2015 Government Election Results and Rotation Note

OGP Steering Committee 2015 Rotation Note

In 2015, the governments on the Open Government Partnership Steering Committee rotate for the second time since OGP was launched in September 2011.  As the number of countries participating in OGP has grown – from the founding 8 to 65 today – it has become increasingly important to offer leadership opportunities to a wider group of governments.  New members of the Steering Committee will bring fresh perspective to discussions, and allow OGP to deepen engagement in the world.

Following a vote of all members, the following governments (joined by civil society leaders selected through a separate process) will form the new OGP Steering Committee from October 1st 2015.  Three of the governments below were selected as a part of the annual election process that concluded on July 30th.  In 2015, both the Philippines and Tanzania finish special one-year terms.  They can stand again in 2016 for full three-year terms if they wish.  Indonesia is finishing an extended first term due to their co-chair role (and subsequent troika year) and was eligible to stand for re-election in the 2015 election.

OGP Steering Committee from October 1st, 2015

Governments

Government of Brazil

Government of Chile****

Government of Croatia

Government of France***

Government of Georgia

Government of Indonesia

Government of Mexico*

Government of Romania****

Government of South Africa**

Government of the United Kingdom

Government of the United States

Civil Society

Sugeng Bahagijo                                International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development

Manish Bapna***                                 World Resources Institute

Cecilia Blondet                                   Institute for Peruvian Studies

Veronica Cretu                                   Open Government Institute

Mukelani Dimba                                 Open Democracy Advice Centre

Alejandro Gonzalez**                          GESOC

Nathaniel Heller                                 Results for Development

Suneeta Kaimal*                                 Natural Resource Governance Institute

Warren Krafchik                                  International Budget Partnership

Fernando Straface****                         CIPPEC

Martin Tisne                                       Transparency & Accountability Initiative (Omidyar)

* = Co-Chair in 2014-15

** = Co-Chair in 2015-16

*** = Co-Chair in 2016-17

**** = Joining the OGP Steering Committee in 2015

The 2015 Rotation of Government Members of the OGP Steering Committee

The OGP Articles of Governance require the OGP participating governments to vote to elect new government representatives to the Steering Committee each year.  Three months before voting was due to begin, the Support Unit sent information on the requirements to be a candidate to all 65 participating governments.  Of those 65 governments, five elected to compete for one of the three available seats.  The five countries were Chile, Indonesia, Romania, Sierra Leone and Tunisia.  Indonesia was competing to be re-elected to the SC.  In accordance with the Articles of Governance, the Governance and Leadership subcommittee reviewed the full slate of candidates for their compliance with the eligibility criteria to stand for election.  All five candidates were approved.

The Support Unit contracted an independent and experienced elections firm, EveryoneCounts, to organize and run the election.  Instructions were sent to the points of contact in each government shortly before the election opened on July 1.  Reminders were sent periodically to governments and a total of 56 of the 65 OGP governments participated in the election (nearly 90%) before it closed on July 30.

To prevent a tie, countries were asked to rank their preferences so that the top choice received five points, second choice received four points, etc.   Based on the results, three of the five countries were elected to full three-year terms (Chile, Indonesia and Romania).  The following is the full list of results:

The Government rotation process was coordinated by Jack Mahoney at the OGP Support Unit: jack.mahoney@opengovpartnership.org