About OGP Local

Local governments and civil society are teaming up to solve the problems that affect people every day through open government.

Challenge: Local governments face today’s most pressing challenges: climate change, economic inequality, housing, migration, and energy crises—all while delivering essential public services with limited resources.

Advantage: Their close connection to people allows them to deliver tailored, responsive solutions that directly impact people’s daily lives. Whether they are city governments, regions, provinces, municipalities or counties, local governments often have the flexibility and agility to implement reforms quickly and effectively , making them uniquely positioned to address pressing issues together with their residents.

Opportunity: In this context, open government approaches can further amplify their impact. By fostering transparency, participation, and accountability, open government allows local governments to engage citizens to find collaborative solutions to address challenges collectively. This helps build resilience, promote sustainability, and ensure that solutions are not only effective but also inclusive.

Leading Progress and Impact

OGP Local members are making significant strides in adopting the open government principles and delivering tangible benefits for their residents in key areas such as:

• Public Participation: Strengthening citizen engagement in decision-making to ensure more inclusive and responsive governance, and enhance public service delivery.
• Inclusion: Promoting equitable access and representation for all community members, with a focus on marginalized or underrepresented groups.
• Open Data: Enhancing transparency by making government data more accessible and usable for citizens, fostering greater accountability and innovation.
• Climate Action: Encouraging sustainable practices and addressing the local impacts of climate change, with a focus on resilient, eco-friendly solutions.
• Anti-Corruption: Advancing measures to combat corruption, increase transparency, and hold public officials accountable for their actions.

Foundations and the Path Forward

Subnational Pilot and Growth
OGP’s Subnational Pilot Program began in 2016 with 15 pioneer subnational governments who committed to the Open Government Subnational Declaration and submitted their first Action Plans (APs).

Due to the pilot’s success, the OGP Steering Committee expanded the program, rebranding it as OGP Local. In a series of calls for expressions of interest, the program has grown from 15 to more than 140 members.

OGP Local Engagement Strategy 
In 2018, OGP tasked the Support Unit to develop a strategy to scale local engagement sustainably while upholding core OGP values. Thestrategy, launched in 2020, collected feedback from the open government community and focused on three pillars: promoting national and local open government collaboration, providing an action framework that is fit for purpose and scalable, and fostering collaborative knowledge-sharing and peer learning.

These pillars are the foundation that enables OGP to expand its reach and impact in line with the OGP 2023 -2025 Strategy and core values.

Building on the growth and lessons from the Subnational Pilot Program and the early phases of OGP Local, the strategy outlines a clear path forward:

• Expanding Impact: Supporting more local governments to adopt open government frameworks, extending OGP Local’s reach to new regions and sectors.
• Deepening Integration: Strengthening the alignment of local and national efforts to ensure cohesive, scalable reforms that address global challenges.
• Enhancing Collaboration: Creating new opportunities for members to exchange knowledge, test solutions, and collectively tackle complex issues.

With this horizon, OGP Local will be a platform where local governments lead the way in making open government principles a driving force for sustainable, inclusive development. Together, they are transforming challenges into opportunities, delivering meaningful outcomes for their citizens, and contributing to global progress.

OGP Local members play a crucial role in promoting open government at the local level. They are leading by example, implementing innovative commitments, and sharing their lessons and stories of impact to inspire others to follow along.

The OGP Local members have access to:

• A global network with more than 150 governments and over 3000 civil society organizations on all continents.
• Knowledge products and research on open local government.
• Mentorship program to support your OGP process, led by practitioners and partners.
• Featuring open government achievements through OGP’s communication channels and incentive programs.
• Peer exchange, thematic, and issue‑based learning circles.
• Online structured orientation and ongoing training on open government, with specific modules for civil servants and non-governmental stakeholders.