of consultation. OGN members set up a digital platform to gather comments on the commitments and propose new ones.^[7] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the action plan was developed exclusively online. The platform set up by the OGN enabled easy participation, and the Federal Chancellery and the public bodies provided extensive feedback on the proposed commitments and changes. Civil society input led to the amendments of several commitments but not the inclusion of new commitments. Some OGN members have expressed civil society was not systematically involved in the implementation stage. Persistent discontent with the scope of the co-creation process and the lack of visible outcomes of civil society participation has led to a decreasing interest in participation among OGN members. These issues should be addressed to ensure the sustainability of the OGP process. Recommendations to this end can be found in previous IRM reports.[8]

Implementation in context

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and a change in government shortly after the adoption of the action plan, most commitments were fully or substantially completed. Germany’s OGP process is established within administrative practice and is not significantly disrupted by external factors. Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 started shortly after the new coalition government took office and led to a significant restructuring of their political priorities. This could also be attributed to the focus of most commitments on technical reforms, which ensured that they were not significantly affected by political developments.

[1] No commitment was coded as significant potential for results. For the assessment of the second action plan, see Open Government Partnership, Independent Reporting Mechanism, Germany Transitional Results Report 2019-2021, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/germany-transitional-results-report-2019-2021/
[2] Open Government Partnership, Independent Reporting Mechanism, Germany Action Plan Review 2021-2023, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/germany-action-plan-review-2021-2023/
[3] Open Government Partnership, Independent Reporting Mechanism, Germany Action Plan Review 2023–2025, 9 July 2024, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/germany-action-plan-review-2023-2025/
[4] The report covers the implementation of Germany’s 2021-2023 action plan and mainly focuses on activities carried out between August 2021 to August 2023 (the period of implementation of the action plan).
[5] Open Government Partnership, Independent Reporting Mechanism, Germany Transitional Results Report 2019-2021, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/germany-transitional-results-report-2019-2021/
[6] As also argued by Jörn von Lucke (The Open Government Institute), interview by the IRM, 25 October 2024.
[7] Open Government Netzwerk, Konsultation der Zivilgesellschaft zum 3. Nationalen Aktionsplan [Consultation of civil society for the third national action plan]. Adhocracy, https://adhocracy.plus/ogpde/projects/ogp-konsultation/
[8] Open Government Partnership, Independent Reporting Mechanism, Germany Action Plan Review 2023-2025, 9 July 2024, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/germany-action-plan-review-2023-2025/; Open Government Partnership, Independent Reporting Mechanism, Germany Co-Creation Brief 2022,  https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/germany-co-creation-brief-2022/